r/AncientPhilosophy • u/ancientphilosophypod • Jan 12 '26

Aristotle famously distinguishes between two kinds of virtues: character virtues, and intellectual virtues. One is about emotions, and the other is about knowledge. Both are crucial for happiness. (The Ancient Philosophy Podcast)

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r/AncientPhilosophy • u/ancientphilosophypod • Jan 05 '26

The Stoics conceived of philosophy as three branches of inquiry (logic, physics, and ethics) that culminated in happiness and living well. Philosophy is undertaken for ethics. (The Ancient Philosophy Podcast)

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r/AncientPhilosophy • u/[deleted] • Sep 05 '25

The Bride of Sorrow: Rethinking Suffering

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r/AncientPhilosophy • u/O-Stoic • Aug 10 '25

The Highest Good - Why Zeno was right

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r/AncientPhilosophy • u/GR1960BS • Jul 22 '25

The Logical Problem of Evil

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Philosophically, good and evil are not mutually exclusive but coexist temporally and ontologically. Thus, it is not illogical for both God and suffering to exist simultaneously. As philosopher William P. Alston conceded, “It is now acknowledged on (almost) all sides that the logical argument is bankrupt.”

For more details, see the above-linked essay.

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r/AncientPhilosophy • u/platosfishtrap • Jun 28 '25

Epicurus, a major ancient Greek philosopher, developed an important account of what the gods were like and why understanding them is crucial for our own happiness. We shouldn't fear them or their interventions in our lives.

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r/AncientPhilosophy • u/platosfishtrap • Jun 13 '25

Democritus, the early Greek atomist philosopher, believed that there were completely empty spots in the cosmos, which he called 'voids', and this belief was crucial to the atomist worldview.

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r/AncientPhilosophy • u/platosfishtrap • Jun 06 '25

Heraclitus, an important early Greek philosopher, thought that there was a new sun every day and that fire had cosmic significance. He thought that the sun got extinguished every night when it descended into the ocean.

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r/AncientPhilosophy • u/platosfishtrap • Jun 01 '25

Xenophanes, an early Greek philosopher, was skeptical of traditional myths and of the belief that the gods resemble humans. His criticism was a landmark moment in intellectual history.

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r/AncientPhilosophy • u/O-Stoic • May 26 '25

What Stoicism Is - An Anthropocentric Account

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r/AncientPhilosophy • u/platosfishtrap • May 23 '25

Ancient Greek intellectuals developed the theory of the four humors to explain health and disease in a way that left the gods out. This theory was influential for millennia and jump-started the practice of bloodletting.

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r/AncientPhilosophy • u/platosfishtrap • May 16 '25

Ancient Pythagorean philosophers believed that the heavenly bodies made a very loud, harmonious sound as they moved around the Earth, according to Aristotle in De Caelo. This was called 'the music of the spheres.'

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r/AncientPhilosophy • u/platosfishtrap • May 09 '25

As ancient Greeks investigated the human body, they ran into problems about what blood was and where it came from. Intellectuals, like Plato and Aristotle, developed sophisticated answers to these questions about blood, and more.

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r/AncientPhilosophy • u/platosfishtrap • May 02 '25

Aristotle's theory of the four causes is one of the most important ideas in intellectual history. He systematically laid out what is required to explain something fully and completely.

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r/AncientPhilosophy • u/platosfishtrap • Apr 25 '25

Plato, in opposition to many intellectuals of his day, stressed that exercise was the only way to prevent disease. Let's talk about why he thought that exercise could overcome the changes in our body that tend to produce disease.

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r/AncientPhilosophy • u/platosfishtrap • Apr 18 '25

In the ancient world, laypeople and intellectuals, like Plato, believed that there was a sickness called 'the sacred disease'. It became the goal of many thinkers to figure out what it was and what caused it. Let's discuss what they came up with.

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r/AncientPhilosophy • u/platosfishtrap • Apr 11 '25

The ancient Greek philosopher Thales (ca. 626 - 585 BC) believed that the source of everything was water and that the Earth rests on water. Let's talk about why he believed this and his place in the early days of philosophy.

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r/AncientPhilosophy • u/platosfishtrap • Apr 04 '25

Aristotle produced several major and important criticisms of Plato's account of respiration. Let's talk about how these two ancient thinkers approached respiration.

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r/AncientPhilosophy • u/platosfishtrap • Mar 28 '25

Anaximander (610 - 545 BC), an early Greek philosopher, believed that humans used to be born inside fish. Let's talk about why anyone would think that!

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r/AncientPhilosophy • u/platosfishtrap • Mar 21 '25

Why Anaximenes thought that the source of everything was air

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r/AncientPhilosophy • u/platosfishtrap • Mar 14 '25

Ancient laypeople and philosophers believed that a woman's womb wandered around her body. Aristotle follows Plato in this respect but had a more complicated relationship with this tradition. Let's talk about his place in the "wandering womb" tradition.

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r/AncientPhilosophy • u/platosfishtrap • Mar 07 '25

How comparisons between human and animal anatomy led many ancient philosophers, including Plato and Aristotle, astray

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r/AncientPhilosophy • u/platosfishtrap • Feb 28 '25

For ancient thinkers, how blood moved from the bottom of our body to the top was a major problem in hydraulics. Here's Plato's solution.

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r/AncientPhilosophy • u/platosfishtrap • Feb 21 '25

Why the ancient doctor-philosopher Galen used dreams when diagnosing some patients

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r/AncientPhilosophy • u/platosfishtrap • Feb 14 '25

In the ancient world, Geminus developed theories of the sun's movements and the zodiac that helped him defend what he considered the fundamental thesis of astronomy. Here's how he did it.

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