Robert Boyle: A Free Enquiry into the Vulgarly Received Notion of Nature (Cambridge Texts in the History of Philosophy)

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Lucan

"In this edition Professor Fantham offers the first full-scale commentary on the neglected second book of Lucan's epic poem on the war between Caesar and Pompey: De bello civili. Book II presents all three leading figures - Cato, Caesar and Pompey - in speech and action. It expresses the moral and political dilemma of civil war and portrays Pompey's loss of authority during his withdrawal from Italy in language designed to evoke and cancel Virgil's heroic presentation of the foundation myth of Aeneas. It is a book rich in the history and geography of Roman Italy, including the retrospective narrative of Marius' and Sulla's reigns of civil terror at Rome, an unusual wedding scene, a verbal map of Italy, and a swift-paced narrative of Caesar's blockade and Pompey's Dunkirk-like evacuation of the republican forces from Brundisium." "In her introduction Professor Fantham gives a general account of Lucan's life and work, and continues with a discussion of his narrative and interpretation of Caesar's military 'invasion' of Italy covering books I and II, a survey of language, style and metre, and a brief history of the text."--BOOK JACKET.

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Walter Pater

<p>Marius is born in the second-century Roman Empire to a patrician family. In his youth he takes in the rituals, religion, and surroundings of his native land, and when his parents die, he’s sent away to a boarding school.</p> <p>As young Marius develops into manhood, he explores various schools of philosophy and ways of life, until he lands into the position of amanuensis to the emperor <a href=" Aurelius</a>—who of course is not just the head of the largest empire the world had yet seen, but also a respected thinker and philosopher of Stoicism. Marius dips into Stoicism himself, until a fledgling new religion catches his attention: Christianity.</p> <p>Marius’s search for meaning gives <a href=" a broad canvas on which to expound on some of the central theses he would return to often in his career: how childhood experiences are essential to the personality of the adult, and how a carefully-curated, aesthetic life—but not one of pure hedonic abandon—is one of the most satisfying ways to live. Indeed, Pater is careful to distinguish Epicureanism and its emphasis on modest sensory pleasures and limiting desire, from hedonism and the ruin a life of pure consumption can bring.</p> <p>Despite this focus on philosophical searching, Pater also puts the conflict Marius feels over religion at the story’s forefront. Like Pater himself, who yearned for the simpler atmosphere of religion he had experienced in youth, Marius finds himself bouncing from paganism, to philosophy, to the new religion of Christianity, in search of the comfort of the lost rituals of his youth. In the end, a satisfactory peace seems elusive.</p> <p><i>Marius the Epicurean</i> remains an important milestone in 19th century investigations of religion and philosophy, while also being a rich example of a text brought alive with allusion and experiments in form. The story isn’t a straightforward narrative, but rather features frame narratives, epistolary fragments, orations, and dialogues. This structure looks forward to the modernism that would emerge in 20th century literature. Literary critic Harold Bloom called it “one of the more remarkable fictional experiments of the late nineteenth century.”</p>

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Kazuaki Tanahashi

Eihei Dogen (1200-1253) is unquestionably one of the most significant religious figures in Japanese history. The founder of the Soto school of Zen, he was a prolific writer whose works have instructed and inspired for more than seven hundred years, and who used everything from poetry to the mundane details of everyday life in a monastery to illuminate Zen teaching. Enlightenment Unfolds contains works written by Dogen throughout his life, presented in chronological order, beginning with the journal from his study in China, providing a substantial selection from his masterwork, Treasury of the True Dharma Eye, and concluding with his spare but eloquent death poem. A number of the selections appear here in English for the first time.

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Aristoteles

The Topics is Aristotle's treatise on dialectical argument, a practice perhaps as old as human language, systemized for the first time by Aristotle. This seminal text offers many important insights into his conception of logic, his development of the notion of the predicables (the Five Terms), and his ideas on the method of philosophical inquiry itself. This volume contains a clear and accurate translation of Books I and VIII of Aristotle's Topics, together with a philosophical commentary on these books and additional selections from Books II and III, and from the Sophistical Refutation. These books and selections best give a general view of the main ideas, arguments, and techniques expounded in the Topics. The volume is well suited to the requirements of students, including those who do not know Greek.