1st Edition

Classical Traditions in Renaissance Philosophy

By Jill Kraye Copyright 2002
    336 Pages
    by Routledge

    The impact of classical thought on Renaissance philosophy is the subject of this volume. In the first part Dr Kraye deals with the interpretations of ancient philosophy put forward by various thinkers of the Italian Renaissance, including the humanist Angelo Poliziano and the Platonist Marsilio Ficino; in the second, she examines the central role of Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics within Renaissance moral philosophy and considers the influence of other classical treatises on ethics, especially the Meditations of Marcus Aurelius. The final section explores controversies concerning the authenticity of works in the Aristotelian canon, together with the early printing history of Aristotle. All the articles aim to locate philosophical questions within the historical and cultural context of the Renaissance, and particular attention is paid to the importance of philological scholarship within philosophical debates. The collection includes an essay on Philipp Melanchthon's ethical commentaries and textbooks which has previously appeared only in German translation.

    Contents: Preface: Ancient Philosophy in the Italian Renaissance: Francesco Filelfo’s lost letter De ideis; Cicero, Stoicism and textual criticism: Poliziano on katorthoma; The transformation of Platonic love in the Italian Renaissance; Lorenzo and the philosophers; Classical Ethics in the Renaissance: Francesco Filelfo on emotions, virtues and vices: a re-examination of his sources; Renaissance commentaries on the Nicomachean Ethics; Melanchthon’s ethics commentaries and textbooks; Ethnicorum omnium sanctissimus: Marcus Aurelius and his Meditations from Xylander to Diderot; The Aristotelian Canon: The Pseudo-Aristotelian Theology in 16th- and 17th-century Europe; Daniel Heinsius and the author of De mundo; Aristotle’s God and the authenticity of De mundo: an early modern controversy; Erasmus and the canonization of Aristotle: the letter to John More, with an appendix by M.C. Davies; Alexander of Aphrodisias, Gianfrancesco Beati and the problem of Metaphysics a; Like father, like son: Aristotle, Nicomachus and the Nicomachean Ethics; The printing history of Aristotle in the 15th century: a bibliographical approach to Renaissance philosophy; Index.

    Biography

    Jill Kraye