Richard Sorabji

Ancient and Modern Insights about Individuality, Life, and Death

Self

David Rodin

9/11 and the subsequent invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq have left many people baffled and concerned. This interdisciplinary study of the ethics of war provides an excellent orientation not only to present, but also to future conflicts. It looks both back at historical traditions of ethical thought and forward to contemporary and emerging issues. The Ethics of War traces how different cultures involved in present conflicts have addressed similar problems over the centuries. Distinguished authors reflect how the Graeco-Roman world, Byzantium, the Christian just war tradition, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism and the Geneva Conventions have addressed recurrent ethical problems of war. Cutting-edge essays by prominent modern theorists address vital contemporary issues including asymmetric war, preventive war, human rights and humanitarian intervention. Distinguished academics, ethical leaders, and public policy figures have collaborated in this innovative and accessible guide to ethical issues in war.

Shared Problems in Different Traditions

The Ethics of War

A substantially revised and supplemented edition of the collected volume originally published, by Duckworth, in 1987.

Philoponus and the Rejection of Aristotelian Science

Richard Sorabji presents a brilliant exploration of the history of our understanding of the self, which has remained elusive and mysterious throughout the spectacular development of human knowledge of the outside world. He ranges from ancient to contemporary thought, Western and Eastern, to reveal and assess the insights of a remarkable variety of thinkers. He discusses a set of topics which are at the heart of our understanding of ourselves: personal identity; memory; the importance of seeing one's life as a whole; the relation between self, intellect, will, and agency; self-awareness; the stream of consciousness; embodiment; death and survival. He rejects the view, found in various philosophical and religious writings, that the self is an illusion, and develops his own original conception of the self as essential to our ownership of our experience and our apprehension of the world.

Michael Griffin

Laura M. Castelli

"Aristotle's Topics is a handbook for dialectic, or philosophical debate between a questioner and a respondent. In book 3, Aristotle develops strategies for arguing about comparative claims, in which properties are said to belong to subjects to a greater, lesser, or equal degree. Aristotle uses a single illustration, the property of choiceworthiness. For instance, should we prefer justice in our friends, or in our adversaries? In this commentary on Topics 3, here translated for the first time into English, Alexander of Aphrodisias argues for Aristotelian views in logic and ethics, and engages in debates with other philosophical schools, notably the Stoics. The commentary provides new evidence for Alexander's theory of the logic of comparison, which is notoriously difficult to fit in the framework of the general theory of deduction (syllogistic) of the Prior Analytics. In addition, Alexander's sensitive discussion of Aristotle's arguments about what is more, less, or equally choiceworthy provides a relatively neglected source for Aristotelian ethics in later antiquity. Finally, Alexander helpfully explains and analyzes Aristotle's often compressed arguments. This volume will be valuable reading for students of Aristotle and later ancient thought, and represents an important stage in the development of Aristotelian logic, ethics, and rhetoric"--

Alexander of Aphrodisias: On Aristotle Topics 3

Sorabji surveys a vast range of Greek philosophical texts and considers how classical discussions of animals' capacities intersect with central questions, not only in ethics but in the definition of human rationality as well.

The Origins of the Western Debate

Animal Minds and Human Morals

"They don't have syntax, so we can eat them." According to Richard Sorabji, this conclusion attributed to the Stoic philosophers was based on Aristotle's argument that animals lack reason. In his fascinating, deeply learned book, Sorabji traces the roots of our thinking about animals back to Aristotelian and Stoic beliefs. Charting a recurrent theme in ancient philosophy of mind, he shows that today's controversies about animal rights represent only the most recent chapter in millennia-old debates. Sorabji surveys a vast range of Greek philosophical texts and considers how classical discussions of animals' capacities intersect with central questions, not only in ethics but in the definition of human rationality as well: the nature of concepts; how perceptions differ from beliefs; how memory, intention, and emotion relate to reason; and to what extent speech, skills, and inference can serve as proofs of reason. Focusing on the significance of ritual sacrifice and the eating of meat, he explores religious contexts of the treatment of animals in ancient Greece and in medieval Western Christendom. He also looks closely at the contemporary defenses of animal rights offered by Peter Singer, Tom Regan, and Mary Midgley. Animal Minds and Human Morals sheds new light on traditional arguments surrounding the status of animals while pointing beyond them to current moral dilemmas. It will be crucial reading for scholars and students in the fields of ancient philosophy, ethics, history of philosophy, classics, and medieval studies, and for everyone seriously concerned about our relationship with other species. A Townsend Lecture Book

The third volume of this invaluable sourcebook covers three main subject areas: the metaphysics of Aristotle's logical works; logic; and the higher metaphysics of Neoplatonism.

The Philosophy of the Commentators, 200-600 AD: Logic and metaphysics

Research Professor of Philosophy at King's College London and Fellow Richard Sorabji

Richard Sorabji presents a ground-breaking study of ancient Greek views of the emotions and their influence on subsequent theories and attitudes, pagan and Christian. The key questions are ones that concern everyone: what is emotion, and how does one cope with one's own emotions and establishpeace of mind? The central focus of the book is the Stoics, but Sorabji draws on a vast range of texts to give a rich historical survey of how Western thinking about this central aspect of human nature developed. The result is a magisterial work of scholarship which will be fascinating for anyonewith an interest in the emotions from a historical or contemporary perspective.

