Origins of Epistemology in Early Greek Thought. A Study of Psyche and Logos in Heraclitus
Author: | Wilcox, Joel |
Year: | 1994 |
Pages: | 192 |
ISBN: | 0-7734-9122-8 978-0-7734-9122-9 |
Price: | $159.95 |
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This study contributes to scholarship in five ways. It provides a unified framework within which to view the development of Presocratic thought; it points out three aspects of Xenophanes' skepticism, and shows that (and how) Heraclitus responded to each; it summarizes key issues concerning psyche and logos, and attempts to settle certain long-standing debates concerning them; it argues that Heraclitus' concepts of psyche and logos resulted from his need to construct an epistemological theory in order to counter Xenophanean skepticism; and it make use of various traditional Greek assumptions such as the principles of "like-to-like," the analogy of microcosm and macrocosm, and the concepts of balance and measure as exemplified in the ideal of sophrosune.
Reviews
"The canvas and use of the secondary literature is generous, with all the relevant studies cited and duly assessed just where one would expect them. He has not restricted himself to those in English; the other languages are well represented, and no "school" of interpretation is favored over another. . . . the book is written in a clear, workman-like prose. . . " - Kevin Robb