Creationism and Its Critics in AntiquityUniversity of California Press, 16 jan 2008 - 296 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 |
ANAXAGORASS COSMOLOGY | 8 |
THE POWER OF NOUS | 11 |
SUN AND MOON | 13 |
WORLDS AND SEEDS | 14 |
NOUS AS CREATOR | 20 |
SCIENTIFIC CREATIONISM | 25 |
Empedocles | 31 |
IS THE WORLD PERFECT? | 113 |
THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES | 127 |
The Atomists | 133 |
THE EPICUREAN CRITIQUE OF CREATIONISM | 139 |
THE EPICUREAN ALTERNATIVE TO CREATIONISM | 150 |
EPICUREAN INFINITY | 155 |
Aristotle | 167 |
THE CRAFT ANALOGY | 173 |
THE DOUBLE ZOOGONY | 33 |
CREATIONIST DISCOURSE | 52 |
DESIGN AND ACCIDENT | 60 |
Socrates | 75 |
SOCRATES IN XENOPHON | 78 |
SOCRATES IN PLATO S PHAEDO | 86 |
A HISTORICAL SYNTHESIS | 89 |
Plato | 93 |
INTRODUCING THE TIMAEUS | 95 |
AN ACT OF CREATION? | 98 |
DIVINE CRAFTSMANSHIP | 107 |
NECESSITY | 181 |
FORTUITOUS OUTCOMES | 186 |
COSMIC TELEOLOGY | 194 |
ARISTOTLES PLATONISM | 203 |
The Stoics | 205 |
A WINDOW ON STOIC THEOLOGY | 210 |
APPROPRIATING SOCRATES | 212 |
APPROPRIATING PLATO | 225 |
WHOSE BENEFIT? | 231 |
A Galenic Perspective | 239 |
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Anaxagoras Anaxagoras's animals argued argument Argument from Design Aristodemus Aristotle Aristotle's atomists atoms biological body causal chapter context Cosmic Intelligence cosmology craft craftsman created creation creationist creator cycle daimons Demiurge Democritus Diogenes Diogenes of Apollonia divine craftsmanship earth Empedoclean Empedocles Epicurean Epicurus everything evidence example existence explain explanatory eyes follows fortuitous fragment Galen gods Hesiod human included infinite interpretation isonomia kind Love Love's zoogony luck Lucretius matter moving cause myth nature origin Parmenides passage Phaedo phase philosophical physics Plato possible Presocratic principle purpose question rational soul reading reason reference Sedley seeds seems Socrates species sphairos Stoic Stoicism Strife structure stuffs teleology theology theory things Timaeus Timaeus's tion Xenophon Xenophon's Socrates Zeno ἂν ἀπὸ γὰρ δὲ εἰ εἶναι ἐκ ἐν ἐπὶ ἐστιν καὶ καὶ τὸ μὲν μὴ οὖν τὰ τε τὴν τοῖς τὸν τοῦ τοῦτο τῷ τῶν ὡς