تاريخ الفلسفة: المرحلة الهلنستية والرومانية

The History of Philosophy #2

by Émile Bréhier (اميل برهييه), جورج طرابيشي (ترجمة)

The Hellenistic and Roman Age is the second part of Bréhier's great Histoire de la philosophie, originally published in the 1920's and '30's. Following The Hellenic Age, it completes Bréhier's account of the classical philosophers.

The post-Aristotelian systems are taken up in this part - the Socratics, the Old Stoa, Epicureanism, Skepticism, Neo-Platonism, and Hellenism and Christianity.

"Nothing is harder to disentangle than the history of intellectual thought," writers Bréhier. Yet he consistently separates the vital from the peripheral and illuminates the main trends of philosophical thought, from the emergence of the minor Socratics to the full flowering of Neo-Platonism.

Genres: Philosophy

338 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1931

About the author

Émile Bréhier was a French philosopher. His interest was in classical philosophy, and the history of philosophy. He wrote a Histoire de la Philosophie, translated into English in seven volumes.

Bréhier was Henri Bergson's successor at the Sorbonne, in 1945. The historian Louis Bréhier was his brother.

He was an early follower of Bergson; in the 1930s there was an influential view that Bergsonism and Neoplatonism were linked.

He has been called "the sole figure in the French history who adopts an hegelian interpretation of Neoplatonism", but also a Neo-Kantian opponent of Hegel.

Reviews

[Clay Kallam · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the advantages of reading about the classical past is that there are few new discoveries that make older works outdated -- so Emile Brehier's "The Hellenistic and Roman Age" in his History of Philosophy series doesn't suffer at all from being written in 1931. Sometimes, though, Wade Baskin's translation of philosophic terms differs from other books on this topic, but that's a minor point. Overall, this is an excellent, brief (sometimes too brief) introduction to a philosophic tradition that speaks to our times much more than the classic Greek studies of Plato and Socrates.

We tend to relegate anything after the glory days of Athens to the landfill of history, but there's much to be learned here, both about science can affect deep thinking, and about how much still remains relevant 2,000 years later. And since the primary focus of Hellenistic and Roman philosophy was how to life a good life in a strange, rapidly changing world that lacked a strong moral/religious compass, instead of contemplation of mystical Forms, this readable work has moments when it speaks directly to the 21st century.

[Hamza Razzak · Rating 5 out of 5]

يتناول هذا الجزء الثاني المرحلة الفكرية التي تلت العصر اليوناني الكلاسيكي، مسجلا تحولا في اهتمام الفلسفة من قضايا الكون والمدينة الى سعادة ونجاة الفرد وتحقيق السكينة الداخلية. ويشرح برهييه المدارس الرئيسية التي ظهرت في هذا السياق، وفي مقدمتها الرواقية التي دعت الى فضيلة العيش وفق العقل وقبول القدر لتحقيق عدم الانفعال، والأبيقورية التي سعت الى تحقيق اللذة الهادئة عبر تجنب الألم والاضطراب، والتشكك الذي رأى في تعليق الحكم طريقا للطمأنينة، ليختتم الكتاب بعرض مفصل لـ الأفلاطونية الحديثة التي وضعها أفلوطين كفلسفة روحية تقوم على فكرة الفيض من الواحد وتمثل تمهيدا للفكر الديني في العصور الوسطى.

بالرغم من أن قراءة هذا الكتاب قد تبعث على شيء من التحدي والشعور بالملل أحيانا نظرا لعمق مادته وتعدد المدارس الفكرية وروادها، إلا انه يظل ضروريا لفهم نقطة التحول الحاسمة في تاريخ الافكار الفلسفية اللاحقة

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

good read.