000 02237cam a2200313 a 4500
999 _c467197
_d467197
008 070522s2007 caua b s001 0 eng
015 _aGBA777256
_2bnb
016 7 _a014015981
_2Uk
020 _a9780520253643 (cloth : alk. paper)
020 _a0520253647 (cloth : alk. paper)
020 _a9780520260061 (pbk.)
020 _a0520260066 (pbk.)
082 0 0 _a213
084 _a08.21
_2bcl
100 1 _aSedley, D. N.
245 1 0 _aCreationism and its critics in antiquity /
_cDavid Sedley.
260 _aBerkeley :
_bUniversity of California Press,
_cc2007.
300 _axvii, 269 p. :
_bill. ;
_c24 cm.
490 1 _aSather classical lectures ;
_vv. 66
490 1 _aThe Joan Palevsky imprint in classical literature.
504 _aIncludes bibliographical references (p. 245-255) and indexes.
520 _aThe world is configured in ways that seem systematically hospitable to life forms, especially the human race. Is this the outcome of divine planning or simply of the laws of physics? Ancient Greeks and Romans famously disagreed on whether the cosmos was the product of design or accident. In this book, David Sedley examines this question and illuminates new historical perspectives on the pantheon of thinkers who laid the foundations of Western philosophy and science. Versions of what we call the "creationist" option were widely favored by the major thinkers of classical antiquity, including Plato, whose ideas on the subject prepared the ground for Aristotle's celebrated teleology. But Aristotle aligned himself with the anti-creationist lobby, whose most militant members--the atomists--sought to show how a world just like ours would form inevitably by sheer accident, given only the infinity of space and matter. This stimulating study explores seven major thinkers and philosophical movements enmeshed in the debate: Anaxagoras, Empedocles, Socrates, Plato, the atomists, Aristotle, and the Stoics.
650 0 _aIntelligent design (Teleology)
650 0 _aPhilosophy, Ancient.
830 0 _aSather classical lectures.
830 0 _aJoan Palevsky imprint in classical literature.
856 4 1 _3Table of contents only
_uhttp://www.loc.gov/catdir/toc/ecip0719/2007021528.html
942 _2ddc
_cB