Proceedings of the Boston Area Colloquium in Ancient Philosophy: Volume XVII (2001)

This volume contains both papers and commentaries originally presented to the Boston Area Colloquium in Ancient Philosophy during the 2000-2001 academic year. While three of the colloquia are dedicated to Plato, at least two of these explore issues of relevance for modern philosophy. For instance, the first colloquium explores parallels between ancient and modern treatments of the problem of parts and wholes. In the same spirit, one of the colloquia on Aristotle focuses on the different interpretations of his method in ethics given by two prominent modern interpreters. Similarly, the other colloquium draws some interesting comparisons between modern and Aristotelian treatments of empty terms in logic. The remaining colloquia deal with special topics in Hellenistic, Neoplatonic, and Presocratic philosophy, including the significance of the Strasbourg papyrus for our understanding of Empedocles.