Ancient Philosophy - A Very Short Introduction. OUP. 2000.

Very Short Introductions #026

by Julia Annas

Estudiar la filosofía antigua no es simplemente hacer el repaso de una época determinada en la historia de las ideas. Se trata de conocer la génesis y el sentido que tuvieron los problemas conceptuales que han ocupado al pensamiento occidental a lo largo de 25 siglos. De allí la importancia que reviste una introducción clara y sistemática a los principales debates que se originaron en Grecia y, a través de su impacto en el mundo latino, se mantuvieron vivos hasta llegar a la filosofía contemporánea. El libro de Julia Annas opta por un enfoque temático y explora las distintas facetas de esa etapa clave para el desarrollo del quehacer reflexivo caracterizado por un constante regreso a sus inicios y primeras estructuras argumentativas. Julia Annas ha centrado su atención en la filosofía del mundo clásico. Es autora, entre otros, de los Hellenistic Philosophy of Mind, An Introduction to Plato´s Republic y The Morality of Happiness.

Genres: Philosophy, Nonfiction, History, Classics, Ancient History, Audiobook, Ancient

Unknown Binding

About the author

Julia Annas is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Arizona and author of several books for Oxford University Press, including An Introduction to Plato's Republic and The Morality of Happiness. She is also series editor for the Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy.

Reviews

[Pia G. · Rating 5 out of 5]

bildiğim konular olsa da derinlemesine öğreten, farklı bakış açıları sağlayan iyi bir başlangıç kitabı.

[Bojan Tunguz · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a very interesting introduction to the ancient Greek philosophy. Most of us who had studied any form of ancient philosophy have had encounters with all of its "big thinkers", such as Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Diogenes, etc. We may even know a thing or two about various schools of thought that some those philosophers belonged to (Stoicism, Cynicism, etc.), and this short book is a good and valuable refresher of those topics. It is very well written and engaging boom, and manages to bring to life some of the ideas and perspectives that might otherwise be painfully dry and unrelatable to the modern readers. For me the most interesting aspect of the book was its coverage of how the perspective on various ancient philosophies evolved over time. For instance, for most of history Plato's "Republic" was not treated as a treatise on political philosophy, but for the past century and a half this seems to have been the predominant reading of that text.

Highly recommended book.

[Sato · Rating 3 out of 5]

As always with the books in this series, I note that I fully understand how difficult it is to write a condensed introduction about a topic as broad as Ancient Philosophy. That being said, this one turned out to be somewhat of a mixed bag, even though I thought it to be well written.

Julia Annas is professor for philosophy with a focus on the ancient Greeks and her knowledge was apparent. But there is something with her (as it seems general) approach that I am not too sure about for this book. Her goal is a transfer of ancient Greek thought onto modern society. You see this in the way this book is structured: every chapter has an emphasis on themes like logic, happiness and virtue. However, this structure itself, where she compares modern and ancient values and beliefs, makes the whole thing very opinionated.

I get it of course, since many texts of ancient Greek philosophy are lost. That also explains the very heavy focus on Plato and Aristotle. There are also many philosophers who never wrote anything down, so what we have are already second-hand accounts of their ideas with a good portion of bias. So, yes, I know Annas has to interpret to a certain degree, but this is supposed to be a general introduction. I'm reading this to get an overview, not so much for a comment on what parts of philosophy I shouldn't concern myself with, since they don't apply to modern thought.

Also, one minor thing: Annas switched between male and female pronouns, when talking about a neutral reader. I understand why, but why not use neutral pronouns in the first place?

