Ancient Mediterranean philosophy: an introduction

Preface vii
Acknowledgements xii
Map of Ancient Mediterranean World xiii
1 Beginnings 1
Pre-historical speculations 1
Mythos and logos 6
Gods of the Greeks and others 12
Nature and spirit confounded 19
2 Influence from outside 23
Tales from the East 23
Tales from the South 30
Tales from the North 39
Tales from the past 45
3 Inspired thinkers 55
Seeking the unseen 55
Sicilians and Italians 60
Philosophers and Jews 70
4 Travellers and stay-at-homes 81
Custom, dictat and advantage 81
Protagoras and Socrates 86
Purity and the practice of death 92
5 Divine Plato 103
Reading the dialogues 103
Forms 109
Two worlds or one 115
Politics 121
6 The Aristotelian synthesis 125
‘The master of them that know’ 125
Slaves and citizens 132
Post-Aristotelian centuries 141
7 Living the philosophical life 143
Stoics and Cynics 143
Hebrews and Zoroastrians 147
Epicureans and Buddhists 151
8 Ordinary and supernatural lives 157
Abstract virtues and the Romans 157
Sons of God 161
Divination and technology 169
Philosophy and foolosophies 177
9 Late antiquity 185
Fixed stars and planets, and an escape from Fate 185
Classical and Magian culture 191
The way we didn’t take 196
10 An end and a beginning 203
Notes 209
Recommended reading 217
Works cited 221
Index 233