Han Baltussen Knihy

Focusing on the evolution of Peripatetic thought, this book delves into the works of key figures from Theophrastus to Alexander of Aphrodisias. It investigates the potential unity within Peripatetic philosophy against the backdrop of creative tensions and the establishment of core teachings. The text highlights major philosophical concerns, interactions with Hellenistic schools, and the impact of political changes on Greek philosophy. As the first comprehensive survey of this tradition, it offers valuable insights into its historical significance and intellectual developments.

This study offers a new and stimulating interpretation of Theophrastus' De sensibus , a treatise unique in content and method, as it reports and criticizes the theories of sense perception of the Presocratics and Plato.Most of the material on the Presocratics is found nowhere else, which explains why many passages can be found scattered over the Fragmente der Vorsokratiker . As an antidote to this fragmented approach the Presocratics are here studied in context, a text informed by a distinctly Peripatetic perspective. The analysis of the reports and (long neglected) criticisms of Plato (ch.4) and the Presocratics (ch.5) offers new insights into Theophrastus' exegetical procedure by succesfully using Peripatetic dialectic as a heuristic tool. The Epilogue outlines some implications for the role of the treatise in the doxographical tradition.