Plato's Natural Philosophy. A Study of the Timaeus-Critias, Cambridge University Press 2004, 224 pages, ISBN:0521790670
"Plato's dialogue the Timaeus-Critias presents two connected accounts, that of the story of Atlantis and its defeat by ancient Athens and that of the creation of the cosmos by a divine craftsman. This book offers a unified reading of the dialogue. It tackles a wide range of interpretative and philosophical issues. Topics discussed include the function of the famous Atlantis story, the notion of cosmology as 'myth' and as 'likely', and the role of God in Platonic cosmology. Other areas commented upon are Plato's concepts of 'necessity' and 'teleology', the nature of the 'receptacle', the relationship between the soul and the body, the use of perception in cosmology, and the work's peculiar monologue form. The unifying themeis teleology: Plato's attempt to show the cosmos to be organised for the good. A central lesson which emerges is that the Timaeus is closer to Aristotle's physics than previously thought."
Reviews of Plato's Natural Philosophy:
Philosophical Quarterly
Journal of the History of Philosophy
Classical Review
Rhizai
Bryn Mawr Classical Review,
Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews
Aristotle on the Sense-Organs, Cambridge University Press, 1998, 320 pages, ISBN: 0521583381
"This book offers the first in-depth study of Aristotle's theory of thesense-organs. It aims to answer two questions central to Aristotle's psychology and biology: why does Aristotle think we have sense-organs, and why does he describe the sense-organs in the way he does? The author looks at all the Aristotelian evidence for the five senses and shows how pervasively Aristotle's accounts of the sense-organs are motivated by his interest in form and function. The book also engages with the celebrated problem of whether perception for Aristotle requires material changes in the perceiver. It argues that, surprisingly to the modern philosopher, nothing in Aristotle's description of the sense-organs requires us to believe in such changes."
Online Reviews of Aristotle on the Sense-Organs:
Bryn Mawr Classical Review,
Journal of the History of Behavioural Sciences