[Michael Huang · Rating 4 out of 5]

Discussed philosophy before the Middle Ages including reason vs emotion, teleology, what is happiness etc. in 6 chapters:

1. Started with the story of Medea and Jason. Hate of husband made Medea kill their children. This brought up two different views of emotions. Stoic believed that both reason and emotion are rational in their own ways, whereas Plato made the analogy of reason as a charioteer trying to control the uncontrollable horse of emotion. These two views are reflected in two different paintings of the Medea story.
2. Plato’s republic is very popular. The Victorians read it as a blueprint for an ideal society, whereas 20th century scholars think it’s describing a totalitarian regime. In truth, political philosophy is not even a main point of the book. The main point is why you should be virtuous. When reading philosophical works, be aware of our own philosophical interest.
3. The choice of Heraclitus (Virtue and Vice vying for for Heraclitus) underlies an ancient philosophical issue of happiness vs pleasure. The goal is happiness (eudaimonia) which applies to whole life, while pleasure is defined as episodic. Epicurus modified the thought of an earlier school of hedonism and claims that a “static” pleasure (tranquility and freedom from pain) is a candidate for happiness. To reach happiness, Aristotle agrees that we need some external good (health, wealth, etc). Plato and the Stoics went one step further and declared those as “preferred indifferent”.
4. Concerning knowledge: the Greek word skepticos (close to enquiry) is a different position from dogmatists (who believe they found truth) and negative dogmatists (who believe that truth can not be found). The skeptics keep searching. Plato believes knowledge is a single system where facts hang together in a meaningful way; Aristotle believes that there are different branches of knowledge independent of each other, employing fundamentally different methods.
5. Concerning teleology: Plato fully embraces it, believing God as a craftsman designing the world. Epicurus rejects teleology, believing random collisions of atoms are the root cause. Aristotle is somewhere in between, accepting teleology for some (heart is for pumping blood) rejecting it for others (horse is not “for” anything).
6. History for philosophical development: Socrates brought argument into the process and make reason a central element of philosophy. Plato has the claim to the first philosopher, starting a school and emphasizing the importance of argument before fully understanding a concept. Don’t take it on anybody’s authority, not even Plato’s. In this regard, Epicurus is different. He requires that his view be accepted deferentially and memorize. After the schools, there is a movement of “anti-school”. The Cynics (deriving their names from dogs because they act out bodily functions in public without shame) rejects reasoned arguments and believing in living life simply. Ancient philosophy ends roughly 530 CE when emperor Justinian closed all schools of pagan philosophy.

[Marija · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just perfect! Book is not a general history book with things like “Socrates lived from this year, to this year and he was famous for…”, yet author is covering the Classic philosophy concepts and describing them in an understandable way, together with remarks on the evolution of their thoughts including contemporary times. Everything about it was so nice and it was eye opening for many concepts.
Definitely recommend!

[John Eliade · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great beginning, great ending, but a slow middle when she starts outlining the nuts and bolts of ancient philosophy and what makes Aristotolean logic different from Epicurean logic. I mean, at least that was the part that I understood. The rest of it, not so much. Ironic, considering she mentions that that's exactly why philosophy was (and is) considered stuffy and ridiculous, leading to anti-philosophical schools like the Stoics who regarded logic and classical philosophy as bogus for its increasingly technical vocabulary.

Not my favorite AVS, but quite well-written and informative.

[Illiterate · Rating 2 out of 5]

Annas’ bites into her topic are good, but she doesn’t offer an overall thesis to justify taking the bites she does.

[Rei · Rating 3 out of 5]

this book is a decent introduction to ancient philosophy. it introduces big philosophers like socrates, plato, aristotle, epicurus, diogenes and others, along with their ideas, such as plato's allegory of the chariot and stoicism's dichotomy of control, etc.

the book itself consists of six chapters, each chapter discusses the main ideas of philosophy at that time like understanding ourselves, plato's republic, happiness vs pleasure, reason and knowledge, logic and reality, and the history of ancient philosophical development.

there were definitely topics that i can digest easily, but there are some topics that i need to read from other sources in order to understand them better. it was not an easy read for me. sometimes the ideas are so alien to me due to the difference in era and culture. the middle of the book is kind of slow and tedious but i enjoyed the beginning and mostly at the end.

one thing that i found lacking in this book is that sometimes when the author introduces a set of ideas, she only provides her commentary about the ideas without really provides understandable reasons why she'd think that way. well what can i expect? it's a VERY short introduction anyway... but still i think that this book is well researched and informative.

