Basic Concepts of Ancient Philosophy Book

ContentsTranslator's Foreword

PRELIMINARY REMARKS

SEC 1. On the aim and character of the course.SEC 2. Preliminary determination of the concept of philosophy over and against the current views.SEC 3. Preliminary determination of the object of philosophy over and against the positive sciences: philosophy as critical science.SEC 4. The "critical" function of philosophy: to separate and differentiate beings from Being.SEC 5. Aim and method of the course.SEC 6. The most important resources for texts. Sources regarding the historical transmission. General presentations and the most important study aids. a) The most important resources for texts. b) The handing down of philosophy among the Greek thinkers themselves. (Sources regarding the historical transmission.) c) General presentations. d) Encyclopedia articles. e) General studies in the history of ancient thinking.

PART ONE GENERAL INTRODUCTION TO ANCIENT PHILOSOPHY

Chapter One Working out of the central concepts and questions of ancient philosophy, with the first book of Aristotle's Metaphysics as guidelineSEC 7. Epochs of ancient philosophy.SEC 8. Methodological middle way: Aristotle as guide. Structure of the first book of the Metaphysics. Aristotle's Metaphysics: editions and commentaries.SEC 9. Various modes of disclosing and understanding (Met. A, chap. 1).SEC 10. More precise characterization of [GREEK] (Met. A, chap. 2).SEC 11. On the concept of [GREEK] and of [GREEK] in Aristotle. a) On the character of Aristotle's presentation of the previous philosophies: orientation with respect to the guideline, namely Aristotle's theory of the causes. Taking a position on the reproach of proceeding unhistorically. b) Determination of the concept of [GREEK] in Met. , chap. 1.SEC 12. The question of the causes in the previous philosophy. a) The working out of the [GREEK]-character of [GREEK] in the previous philosophy. b) The question of cause in the sense of the whence of motion. The cause as impetus. The notion of the immobility of all beings. c) The cause of motion in the sense of ordering and ruling. d) [GREEK] and [GREEK] as causes of [GREEK]. e) The coming to light of the cause as the [GREEK] in the number theory of the Pythagoreans. f) Plato's way of treating the problem of the causes (Met. A, chap. 6): the Ideas as the Being of beings, in the sense of the "what."

Chapter Two The question of cause and of foundation as a philosophical questionSEC 13. The unclarified connection between the question of cause and the question of Being: posing questions.SEC 14. The problem of foundation in modern philosophy.Recapitulation.

PART TWO THE MOST IMPORTANT GREEK THINKERS: THEIR QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

SECTION ONE Philosophy up to Plato

Chapter One Milesian philosophy of natureSEC 15. Thales.SEC 16. Anaximander.SEC 17. Anaximenes.SEC 18. The problem of Being. The question of the relation between Being and becoming and the question of opposition in general. Transition to Heraclitus and Parmenides.

Chapter Two HeraclitusSEC 19. The principle of Heraclitean thought.SEC 20. The main themes of Heraclitean thought. a) The question of oppositionality and unity. b) [GREEK] as principle of beings. c) Disclosure and determination of the soul. d) Assessment of Heraclitus's philosophy and transition to Parmenides.

Chapter Three Parmenides and the EleaticsSEC 21. The problem of the relation between the two parts of Parmenides' didactic poem.SEC 22. Interpretation of Parmenides' didactic poem. a) The first part of the didactic poem: the way of truth. b) The second part of the didactic poem: the way of semblance.SEC 23. Zeno of Elea. a) Zeno's attempt to provide arguments contradicting the possibility of plurality and motion. b) Four examples refuting the possibility of motion. c) Evaluation of Zeno's philosophy.SEC 24. Melissus of Samos.

Chapter Four The later philosophy of nature: Empedocles, Anaxagoras, and atomismSEC 25. Being and the multiplicity of changing beings in the later philosophy of nature.SEC 26. The problem of knowledge in the later philosophy of nature.

Chapter Five Sophistry and SocratesSEC 27. General characterization of sophistry.SEC 28. Protagoras.SEC 29. Gorgias.SEC 30. Further exponents of sophistry. a) Hippias of Elis. b) Prodicus of Ceos. c) Anonymus Iamblichi. d) [GREEK].SEC 31. Socrates. a) Biography and sources. b) The significance of Socrates for the understanding of Dasein in general. c) The significance of Socrates for scientific-philosophical research.

SECTION TWO Plato's philosophy

Chapter One Biography, secondary literature, and general characterization of Plato's questioningSEC 32. Biography, sources, and secondary literature.SEC 33. General characterization of Plato's questioning.Recapitulation.

Chapter Two More concrete determination of the problem of Being in Plato's philosophySEC 34. Ground and domain of the problem of Being. a) The apprehension of beings and the understanding of Being in the Republic. b) The cave allegory: levels and relativity of truth.SEC 35. Indication of the center of the problem of the Ideas.SEC 36. Regarding the basic problem of ontology and regarding dialectics.

