This definitive biography shows that Aristotle's philosophy is best understood on the basis of a firm knowledge of his life and of the school he founded. First published in Italian, and now translated, updated, and expanded for English readers, this concise chronological narrative is the most authoritative account of Aristotle's life and his Lyceum available in any language.
A new style of scientific theory appears after Parmenides. Anaxagoras, Empedocles, and later the atomists account for natural phenomena by appealing not to some single primeval substance that generates all things, but to some set of permanent substances that interact in such a way that all things arise from them. The set of substances always consists of a plurality; hence the new practitioners of cosmology are known as pluralists.
In this book, William H. F. Altman argues that it is not order of composition but reading order that makes Euthyphro, Apology of Socrates, Crito, and Phaedo "late dialogues," and shows why Plato's decision to interpolate the notoriously "late" Sophist and Statesman between Euthyphro and Apology deserves more respect from interpreters.