Greek Philosophy

by

Anthony Preus

• LAST REVIEWED: 22 August 2024
• LAST MODIFIED: 24 November 2020
• DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780195389661-0013

Introduction

The title “Ancient Greek Philosophy” may be applied to philosophical texts written in Greek over a period of somewhat more than one thousand years, from the Milesian Anaximander before 500 BCE to the Alexandrian John Philoponus, who died in 570 CE. The bibliography of the available texts, and translations, is significantly large, and the bibliography of secondary literature written about those texts in subsequent centuries is vast. This article is necessarily highly selective, designed primarily to give access to some of the basic works in each area of investigation. Separate bibliographies on individual philosophers, periods, and schools will follow. This article begins with a section on philosophy before Plato, including the Presocratics and Socrates, with some references to philosophers who were contemporaries of Plato and Aristotle. The second section focuses on Plato and early Platonists; the third section, on Aristotle and his immediate successors in the Peripatetic school. The fourth section focuses on philosophy after Aristotle, often called “Hellenistic” philosophy. This period notably includes Epicureans, Skeptics, and Stoics, as well as followers of Plato and Aristotle during the period from 322 BCE until the Roman Empire engulfed the Greek world. The fifth section includes access to philosophy written in Greek during the Roman Imperial period, from the middle of the 1st century BCE until the closing of the philosophical schools in the 5th and 6th centuries CE. It was during this time that many of the texts that provide our information about the earlier periods were written; many of the surviving texts are commentaries on works by Plato or Aristotle, for example, but significant original philosophical work was written, for instance, by Neoplatonists such as Plotinus and Porphyry, by Aristotelians such as Alexander of Aphrodisias, and by the medical philosopher Galen. This bibliography includes something of a combination of introductory texts suitable for someone beginning a study of a particular field, plus a significant number of texts and translations of the ancient authors, and a few more-specialized studies, where those may be of special interest.

General Overviews

This section lists some of the most important locations for finding materials relevant to specific topics in ancient philosophy. It is often worthwhile, when going beyond the items in a specific section of this bibliography, to browse these general resources. Guthrie 1962–1981 is included here because it serves, in effect, as a kind of encyclopedia for Greek philosophy from Thales to Aristotle. Sedley 2003, Gill and Pellegrin 2009, and Shields 2002 provide quick introductions to topics in the entire history of ancient philosophy; Kenny 2010 is a single-author, one-volume overview. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy and Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy are extremely useful general resources for students at all levels. Many individual articles are included in this bibliography, but there are many more that are equally valuable.

• Gill, Mary Louise, and Pierre Pellegrin. 2009. A companion to ancient philosophy. Chichester, UK: Blackwell.

  DOI: 10.1111/b. 9780631210610.2006.x

  A fairly large collection of introductory articles on a wide range of topics in the whole history of ancient philosophy.

• Guthrie, W. K. C. 1962–1981. A history of Greek philosophy. 6 vols. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press.

  Guthrie’s History is a scholarly introduction to classical philosophy. Philosophers might complain that it is not “philosophical” enough, but that does mean, at least, that Guthrie is not likely to be grinding any axes. It has become somewhat dated, especially for the Presocratics, and stops at Aristotle.

• Internet encyclopedia of philosophy. Edited by James Fieser and Bradley Dowden.

  More topics included than the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, but not always reliable. Some of the articles are “stubs,” often less informative than what you get on Wikipedia. This bibliography includes references to some of the best Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy articles.

• Kenny, Anthony. 2010. A new history of Western philosophy. Oxford: Clarendon.

  Topically organized introduction to major themes. The 2010 edition combines the original four volumes into one.

• Sedley, David, ed. 2003. The Cambridge companion to Greek and Roman philosophy. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press.

  DOI: 10.1017/CCOL0521772850

  Articles by leading authorities briefly introduce topics in the whole chronological range of ancient philosophy.

• Shields, Christopher. 2002. Blackwell guide to ancient philosophy. Malden, MA: Blackwell.

  DOI: 10.1111/b. 9780631222156.2002.x

  Introductory survey articles by noted scholars, covering a significant range of ancient philosophy.

• The Stanford encyclopedia of philosophy. Edited by Edward N. Zalta. Stanford, CA: Stanford Univ.

  The single-best online resource for ancient Greek philosophy. It features signed articles, mainly by ranking authorities in the field. Most of the articles have very good bibliographies on the topic discussed.