Overview

The conceptualization of the vital force of living beings as a kind of breath and heat is at least as old as Homer. The assumptions that life and living things were somehow causally related to 'heat' and 'breath' (pneuma) would go on to inform much of ancient medicine and philosophy. This is the first volume to consider the relationship of the notions of heat, breath (pneuma), and soul in ancient Greek philosophy and science from the Presocratics to Aristotle. Bringing together specialists both on early Greek philosophy and on Aristotle, it brings an approach drawn from the history of science to the study of both fields. The chapters give fresh and detailed interpretations of the theory of soul in Heraclitus, Empedocles, Parmenides, Diogenes of Appolonia, and Democritus, as well as in the Hippocratic Corpus, Plato's Timaeus, and various works of Aristotle.

Full Product Details

Author:   Hynek Bartoš (Charles University, Prague) ,  Colin Guthrie King (Providence College, Rhode Island)
Publisher:   Cambridge University Press
Imprint:   Cambridge University Press
Dimensions:   Width: 15.90cm , Height: 2.60cm , Length: 23.50cm
Weight:   0.670kg
ISBN:  

9781108476737

ISBN 10:   1108476732
Pages:   388
Publication Date:   12 March 2020
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Available To Order  
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Table of Contents

Introduction. Ancient philosophy and science at the crossroads of metaphysics and medicine Colin Guthrie King; Heat, pneuma and soul in the medical tradition Hynek Bartoš; Part I. Early Greek Philosophy and Medicine: 1. Fire, heat and motive force in early Greek philosophy and medicine Gábor Betegh; 2. Parmenides on the soul Shaul Tor; 3. The spirit in the flesh: Empedocles on embodied soul Simon Trépanier; 4. Out of thin air? Diogenes on causal explanation Bryan C. Reece; 5. Soul, life and nutrition in the Timaeus Thomas K. Johansen; 6. De spiritu on heat and its roles in the formation, composition and activities of animals Orly Lewis; Part II. Aristotle: 7. Heat, meteorology and spontaneous generation Malcolm Wilson; 8. Aristotle on 'the nature in the pneuma' and the first body Karel Thein; 9. Aristotle on the powers of thermic equilibrium Tiberiu Popa; 10. Why animals must keep their cool: Aristotle on the need for respiration (and other forms of cooling) James G. Lennox; 11. Soul's tools Jessica Gelber; 12. When life imitates art: vital locomotion and Aristotle's craft analogy Patricio Fernandez and Jorgé Mittelmann; 13. Blood, πνεῦμα, or something more solid? Aristotle on the material structure of perceptual apparatus Robert Roreitner; 14. The pathological role of pneuma in Aristotle Patrick Macfarlane.

Reviews

'Ultimately, the volume makes a fine case for a collection of essays examining heat, pneuma, and soul through Aristotle, and it ably advances the scholarly discussion on them.' Rhodes Pinto, Stanford University

'Ultimately, the volume makes a fine case for a collection of essays examining heat, pneuma, and soul through Aristotle, and it ably advances the scholarly discussion on them.' Rhodes Pinto, Stanford University

Author Information

Hynek Bartoš is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Humanities at the Charles University in Prague. He is the author of Philosophy and Dietetics in the Hippocratic On Regimen (2015) and a range of essays on the history of ancient Greek philosophy and medicine. Colin Guthrie King is an Associate Professor of Philosophy at Providence College, Rhode Island. He works on the history of ancient science and philosophy. He is currently Visiting Professor of Philosophy at Universität Basel.

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