Chapter Three Interpretation of the dialogue, Theatetus: the connection between the question of the Idea of science and the question of BeingContent-summary and outline (142Aff.).SEC 37. Prologue and introduction. Fixing the theme: what is knowledge? a) Prelude: dialogue between Eucleides and Terpsion (142AN>143C). b) Introduction to the dialogue proper (143DN>151D).Recapitulation.SEC 38. General discussion of the significance of the questioning in the Theatetus in the context of the Platonic problem of Being.

First definition: [GREEK] (chaps. 8-30)SEC 39. Knowledge is perception: clarification of this thesis through the propositions of Protagoras and Heraclitus (chaps. 8N 15, 151DN 161B).SEC 40. Fundamental and conclusive refutation of Protagoras's doctrine of knowledge by testing its Heraclitean presuppositions (chaps. 27-29, 180C-184A).SEC 41. Refutation of Theatetus's thesis: [GREEK] (chaps. 29-39, 184A-187B).

Second definition: [GREEK] (chaps. 31-38, 187B-201D)SEC 42. Proof of the thesis that knowledge is true [GREEK] by way of proving the impossibility of [GREEK]. a) The path through the proof of the impossibility of [GREEK] as evidence for the intrinsic reference of this questioning to the problem of Being. b) The carrying out of the proof of the impossibility of [GREEK] (187B-189B).SEC 43. Parenthetical discussion of the as-structure and otherness. a) The as-structure of [GREEK]. The mutual exclusivity of Being and nonbeing in the Greek theory of [GREEK]. b) The relativity of the [GREEK] in the sense of otherness in the Sophist.SEC 44. [GREEK] as the ground of possibility of [GREEK] (189B-190C).SEC 45. [GREEK] and the conjunction of perception and thought ([GREEK]) (190C-200D).SEC 46. Testing the second definition (201A-D).

Third definition of [GREEK] (chaps. 39-43, 201E-210B)SEC 47. General characterization of the thesis: knowledge is true [GREEK]. Interpretation and denomination.SEC 48. Clarification of the phenomenon of [GREEK]. a) Attempt at determining the phenomenon of[ GREEK]. b) Summary: the question of knowledge and the function of [GREEK] in the problem of Being.

Chapter Four Central concepts of Plato's philosophy in the context of the understanding of Being and the question of BeingSEC 49. The Idea of the [GREEK]. a) Being and the "for the sake of which" of understanding. b) Being and value.SEC 50. Summarizing retrospective. a) Critical evaluation of Plato's treatment of the problem of Being. b) Retrospective on pre-Aristotelian philosophy, for the sake of a transition to Aristotle.

SECTION THREEAristotle's philosophy

Chapter One On the problem of the development and of the adequate reception of Aristotle's philosophySEC 51. Biography and philosophical development of Aristotle. a) Biographical data. b) On the question of the development of Aristotle's philosophy.SEC 52. On the reception of Aristotle's philosophy.

Chapter TwoThe ontological problem and the idea of philosophical researchSEC 53. The investigation into beings as beings, i.e., into Being, as the thematic domain of the fundamental science for Aristotle.SEC 54. The impossibility of determining Being through genera.SEC 55. The unity of analogy (of the [GREEK]) as sense of the unity of multiple beings in [GREEK].

Chapter Three The fundamental questioning of the problematic of BeingSEC 56. The essence of the "categories."SEC 57. Analogy ([GREEK]) as the ontological meaning of the unity of the manifold modes of Being (categories).SEC 58. Being in the sense of supervenience ([GREEK]).SEC 59. Being in the sense of uncoveredness: [GREEK] (Met. [GREEK] 4, [GREEK] 8, [GREEK] 10). a) Conjunction and disjunction as ground of uncoveredness and coveredness. b) Grounds for excluding both Being as supervenience and Being as uncoveredness from the fundamental consideration of Being. c) The mode of the founding of Being qua supervenience and of Being qua uncoveredness in the Being of the categories.SEC 60. Being as potentiality and actuality: [GREEK] (Met. [GREEK]).

Chapter Four The problem of motion and the ontological meaning of that problem. Origin, sense, and function of [GREEK] and [GREEK]SEC 61. The analysis of motion.SEC 62. The ontological meaning of the analysis of [GREEK]. The ontological sense of [GREEK] and [GREEK].SEC 63. Interpretation of beings as a whole ([GREEK] 2). a) Proofs for the eternity of motion. b) Attempt at an ontological clarification of eternal motion: the divine, unmoved, first mover as pure [GREEK].Recapitulation.SEC 64. The connection of [GREEK] and [GREEK] to [GREEK]; the problem of the double concept of ontology as fundamental science.

Chapter Five Ontology of life and of DaseinSEC 65. The treatise [GREEK] as primary source for accessing Aristotle's ontology of life. a) The Aristotelian treatise De anima: outline. b) The character of Aristotle's treatise, On the soul.SEC 66. Analysis of [GREEK].SEC 67. Ontology of Dasein.

APPENDICES Supplementary Texts Excerpts from the Mörchen Transcription Bröcker Transcription

Editor's Afterword

Greek-English Glossary