Proof, Knowledge, and Scepticism

Jonathan Barnes taught at Oxford for 25 years, being a Fellow first of Oriel and then of Balliol. He then spent eight years at the University of Geneva, before becoming Professor of Ancient Philosophy at the Sorbonne. He is a Fellow of the British Academy, and of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. His many publications include The Ontological Argument (Macmillan, 1972); Aristotle's Posterior Analytics (Clarendon Press, 2nd edition 1993); Aristotle (OUP, 1982); The Complete Works of Aristotle (Princeton UP, 1984); Truth, etc. (Clarendon Press, 2007); Method and Metaphysics: Essays in Ancient Philosophy I (OUP, 2011); and Logical Matters: Essays in Ancient Philosophy II (OUP, 2012); The Modes of Scepticism (with J. Annas; CUP, 1985); Early Greek Philosophy (Penguin, 1987); The Toils of Scepticism (CUP, 1990); The Cambridge Companion to Aristotle (CUP, 1995); Porphyry: Introduction (Clarendon Press, 2003).

• Acknowledgements ; Preface ; 1. Logic and the imperial Platonists ; 2. Galen and the utility of logic ; 3. Reason and faith ; 4. Socrates and the jury ; 5. Aristotle on knowledge and proof ; 6. Proof and the syllogism ; 7. Aristotle's theory of demonstration ; 8. Aristotle's philosophy of the sciences ; 9. Aristotle, Menaechmus, and circular proof ; 10. Proofs and syllogisms in Galen ; 11. Galen on logic and therapy ; 12. Language in Galen's simp med temp ; 13. Epicurean signs ; 14. Proof destroyed ; 15. nova non philosophandi philosophia ; 16. Sextan scepticism ; 17. Pyrrhonism, belief, and causation ; 18. Scepticism and the arts ; 19. Scepticism and relativity ; 20. Scepticism and scandal ; 21. An Aristotelian way with scepticism ; 22. Scepticism and the Book of Ecclesiastes ; Bibliography ; Index of Passages ; General Index

All serious students of ancient philosophy will enjoy revisiting some of Barnes's best work and are certain to discover new gems as well. The essays are consistently a pleasure to read: few scholars of ancient philosophy can match Barnes's erudition, and perhaps no one else manages to be so lively, engaging and provocative while revealing new depths in the subject.