The Figure of Nature: On Greek Origins (Studies in Continental Thought) - Softcover

Sallis, John

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0253023122 ISBN 13: 9780253023124

Publisher: Indiana University Press, 2016

Synopsis

Broaching an understanding of nature in Platonic thought, John Sallis goes beyond modern conceptions and provides a strategy to have recourse to the profound sense of nature operative in ancient Greek philosophy. In a rigorous and textually based account, Sallis traces the complex development of the Greek concept of nature. Beginning with the mythical vision embodied in the figure of the goddess Artemis, he reanimates the sense of nature that informs the fragmentary discourses of Anaximenes, Heraclitus, Parmenides, and Empedocles and shows how Plato takes up pre-Socratic conceptions critically while also being transformed. Through Sallis’s close reading of the Theaetetus and the Phaedo, he recovers the profound and comprehensive concept of nature in Plato’s thought.

About this title

About the Author

John Sallis is Frederick J. Adelmann Professor of Philosophy at Boston College. He is author of more than 20 books, including Light Traces (IUP, 2014) and Logic of Imagination (IUP, 2012).

Review

Sallis has produced a book with fascinating new insights into the ancient conception of nature. . . . Highly recommended. (Choice)

Edition details

• Publisher: Indiana University Press
• Publication date: 2016
• ISBN 10: 0253023122
• ISBN 13: 9780253023124
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 304