[Dylan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Was hoping for an extended encyclopedia article feel but the author's opinions shown through. Definitely a hard academic read.

[Rj Yeomans · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ancient Philosophy: A Very Short Introduction is a great look at Hellenistic philosophy starting with the Pre-Socratics and moving through Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, The Stoics, Epicurus, and several others. The author does a great job of layout out the basic tenets of each school of thought and how their ideas influenced each other. The book is laid out less in a chronological history of the philosophies explored and instead each chapter is organized around topics such as how ancient philosophy looks at issues, why ancient philosophy is relevant, ethics, and epistemology. The text was a bit dry at times and the Kindle version that I read had several errors that I assume came about when the book was copied over. Still, a great read for anyone who is looking to learn more about philosophy from the ancient Greeks.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

It’s on the tin really; provides a very short introduction to Ancient Philosophy (specifically the Greek tradition). Julia Annas is a fantastic writer, concise, and I think accomplishes all that this book really needs. It’s a starting point, not much else, and provides a great entry for further research.

An Important Qualification::
I’ve noticed some other reviews criticise a lack of consistency in the writing quality / a ‘slowing down’ in the middle. I think both these criticisms really allude to the fact that different parts of this book accomplish different things - namely, that the middle tries to provide a preliminary engagement with the debates occurring at the time and are more technical, and by contrast the beginning and end are more narrative and to that extent may be seen to be easier reading and have more ‘flow’.

I concede that this could be a problem for someone completely new to philosophy or who is struggling to focus on engaging with what is being said, and with this book being an introductory piece of writing that is quite a fair critique.

However, I think that the points are actually rather well explained. Indeed, explaining these debates is crucial (as Annas demonstrates) for understanding how the tradition of Ancient Greek philosophy actually developed in the first place. By introducing them therefore, I believe Annas makes this book not just a piece of historical literature about philosophers and some of their ideas but rather philosophical writing.

In conclusion, if you want a narrative historical overview, ironically I think this is still probably the best starting place - I find it unlikely a philosophy book would not engage with philosophy whatsoever and be written in a story-style. Nevertheless, do be aware. And if you are looking for a proper philosophical introduction to the historical development of this tradition and the ideas that were discussed, this is the perfect starting point for further research.

[BabyLunLun · Rating 2 out of 5]

I don't know why the few Very Short Introduction books are like that.

When you are introducing Ancient Philosophy. I expect you to drop some names like Anaximander , Thales , Socrates and what their philosophy is about and what have they said. I am honestly not interested in how the ancient tradition means to us in the present vs what they mean to the ancients people. I want facts and explanation not commentary

[armin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not bad... I haven't read much about ancient Greek philosophy... Some of the dialogues by Plato, l a bit of Aristotle and some other scattered writings about some pre-Socratic philosophers. The book is an introduction to a series of topics addressed by the ancient philosophers, however there isn't much consistency among the chapters. The good things is that I managed to set a track for my future readings and I'm gonna get to that!

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm loving this "short introductions" series!

This book is exactly what it should be: concise, accessible, and balanced in its presentation of multiple schools of thought. I definitely recommend this.

[heptagrammaton]

Very clear and readable, well-suited as an introductory read for students, or as a light entry when reading Plato and The Republic in particular.

[Zakaria Bziker]

Enlightening.

[Maik Civeira · Rating 4 out of 5]

A principios de este siglo Océano sacó una serie de breviarios titulados "Brevísima introducción a..." sobre diversos temas. Había leído algunos de ellos, y este año me dieron ganas de repasarlos, empezando por el número 05, escrito por Julia Annas y que se centra en la Filosofía de la antigua Grecia.

