Definition in Greek Philosophy

David Charles has been a Fellow in Philosophy at Oriel College, University of Oxford, from 1978 and a Research Professor since 2006. He has held Visiting Professorships at Rutgers, U.C.L.A., Tokyo Metropolitan, and Venice Universities and has written on various aspects of Aristotle's philosophy and on issues in contemporary action theory and metaphysics.

• Introduction ; PART A: PLATO ON DEFINITION ; 1. Carried Away in the Euthyphro ; 2. Explanation and Essence in Plato's Phaedo ; 3. The Paradox in the Meno and Aristotle's Attempts to Resolve it ; 4. Division and Definition in the Sophist ; 5. Division and Definition in Plato's Sophist and Statesman ; PART B: ARISTOTLE ON DEFINITION ; 6. Aristotle on Essence and Defining Phrase in his Dialectic ; 7. Nominal Definition in Aristotle, his successors and his predecessors ; 8. Definition and Explanation in the Posterior Analytics (and beyond) ; 9. Bios and Explanatory Unity in Aristotle's Biology ; PART C: POST-ARISTOTELIAN WRITERS ON DEFINITION ; 10. The Stoics on Definition ; 11. The Aristotelian Commentators on Definition ; 12. Galen's Aristotelian definitions ; 13. Definition and Explanation in Plotinus: Some Problems ; 14. Sceptical enquiry

All of the pieces advance our understanding of ancient Greek thought in important ways. College libraries should prize the book; it would also serve as an excellent text for graduate classes in ancient Greek philosophy. For scholars in logic and critical thinking, it would be a great asset to understanding how many contemporary issues have ancient precedents.