Self-Intellection and Its Epistemological Origins in Ancient Greek Thought

1. Auflage 2002
ISBN: 978-0-7546-3057-9
Verlag: Taylor & Francis

Buch, Englisch, 230 Seiten, Format (B × H): 156 mm x 234 mm, Gewicht: 503 g

Reihe: Ashgate New Critical Thinking in Philosophy

Can the intellect or the intellectual faculty be its own object of thought, or can it not think or apprehend itself? This book explores the ancient treatments of the question of self-intellection - an important theme in ancient epistemology and of considerable interest to later philosophical thought. The manner in which the ancients dealt with the intellect apprehending itself, took them into both the metaphysical and epistemological domains with reflections on questions of thinking, identity and causality. Ian Crystal traces the origins from which the concept of self-intellection springs, by examining Plato's account of the epistemic subject and the emergence of self-intellection through the Aristotelian account, before the final part of the book explores the problem of how the intellect apprehends itself, and its resolution including Plotinus' reformulation and the dilemma raised by Sextus Empiricus. Crystal concludes that Plotinus recasts the metaphysical structures of Plato and Aristotle in such a way that he casts the concept of self-intellection in an entirely new light and offers a solution to the problem.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Crystal, Ian M

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Philosophie Philosophie: Allgemeines, Methoden
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Alte Geschichte & Archäologie

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Contents: Introduction; The epistemological origins: Parmenides on intellection; Plato's epistemological response to Parmenides; Plato's epistemic subject; The emergence of self-intellection: Intellection and self-intellection in the De Anima: Aristotle's epistemological response to Plato; The emergence of the problem and its resolution: Sextus Empiricus and the Stoics on the dilemma of self-intellection; Plotinus' reformulation of self-intellection: his response to Sextus Empiricus; Bibliography; Index.

Über Autor(innen)

Ian M. Crystal, Louisiana State University, USA