Como todos los de esta serie, se trata de un manualito muy sencillo, de unas 150 páginas. Eso no es impedimento para que aporte algunas ideas muy valiosas que me pusieron a reflexionar. Soy profesor de Filosofía, y he leído varias introducciones e historias a la materia. A veces, cuando conocemos lo básico de un tema, pensamos que con eso es suficiente, y que un texto iniciático y sencillo no tiene nada nuevo qué enseñarnos, pero ése es un error. Cada libro puede proporcionarnos alguna nueva perspectiva que nos genere una sacudida mental. Y lo mismo va para releer: puedes volver a aprender algo que ya habías olvidado, o entender de una nueva manera algo que la primera vez no te llamó la atención.

Annas tiene el acierto de no hacer una reseña histórica del pensamiento griego, pasando por los presocráticos hasta llegar a las corrientes del periodo helenístico. En cambio, avanza tema por tema, explorando lo que cada pensador opinaba al respecto. Estos temas son intemporales, y cualquier persona de cualquier época puede plantearse cuestiones como qué es lo que guía nuestras acciones, cómo podemos alcanzar la felicidad, cuál es la forma de razonar con claridad, o en qué consiste la sabiduría.

Annas no sólo explica las principales posturas filosóficas griegas, sino que nos habla de su legado, y cómo han sido interpretadas (y mal interpretadas) a lo largo de la historia, y cómo tales interpretaciones influyeron en el pensamiento posterior hasta nuestros días. Así, la autora subraya la relevancia y actualidad del pensamiento antiguo, que no desapareció simplemente con el fin de la época clásica, sino que sigue muy vivo hasta el presente.

Como pilón, me gustó una nota casi al final, en la que Annas desmiente el tópico de que el pensamiento occidental es racional y el oriental es místico. Este cliché se ha repetido tanto para declarar la superioridad de Occidente (por fachos), como para denunciar su malignidad (por hippies). Tradiciones racionalistas o místicas pueden encontrarse en ambas mitades del mundo, y los griegos siempre reconocieron su deuda intelectual con los egipcios, babilonios y otros pueblos de antigüedad.

Es un buen punto de partida para este re-recorrido por las pequeñas introducciones. Nos leemos en la próxima parada...

[Blake · Rating 4 out of 5]

A few years ago, when trying to get through Russell's A History of Western Philosophy, I was struck by what I'm inclined now to describe as authorial indecision. Russell would find himself in a wood with two divergent paths and, rather than settling finally on one or the other, would return again and again to that moment of choice. He could remain a mere speaker for the facts for just so long, before he would find himself bringing those facts to bear on the moment and the situatedness of himself and his reader. At least one reviewer, I think, characterised it as a choice Russell couldn't make between writing history and polemic.

Perhaps this modest little volume, Ancient Philosophy: A Very Short Introduction, has the advantage of distance because its subject is historically distant, but I think there's more to it than that. Annas is aware from the start and, indeed, addresses the problem explicitly. That is, history can remain too far away but it can also be brought too close. The better books on the history of philosophy can keep this right distance, and Annas has done it before with Plato. Here again, she succeeds not by taking one path or another, but by remaining in a clearing out of the tradition of choice. She makes central to each chapter not a particular figure but a particular problem. Various ancients speak as they draw near to the problem or as its centrality shifts or is shifted by their speaking the problem. It's this sort of respect for distance that now lets us locate Plato here rather than elsewhere and that clears away the authority of the Church to show us a modest Aristotle.

[David · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF - Started reading this as I have a love for history and thought I would try and see if I could roll that over into philosophy. As this was part of the VSI series, which I have read a few books of, I thought it be a good place to start. As one of the other reviewers commented the first chapter was very accessible and I thought this could be the start of a new area of reading for me. However by chapter 4 I felt like I was trudging through mud and found my interest and patience fading fast. This is not necessarily a bad book, it’s just taken me to read this to realise reading philosophy is not for me and I’ll be sticking to the History VSIs from now on!

