Cause and Explanation in Ancient Philosophy
Publisher
Routledge
Date Issued
2023-01-01
Author(s)
Vázquez, Daniel
Type
Resource Types::text::book
Abstract
This volume offers an updated analysis of the use, meaning, and scope of the classical notion of aitia. It clarifies philosophical and philological questions about aitia and offers bold and innovative interpretations of this key concept of ancient philosophy.
The numerous meanings and nuances of aitia remain difficult to grasp. Ancient philosophers use aitia to explain the existence and activity of substances, bodies, souls, or gods. Paradoxically, its own definition remains difficult to establish. This book reconstructs some of the most important uses, variants, and scopes of the term aitia within different philosophical perspectives in antiquity, including early Greek philosophy, Plato, Aristotle, Stoicism, and Islamic philosophy. The chapters analyze metaphysical aspects, epistemological issues, and logical implications of aitia. They engage with the most relevant critical literature generated in several modern languages. In doing so, they offer an inclusive and overarching re-evaluation of our assumptions about causation and explanation in ancient philosophy.
Cause and Explanation in Ancient Philosophy will be of interest to scholars and advanced students working on Pre-Socratic philosophy, Plato, Aristotle, Hellenistic philosophy, late antiquity, and medieval philosophy. ©Routledge.
The numerous meanings and nuances of aitia remain difficult to grasp. Ancient philosophers use aitia to explain the existence and activity of substances, bodies, souls, or gods. Paradoxically, its own definition remains difficult to establish. This book reconstructs some of the most important uses, variants, and scopes of the term aitia within different philosophical perspectives in antiquity, including early Greek philosophy, Plato, Aristotle, Stoicism, and Islamic philosophy. The chapters analyze metaphysical aspects, epistemological issues, and logical implications of aitia. They engage with the most relevant critical literature generated in several modern languages. In doing so, they offer an inclusive and overarching re-evaluation of our assumptions about causation and explanation in ancient philosophy.
Cause and Explanation in Ancient Philosophy will be of interest to scholars and advanced students working on Pre-Socratic philosophy, Plato, Aristotle, Hellenistic philosophy, late antiquity, and medieval philosophy. ©Routledge.
Subjects
License
Acceso Abierto
How to cite
Ross, A., & Vázquez, D. (Eds.). (2023). Cause and Explanation in Ancient Philosophy (1st ed.). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003306450
Table of contents
Introduction -- Note on the Original Meaning of Greek Aitios -- What Good Is the Form of the Good? -- That's What Makes the World Go Round -- Chance, Necessity, and Demiurgic Causation in the Timaeus -- Cause and Explanation in Aristotle -- Aristotle With Prime Matter -- Aristotle on the Efficiency of Accidental Causes -- The Relevance of Environmental Conditions as Causes for Animal Generation in Aristotle -- Aristotle's Causes and the Problem of the Necessity of Our Actions -- Theories of Causation in Early Stoicism -- The Scientific Epistemology of al-Naẓẓām -- Recovering Causality? Ibn Taymiyya on the Creation of the World