Creationism and Its Critics in AntiquityUniversity of California Press, 2007 - 269 pagina's The world is configured in ways that seem systematically hospitable to life forms, especially the human race. Is this the outcome of divine planning or simply of the laws of physics? Ancient Greeks and Romans famously disagreed on whether the cosmos was the product of design or accident. In this book, David Sedley examines this question and illuminates new historical perspectives on the pantheon of thinkers who laid the foundations of Western philosophy and science. Versions of what we call the "creationist" option were widely favored by the major thinkers of classical antiquity, including Plato, whose ideas on the subject prepared the ground for Aristotle's celebrated teleology. But Aristotle aligned himself with the anti-creationist lobby, whose most militant members—the atomists—sought to show how a world just like ours would form inevitably by sheer accident, given only the infinity of space and matter. This stimulating study explores seven major thinkers and philosophical movements enmeshed in the debate: Anaxagoras, Empedocles, Socrates, Plato, the atomists, Aristotle, and the Stoics. |
Inhoudsopgave
anaxagoras | 1 |
Scientific creationism | 25 |
empedocles | 31 |
socrates | 75 |
plato | 93 |
the atomists | 133 |
aristotle | 167 |
the stoics | 205 |
a galenic perspective | 239 |
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ajpo analogy Anaxagoras Anaxagoras’s animals argued argument Argument from Design Aristodemus Aristotle Aristotle’s atomists atoms biological body causal century b.c. chapter context Cosmic Intelligence cosmology craft craftsman created creation creationist creator cycle daimons Demiurge Democritus Diogenes Diogenes of Apollonia divine craftsmanship doubt earth ei\nai ejstin Empedoclean Empedocles Epicurean Epicurus everything evidence example existence explain explanatory eyes fact follows fortuitous fragment ga;r Galen god’s gods Hesiod human included infinite interpretation isonomia kind Love Love’s zoogony luck Lucretius material matter me;n means moving cause myth nature origin Parmenides passage Phaedo phase philosophical physics pig’s Plato possible present Presocratic principle purpose question rational soul reading reason reference Sedley seeds seems Socrates species sphairos Stoic Stoicism Strife structure stuffs teleology th;n theology theory thesis things Timaeus Timaeus’s tion touto tw¸n Xenophon Xenophon’s Socrates Zeno Zeno’s