Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-84b7d79bbc-7nlkj Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-26T03:17:29.418Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Introduction

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 May 2006

By
David Sedley
Edited by
David Sedley
David Sedley
Affiliation:
University of Cambridge
Get access

Summary

Compare the following two questions, both of which greatly exercised ancient Greek and Roman thinkers:

  1. 1 What is a good human life?

  2. 2 Why isn't the earth falling?

They appear about as different as any two questions could be. The first is one that most of us continue to consider important today. The second is not a question we are likely even to think worth asking: however little physics we know, we know enough to realize that the question itself rests on false suppositions.

Despite this and other contrasts, those who manage to get inside the subject – Greek and Roman philosophy – to which this book aims to provide an entry route should find that the two questions come to exercise an equal fascination. They may even find that the two of them have more in common than at first appears, as I shall suggest below.

Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Companion to Greek and Roman Philosophy , pp. 1 - 19
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2003

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

  • Introduction
  • Edited by David Sedley, University of Cambridge
  • Book: The Cambridge Companion to Greek and Roman Philosophy
  • Online publication: 28 May 2006
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CCOL0521772850.001
Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

  • Introduction
  • Edited by David Sedley, University of Cambridge
  • Book: The Cambridge Companion to Greek and Roman Philosophy
  • Online publication: 28 May 2006
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CCOL0521772850.001
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Introduction
  • Edited by David Sedley, University of Cambridge
  • Book: The Cambridge Companion to Greek and Roman Philosophy
  • Online publication: 28 May 2006
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CCOL0521772850.001
Available formats
×