[Mark Fallon · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love the "Very Short Introduction" series by the Oxford University press!

In this book, Professor Annas provides a good overview of the ancient Greek philosophers, and why they're still important today. Annas makes the subject accessible, and the reader feels like they're auditing a semester of lectures. Can only imagine the discussion in her courses.

[Ivy-Mabel Fling · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is clear and helpful but, in my view, not sufficient to understand the whole field. I have now bought the individual introductions to each philosopher as I think that might do the trick!

[Bernie Gourley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Annas’s task of creating a concise guide for such a broad topic is a daunting one. For perspective, I’ve read books in this series [AVSI] on Stoicism, Epicureanism, and Socrates – each of which is a slim subset of the material called “Ancient Philosophy.” Furthermore, it’s not as though there was great homogeneity of ideas among the ancients. And, adding to the challenge, the author attempts to address the full scope of ancient philosophy: i.e. ethics, epistemology, logic, and metaphysics.

The book is forced to both restrict itself to an inch deep (because the subject is a mile wide,) but also to make choices about what schools, philosophers, and sub-topics it will address. History did part of the work – e.g. for many ancients, only fragmentary or secondhand evidence of their positions survived. So, we see a lot about Plato and Aristotle because their words remain. The book also devotes a disproportionate emphasis to what some call “philosophy of life,” i.e. ethics and how / whether to pursue a happy and meaningful life – i.e. how to live. This emphasis is both because that’s what many ancients focused upon, but also because it’s what people find relevant when looking back to them. [As opposed to ancient metaphysics, which science has largely made obsolete, ancient ethics and thoughts on happiness aren’t necessarily outmoded.] The first chapter sets up this focus on philosophy of life in an interesting way by discussing humanity’s mixed motivational system -- reason v. emotion.

One question that the book robustly considers is the degree to which ancient philosophy is still relevant. This is taken up most directly in chapter two, but the final chapter (on what constitutes ancient philosophy) also has germane things to say on the subject.

I found in this book a quick guide to comparing schools of the ancient world across the breadth of philosophy, and would recommend the volume – particularly as a starting point prior to delving deeper into sub-topics.

[Tara T · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book provides a detailed account of philosophies and philosophers over a large period of time.

It’s interesting and informative but is quite dense and at times as you are reading /touching on ideas you barely get a chance to consider before it moves on.

I did listen via audible (clear narration, well paced, good vocals), and while on one hand I think this would be easier to absorb actually physically reading it, tbh, i don’t think I’d have persevered if it wasn’t for the convenience of an audio book.

This definitely wouldn’t be everyone’s cup of tea; it’s quite an intense ‘very short introduction’ in my opinion. It’s quite academic in it’s approach and analysis, as opposed to say A Little History of Philosophy by Nigel Warburton which allows an easier dip in /out of different ideas.

This AVSI book covered origins, developments, similarities and differences, traditions and influences and key ideas and issues in philosophical branches, schools and thinkers.

The chapters include

1. Humans and Beasts: understanding ourselves
2. Why do we read Plato’s republic
3. The happy life
4. Reason, knowledge and scepticism
5. Logic and reality
6. When did it all begin? And what is it anyway?

[Joe Cox · Rating 4 out of 5]

Having taken a look at the reviews of the republic on this site I was somewhat perturbed from picking that book up. I thought maybe I only need the cliff notes of what was influential and can ignore the bits that are apparently 'evil'. I decided to buy this book instead.

Firstly, it is a good book to get a general understanding of platos views on the world in relation to the views of the stoics and so on.

Secondly, it does a very good job of explaining that what we read from ancient texts is framed by our culture, when we present the republic, for example, it is often presented as political philosophy. In fact, Julia notes that it is used as an easy target for modern students of political science to tear down for not being liberal enough (in spite of being written 2000 or so years before liberalism).

