The Lectures on Greek Philosophy of 1928 are among the earliest lectures we have of John Anderson's, delivered in the year following his arrival in Sydney in 1927. In these teachings he closely and critically followed John Burnet's classic work Early Greek Philosophy. Anderson's complete course covered the pre-Socratics extensively before progressing to the Socratic Dialogues and Aristotle. The study of Greek Philosophy for Anderson provided an important corrective to the attitudes and forms of inquiry dominating modern philosophy. The study of Greek philosophy was essential to Anderson because the Greeks 'are far clearer on many questions than modern philosophers...they avoid many modern errors, and especially... they are not, like the moderns, obsessed with "the problem of knowledge"... they do not set out to discover (that is to say, to know!) how, or how much, we can know, before they are prepared to know anything.' Modern philosophers need to return to 'the Greek consideration of things,' to finally abandon epistemology as 'an intrusion of mind into logic and of a false logic into psychology' and accept the direct common sense realism of the Greek philosophers.

Table of Contents:
Foreword to the John Anderson series Introduction Note on the text Part 1: pre-Socratics 1. Introductory lectures Lecture 1: science, philosophy and mythology Lecture 2: mythological thinking continued Lecture 3: foundation of science 2. The Milesians Lecture 3 continued: the Milesians Lecture 4: common quality as unity within diversity Lecture 5: Thales on the nature of things Lecture 6: Anaximander and the unlimited or boundless Lecture 7: Anaximander continued - influence Lecture 8: Anaximenes Lecture 9: Anaximenes continued - notion of substance Lecture 10: main difficulties in Milesian thinking 3. Xenophanes Lecture 10 continued: reactions to Milesians Lecture 11: Xenophanes' rejection of speculation Lecture 12: Xenophanes continued 4. Pythagoras Lecture 13: Pythagoras and the conception of units Lecture 14: units applied to music and harmony Lecture 15: the theory of the mean - division of reality Lecture 16: division of reality continued 5. Heraclitus Lecture 17: the particular importance of Heraclitus Lecture 18: all things in process Lecture 19: things as attunements - exchanges Lecture 20: fire as process not substance Lecture 21: systems and cycles Lecture 22: each thing a cycle Lecture 23: personal identity Lecture 24: ethical theory Lecture 25: modern misunderstandings of Heraclitus 6. Parmenides Lecture 26: Parmenides - early Pythagoreanism Lecture 27: the question of pure being Lecture 28: Parmenides' criticisms of Heraclitus Lecture 29: Eleatic paradoxes Lecture 30: the way of truth - change impossible Lecture 31: Pythagorean units corrected Lecture 32: criticisms of Parmenides Lecture 33: criticisms continued 7. Empedocles and Anaxagoras Lecture 33 continued: so-called Pluralists Lecture 34: Pluralists' reactions to Parmenides Lecture 35: difficulties in Empedocles and Anaxagoras 8. Melissus and Zeno Lecture 36: Eleatic responses to Pluralists - Melissus Lecture 37: Eleatic responses to Pluralists - Zeno Lecture 38: Zeno continued - the paradoxes Lecture 39: Zeno continued - the simple dilemma Part 2: Socrates, Plato and Aristotle 1. Introductory lectures Lecture 40: Socrates - Pythagoreans and Eleatics Lecture 41: doctrine of imitation - being and becoming Lecture 42: knowledge and opinion Lecture 43: influence of the physicists Lecture 44: Socrates continued - the dialogues 2. The Euthyphro and Apology Lecture 45: Euthyphro on piety Lecture 46: Euthyphro continued Lecture 47: Euthyphro - stages in the argument Lecture 48: Euthyphro continued Lecture 49: the Apology 3. The Phaedo and the Parmenides Lecture 50: the Phaedo - on soul and body Lecture 51: proofs of immortality - forms as external Lecture 52: the treatment of forms as predicates Lecture 53: Socratic consideration of propositions Lecture 54: the testing of hypotheses Lecture 55: Phaedo continued Lecture 56: Socratic theory of approximations Lecture 57: Phaedo continued Lecture 58: Socrates on nature of forms incomplete Lecture 59: Socrates twin doctrines in conflict Lecture 60: two conceptions of forms continued Lecture 61: the Parmenides - division of reality Lecture 62: universality and particularity 4. The Republic Lecture 63: introduction to the ethical theories Lecture 64: virtue and the arts Lecture 65: the Republic continued Lecture 66: Thrasymachus on justice Lecture 67: the art of ruling Lecture 68: justice and the form of the good Lecture 69: forms and natural kinds Lecture 70: the nature of the state Lecture 71: goodness as fulfilment of function Lecture 72: parts of the state and parts of the soul Lecture 73: consequences of the theory of justice 5. Aristotle's Nichomachean Ethics Lecture 74: the good life as that which is aimed at Lecture 75: Aristotle on the practical and happiness Lecture 76: Aristotle's theory of the mean Lecture 77: The goodness of character Lecture 78: Aristotle's emphasis on activities Lecture 79: Socratic philosophy and Butler's Sermons Lecture 80: comparisons with Butler continued Lecture 81: Butler concluded Appendix: books on Greek philosophy in the Anderson family collection Index