At the center of Reale's interpretation of Plato is the fulcrum of the supersensible, the metaphysical discovery that Plato presented as a result of the Second Voyage. This discovery of the supersensible is, in Reale's view, not only the fundamental phase of ancient thought, but it also constitutes a milestone on the path of western philosophy.
Reale presents Plato in three different di...(Read More)
A History of Ancient Philosophy IV
(January 1990)
The Schools of the Imperial Age Giovanni Reale - Author John R. Catan - Editor/translator
This book covers the first 500 years of the common era. These years witnessed the revivals of Aristotelianism, Epicureanism, Pyrrhonism, Cynicism, and Pythagoreanism; but by far the most important movement was the revival of Platonism under Plotinus. Here, the historical context of Plotinus is provided including the currents of thought that preceded him and opened the path for him. The presuppositions of the Enneads are made explicit and t...(Read More)
A History of Ancient Philosophy I
(August 1987)
From the Origins to Socrates Giovanni Reale - Author John R. Catan - Editor/translator
Beginning with the origins of Western philosophy, the profound creation of the Hellenic genius, Reale presents an appreciation of the Naturalists, the Sophists, Socrates, and the Minor Socratics.
Special attention is paid to the Eleatics because their problems decisively mark Platonic and Aristotelian philosophy.
Interpretation of the Sophists benefits from the recent reevaluation of their thought. Socrates himself would be inco...(Read More)
Reale's volume supplies a synthesis previously lacking--a synthesis in the historical treatment of the great philosophies of the Hellenistic Age: the Academy, the Peripatos, the Stoa, the Garden of Epicurus, Scepticism, and Eclecticism. Reale's extensive and fully documented treatment of the major schools of the period is unified by his thesis that the ethics developed by these major schools were secular faiths that sprang from intuitions about the...(Read More)
Reale’s monumental work establishes the exact dimensions of Aristotle’s concept of first philosophy and proves the profound unity of concept that exists in Aristotle’s Metaphysics. Reale’s opposition to the genetic interpretation of the Metaphysics is an updated return to a more traditional view of Aristotle’s work, one which runs counter to nearly all contemporary scholarship. Reale argues that Aristo...(Read More)
