From Empedocles to Wittgenstein Historical Essays in Philosophy [Hardcover]

From Empedocles to Wittgensteinis a collection of fifteen historical essays in philosophy, written by Sir Anthony Kenny in the early years of the 21st century. In the main they are concerned with four of the great philosophers whom he most esteems, namely Plato, Aristotle, Aquinas, and Wittgenstein. The author is not only one of the most respected historians of philosophy, and possibly the widest-ranging, but also one of the most successful at writing on the subject for a broad readership. In this volume he presents scholarly explorations of some themes which caught his interest as he worked on his acclaimed four-volumeNew History of Western Philosophy.

1. Seven Concepts of Creation
2. Life after Etna: Empedocles in Prose and Poetry
3. Virtue and the Good in Plato and Aristotle
4. Aristotle's Criteria for Happiness
5. Practical Truth in Aristotle
6. Aristotle's Categories in the Latin Fathers
7. Essence and Existence: Aquinas and Islamic Philosophy
8. Aquinas on the Beginning of Individual Human Life
9. Thomas and Thomism
10. Aquinas in America
11. Philosophy states only what everyone admits
12. Cognitive Scientism
13. The Wittgenstein Editions
14. Knowledge, Belief, and Faith
15. The Unity of Knowledge and the Diversity of Belief
Abbreviations
Bibliography

As the title declares, all have their source in issues in the history of philosophy. Together they document the most recent phase in the evolution of the thought of one of the most significant philosophers working today.... Those new to Kenny's thought will find that these papers offer an ideal first path into his comprehensive, careful, and clearheaded work. Those already familiar with his writings will be entertained and enlightened by these occasional pieces from the most recent phase of Kenny's distinguished career. --Owen Goldin,Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews

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