From Stoic Agitation to Christian Temptation

Emotion and Peace of Mind

"This book on freedom of speech and expression starts (Chapter 1) with an inter-cultural history of this valued right through the ages and then recalls (Chapter 2) the benefits for which we rightly value it. But what about speech that frustrates these benefits? Supporters of the benefits of free speech have reason to exercise voluntary self-restraint on speech which frustrates the benefits. They should also cultivate a second remedy: the art, illustrated in chapter 1, and called by Gandhi the art of 'opening ears', by other kinds of speech and conduct. Such voluntary methods are to be preferred to legal constraints. But (chapter 3) legal constraint is sometimes necessary. In the 21st century, social media funding based on manipulation of personal speech data requires skilful legislation and enforcement in favour of social media that protect our freedoms"--

Its History, Its Value, Its Good Use, and Its Misuse

Freedom of Speech and Expression

Fred D. Miller, Jr.

Preface -- Conventions -- Abbreviations -- Introduction -- 1. The place of Book 12 in Aristotle's Metaphysics -- 2. Who wrote the commentary on Book 12? -- 3. Critical assessments of Ps.-Alexander -- 4. Ps.-Alexander's interpretation of Metaphysics 12 -- 5. Sources of Ps.-Alexander's commentary on Metaphysics 12 Textual Emendations Translation Notes -- Appendix I: Freudenthal's Comparison of the Two Alexanders -- Appendix II: Comparison of Ps.-Alexander's Readings with the Aristotle Manuscripts -- Bibliography -- English-Greek Glossary -- Greek-English Index -- Index of Passages from Other Works -- Subject Index.

'Alexander': On Aristotle Metaphysics 12

This book brings together twenty articles giving a comprehensive view of the work of the Aristotelian commentators. First published in 1990, the collection is now brought up to date with a new introduction by Richard Sorabji. New generations of scholars will benefit from this reissuing of classic essays, including seminal works by major scholars, and the volume gives a comprehensive background to the work of the project on the Ancient Commentators on Aristotle, which has published over 100 volumes of translations since 1987 and has disseminated these crucial texts to scholars worldwide. The importance of the commentators is partly that they represent the thought and classroom teaching of the Aristotelian and Neoplatonist schools and partly that they provide a panorama of a thousand years of ancient Greek philosophy, revealing many original quotations from lost works. Even more significant is the profound influence – uncovered in some of the chapters of this book – that they exert on later philosophy, Islamic and Western. Not only did they preserve anti-Aristotelian material which helped inspire Medieval and Renaissance science, but they present Aristotle in a form that made him acceptable to the Christian church. It is not Aristotle, but Aristotle transformed and embedded in the philosophy of the commentators that so often lies behind the views of later thinkers.

The Ancient Commentators and Their Influence

Aristotle Transformed

Cornelia Sorabji was the first Indian female lawyer. She was "original and often outspoken in her views - for example in her criticism of Gandhi and her surprising friendship with Katherine Mayo". Cornelia was "a passionate advocate of women's rights whose own career was nearly compromised through her relationsip with a married man". -- Book jacket.

The Untold Story of Cornelia Sorabji, Reformer, Lawyer and Champion of Women's Rights in India

Opening Doors

Richard Sorabji here takes time as his central theme, exploring fundamental questions about its nature: Is it real or an aspect of consciousness? Did it begin along with the universe? Can anything escape from it? Does it come in atomic chunks? In addressing these and myriad other issues, Sorabji engages in an illuminating discussion of early thought about time, ranging from Plato and Aristotle to Islamic, Christian, and Jewish medieval thinkers. Sorabji argues that the thought of these often neglected philosophers about the subject is, in many cases, more complete than that of their more recent counterparts.

Time, Creation and the Continuum

Most of these papers were delivered at institute seminars.

Aristotle and After

“Was Gandhi a philosopher? Yes.” So begins this remarkable investigation of the guiding principles that motivated the transformative public acts of one of the top historical figures of the twentieth century. Richard Sorabji, continuing his exploration of the many connections between South Asian thought and ancient Greek and Roman philosophy, brings together in this volume the unlikely pairing of Mahatma Gandhi and the Stoics, uncovering a host of parallels that suggests a deep affinity spanning the two millennia between them. While scholars have long known Gandhi’s direct Western influences to be Platonic and Christian, Sorabji shows how a look at Gandhi’s convergence with the Stoics works mutually, throwing light on both of them. Both emphasized emotional detachment, which provided a necessary freedom, a suspicion of universal rules of conduct that led to a focus not on human rights but human duties—the personally determined paths each individual must make for his or her self. By being indifferent, paradoxically, both the Stoics and Gandhi could love manifoldly. In drawing these links to the fore, Sorabji demonstrates the comparative consistency of Gandhi’s philosophical ideas, isolating the specific ideological strengths that were required to support some of the most consequential political acts and experiments in how to live.

Richard Sorabji

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