Word and Concept in Thucydides

Applying perspectives of modern philosophers of language to the Greek historian, examines the language of abstraction he used with a view to defining how concepts developed and were understood among his contemporaries of the 5th century BC. Concludes that, far from merely borrowing presocratic thought and sophistic rhetoric, he moved discussions of language to a new level that recognized concepts and metalinguistic terminology, and suggests that the concept of a concept may be much older than we have previously thought. Translations are provided for the passages quoted, but some knowledge of ancient Greek would be helpful to follow the argument. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.