Part I - Greek Cosmology

 

The Idea of Nature: History of Western Philosophy

 

Part I - Greek Cosmology

   Introduction

   The Presocratics

        Phases of the Presocratic Philosophy

   The Concept of Nature

        Greek Cosmology

    I.  The Ionians

        The Ionian Science of Nature

        Thales

        What is Permanent in Existence?

        Anaximander

        Anaximenes

    II. The Pythagoreans

         Pythagoras

         The Mathematical Basis of All Things

         Figures

         The Concept of Forms

         Plato

         The Platonic Doctrine of Forms or Ideas

         What are the Forms?

         Where do the Forms Exist?

         What is the Relation of Forms to Things?

         What is the Relation of Forms to Each Other?

         How do We Know the Forms?

         Plato's View of the Cosmos

    III. Aristotle

         Metaphysics

         The Problem of Metaphysics Defined

         Substance as the Primary Essence of Things

         Matter and Form

         The Process of Change; The Four Causes

         Potentiality and Actuality

         Unmoved Mover

 

 

Bibliography

 

The Presocratics

 Edited by Philip Wheelwright, 1966

 

A History of Western Philosophy

The Classical Mind

by W. T. Jones, 1969

 

A History of Western Philosophy

 by Bertrand Russell, 1972

 

From Socrates to Sartre:

A History of Philosophy

 Sixth Edition by Samuel Enoch Stumpf, 1999