Ultimately the book is a good book, as it left me interested to find out more, I am now looking forward to studying the republic.

[bladjutter · Rating 3 out of 5]

This booklet is engaging and offers a broad insight in the traditions of Ancient Greece and what we know as the classical world. The approach of the author is to emphasize the way in which the questions pondered by the ancients are directly engaging for the contemporary seeker of truth and purpose, and the way in which these questions are radically different.

Though this brings the subject matter close to the reader, herein also lies the main issue of the author. Her ‘contemporary view’ comes across as distinctly American and Ivy League, stressing colonial influences, matters of gender and the other usual suspects of the philosophy departments of our western universities. I can therefore not escape the feeling that the author’s broad insight in the diversity of ancient thought does not to translate to insight in the modern era, and the introduction becomes poorer because of this.

[Marcos Pensive · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good introduction to the most important ancient philosophers, along with the most prominent perspectives that interpreters have historically had regarding them, including how to avoid the pitfalls that have come with them.
A standout quote from this book: "if the interpretative tradition goes on too long (especially without serious competition) and gets too rigid and institutionalized, the result can become stultifying, and can end with hostile unthinking rejection. And this makes it harder to get back to the original and engage with it from our own perspective."

I found it pretty unreasonable of this book to call the Stoics "somewhat ridiculous" for coming up with new terminology that better fits reality, but that's my only pet peeve, and not a very important criticism.

[Jake · Rating 4 out of 5]

Annas does a much better job here in exposing the shape and practices of ancient philosophy to the reader than in her introduction to Plato, introducing them gently yet without simplification to its branches and main questions of interest. She introduces multiple views that have developed about and in conversation with the ancients over the ages, and is critical of the distancing of modern philosophy from ancient traditions. Indeed, she convinces the reader that much is to be gained from engaging ancient thinkers, and asks us to neither underestimate nor blow up the proportions of the conclusions, methods, and the very questions or intellectual pursuits of their time.

Annas paints a complex and deeply fascinating picture of the beginnings of the Western philosophical tradition.

[Review 1 - 08/05/17.]

[Dan DalMonte · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is clear and engaging. It could use more detail and historical context. Annas spends too much time, I think, engaging in speculation, and not enough delving into details of the systems of philosophy in the ancient world. There is a price to be paid in trying to frame the historical exploration of ancient philosophy in terms of introspective musing. The book starts, for instance, with a meditation about whether emotions are distinct from reason, and so emotions just destabilize us like foreign forces, or whether acting emotionally is a form of rational action. This is an interesting topic, but the Stoics and thinkers like Galen were touched on only lightly.

[Hugo Alpízar · Rating 4 out of 5]

Buscaba un libro para comenzar y considero que es una buena opción, es un libro de filosofía griega y Romana más que nada y me gustó que proporciona mucho del contexto de las mayores escuelas y pensamientos que influían en la época. De la misma forma me gusta mucho que sobre todo la primera parte del libro es más didáctica acerca de cómo leer filosofía y en los capítulos que le siguen la autora rescata mucho de cómo aproximarse a los párrafos de textos ahora si 100% crudos de filósofos antiguos(Sócrates, Platón, Aristóteles, …) y de esta forma sí entiendes bien a qué se referían en primer lugar!

[Matthew · Rating 4 out of 5]

Informative, dense.

Sometimes a Very Short Introduction is not really an introduction, but a brief summary. This book assumes familiarity with some of these thinkers and their reputations. Some of the names are vaguely familiar to me, but I must admit getting lost in the series of names and schools. Still, I appreciate Annas' work, usefully split into sections on the major areas of ancient philosophy and also including a useful essay on Plato's Republic. I could not find a copy of the 2nd edition which I would have preferred to have read, and may eventually read it to see the areas of difference.