Plato's later philosophy of motion

Abstract

The present dissertation is a revision, made in the light of works published during 1936 and the present year, of an earlier dissertation compiled at Edinburgh under the supervision and encouragement of Professor A. E. 'Taylor between 1934 and 1936 and submitted to the writer's College in the Autumn of 1936 in connection with the election to Unofficial Fellowships.

In revising the writer has not always modified phrases suited only to the more intimate discussion permissible in submitting work to his own college, nor has he abandoned altogether the dogmatic tone of the judgments made therein. He trusts that this dogmatism will be recognised as an attempt to reach a unified, 'synoptic' position, not as gratuitous cavil against the work of great scholars. His debt to Professor Taylor will be everywhere apparent.

The work necessarily shares the advantages and the dis- advantages of recent Cambridge work in the realm of ancient philosophy, the advantage of insisting on viewing ancient thought as bound inseparably to ancient life, the disadvantage (in the case of the present writer at any rate) of blank ignorance of or insufficient acquaintance with the later history of the metaphysical systems elaborated. In the case of Plato the writer is bold enough to suggest that there may be gain rather than loss in this.