David Sedley
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520253643
- eISBN:
- 9780520934368
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520253643.001.0001
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Ancient Greek, Roman, and Early Christian Philosophy
The 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 ...
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The 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. This book 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 study explores seven major thinkers and philosophical movements enmeshed in the debate: Anaxagoras, Empedocles, Socrates, Plato, the atomists, Aristotle, and the Stoics.Less
The 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. This book 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 study explores seven major thinkers and philosophical movements enmeshed in the debate: Anaxagoras, Empedocles, Socrates, Plato, the atomists, Aristotle, and the Stoics.
Joe Carlen
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- September 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780231173049
- eISBN:
- 9780231542814
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Columbia University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7312/columbia/9780231173049.003.0004
- Subject:
- Business and Management, Business History
The entrepreneurial experience in Rome is an insightful illustration of enterprise as practiced under unfavorable and, at times, even hostile, conditions. While Roman nobility and slaveowners steered ...
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The entrepreneurial experience in Rome is an insightful illustration of enterprise as practiced under unfavorable and, at times, even hostile, conditions. While Roman nobility and slaveowners steered clear of the "dirty work" of entrepreneurship, slaves and former slaves, many of whom were foreigners, eagerly climbed the entrepreneurial ladder. The chapter describes how, in some instances, the ladder led not only out of bondage but to great wealth and even a measure of respectability.Less
The entrepreneurial experience in Rome is an insightful illustration of enterprise as practiced under unfavorable and, at times, even hostile, conditions. While Roman nobility and slaveowners steered clear of the "dirty work" of entrepreneurship, slaves and former slaves, many of whom were foreigners, eagerly climbed the entrepreneurial ladder. The chapter describes how, in some instances, the ladder led not only out of bondage but to great wealth and even a measure of respectability.
Thomas Rüfner
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- April 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780198704744
- eISBN:
- 9780191774041
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198704744.003.0006
- Subject:
- Law, Legal History
This chapter provides an overview of the monetary laws during the Ancient Roman Empire. Specifically, it discusses the codifications instituted by Emperor Justinian in the corpus iuris, a collection ...
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This chapter provides an overview of the monetary laws during the Ancient Roman Empire. Specifically, it discusses the codifications instituted by Emperor Justinian in the corpus iuris, a collection of fundamental works in jurisprudence on which jurists of the medieval ius commune based their reasoning. The texts in Justinian’s compilations contain the building blocks for a functional theory of money; illustrative material for the workings of a bimetallic or trimetallic system; and the provisions necessary to ensure that coins can circulate freely and function as a universal medium of exchange and means of payment. The chapter also looks into the three alternative means of payment used by the Romans: credit money; bullion; and the Tesserae frumentariae. The sources analysed in this chapter prove that the Roman jurists were able to grasp the function of money as a medium of exchange and to express it in similar terms as modern economists.Less
This chapter provides an overview of the monetary laws during the Ancient Roman Empire. Specifically, it discusses the codifications instituted by Emperor Justinian in the corpus iuris, a collection of fundamental works in jurisprudence on which jurists of the medieval ius commune based their reasoning. The texts in Justinian’s compilations contain the building blocks for a functional theory of money; illustrative material for the workings of a bimetallic or trimetallic system; and the provisions necessary to ensure that coins can circulate freely and function as a universal medium of exchange and means of payment. The chapter also looks into the three alternative means of payment used by the Romans: credit money; bullion; and the Tesserae frumentariae. The sources analysed in this chapter prove that the Roman jurists were able to grasp the function of money as a medium of exchange and to express it in similar terms as modern economists.
