Classical Philosophy: A history of philosophy without any gaps, Volume 1

Citation

Adamson, P. (2016). Classical Philosophy: A History of Philosophy without Any Gaps, Volume 1. Oxford University Press. (First published 2014.)

Chapter Summary

The book is the first volume of a planned multi-volume history. The preface explains that it is built on the scripts of Adamson's History of Philosophy without Any Gaps podcast, launched in 2010, revised for print. Its aim is to tell the whole history of philosophy "in an entertaining but not over-simplified way". "Without any gaps" means avoiding the jump from highlight to highlight that university surveys often make, and showing how each thinker built on predecessors. The 43 short chapters, each roughly seven pages, fall into three parts. Every title pairs a playful heading with its subject ("Everything Is Full of Gods—Thales"). The front matter includes a note on references, a table of dates and a map; the back matter has notes, a further-reading section and an index.

Part I: Early Greek Philosophy

Chapters 1–4: Thales; Anaximander and Anaximenes; Xenophanes; Pythagoras

The volume opens with Thales of Miletus, whom the preface calls a candidate for the first philosopher, known to us only indirectly. It continues with the other Milesians, with Xenophanes' critique of gods "created in our image", and with Pythagoras. According to the author's description, the early cosmology is read partly as a response to the poets Homer and Hesiod.

Chapters 5–8: Heraclitus; Parmenides; The Eleatics; The Atomists

Heraclitus, Parmenides' "road less traveled", the Eleatic arguments that "you can't get there from here", and the atomists' "final cut".

Chapters 9–12: Anaxagoras; Empedocles; The Hippocratic Corpus; The Sophists

Anaxagoras on mind and mixture, and Empedocles on love and his other principles. A chapter on the Hippocratic Corpus follows: the preface says the ancient conception of philosophy was broad enough to include medicine. Part I closes with the Sophists and "making the weaker argument the stronger".

Part II: Socrates and Plato

Chapters 13–16: Socrates in Aristophanes and Xenophon; Plato's Socrates; Plato's Life and Writings; Two Unloved Dialogues

Socrates is approached first through the comic portrait by Aristophanes and the historical one by Xenophon. Then come the Socrates of Plato's dialogues and his method, Plato's life and writings, and two "unloved" dialogues on self-knowledge. The author's description names the Charmides among the less often read dialogues covered.

Chapters 17–22: Gorgias; Meno; Theaetetus; Phaedo; Justice in the Republic; The Cave Allegory

One chapter per major dialogue: virtue and rhetoric in the Gorgias, learning in the Meno, knowledge in the Theaetetus and Socrates' last words in the Phaedo. Two chapters cover the Republic: one on soul and city, one on the allegory of the cave.

Chapters 23–28: Parmenides and the Forms; Sophist; Cratylus; Timaeus; The Erotic Dialogues; Poetry and Myth

Plato's later and more technical works: second thoughts about the Forms in the Parmenides, not-being in the Sophist and names in the Cratylus. The acknowledgements say the Sophist chapter was written new for the book. Then come the cosmology of the Timaeus, the dialogues on love, and Plato on poetry and myth.

Part III: Aristotle

Chapters 29–33: Life and Works; Logical Works; Epistemology; Substance; The Four Causes

Aristotle's life and works, the logical works as "the philosopher's toolkit", his epistemology, substance, and the four causes.

Chapters 34–39: Natural Philosophy; On the Soul; Biology; Ethics; Pleasure and Friendship; Mind and God

Natural philosophy, the On the Soul, and a chapter on biology, which the preface singles out as an example of the volume's breadth. Two chapters treat the ethics, the "Goldilocks theory" of the mean and then pleasure and friendship. A chapter on mind and God follows.

Chapters 40–43: Political Philosophy; Rhetoric and Poetics; Women and Ancient Philosophy; The Followers of Plato and Aristotle

Aristotle's political philosophy and his Rhetoric and Poetics. A chapter on women and ancient philosophy, which the acknowledgements say was added at the suggestion of Sandrine Bergès. The volume ends with the next generation of Platonists and Aristotelians.

Key Concepts

Part I: Early Greek Philosophy

• Indirect transmission: most early Greek thought survives only through later reports and manuscripts copied over centuries, which shapes what can be known about it.
• Philosophy in a broad sense: the ancient conception included what is now called science and medicine, hence the chapter on the Hippocratic Corpus.
• Sophistic argument: the practice associated with the Sophists of "making the weaker argument the stronger".

Part II: Socrates and Plato

• Socratic method: the questioning practice of Plato's Socrates, set against other ancient portraits of him.
• Forms: Plato's theory of Forms and its later self-criticism in the Parmenides.
• Soul and city: the parallel in the Republic between justice in the individual soul and justice in the city.

Part III: Aristotle

• Substance: Aristotle's account of what most fundamentally exists.
• The four causes: the kinds of explanation Aristotle distinguishes, tied to form and function.
• The mean: the ethical doctrine of virtue as an intermediate, which Adamson calls the "Goldilocks theory".

Critical Analysis

Strengths

• Continuous story with context. The preface stresses that political, social and religious forces shaped how philosophy developed and how it was transmitted. A Library Journal review noted that the chapters are connected by Adamson's attention to how philosophers influenced their successors.
• Coverage beyond the usual canon. The table of contents gives chapters to the Hippocratic Corpus, to Aristotle's biology, to less popular Platonic dialogues and to women in ancient philosophy. These are topics that, as the preface says, students may not meet even in intensive university study.
• Short, readable chapters. Each chapter runs to about seven pages and stands as a unit. The Library Journal reviewer called the writing casual yet engaging, and the publisher stresses that the book is meant for readers new to the subject.
• Designed as a guide to the texts. The preface compares the volume to a guidebook to a foreign country. It urges readers to go on to Plato and Aristotle themselves and points to further reading and to recorded interviews with specialists on the podcast website.

Limitations

• Stops at Aristotle's followers. Hellenistic philosophy (Stoics, Epicureans, sceptics) is left to the second volume, so a full ancient philosophy course needs other reading for the period after Aristotle.
• Breadth limits depth. Seven pages per dialogue or topic cannot settle interpretive debates. The preface itself admits that "without any gaps" is more an aspiration than a promise.
• One author's perspective. The acknowledgements encourage readers to listen to the podcast interviews for "additional, or alternative" perspectives, a reminder that the book gives a single interpreter's view.

Where It Fits in the Course

In the ancient philosophy course this is the most accessible narrative survey, a good companion from the first week. It works as background for the primary texts: Cooper's Plato: Complete Works and Irwin's translation of the Nicomachean Ethics can be read dialogue by dialogue alongside the matching chapters in Parts II and III. For the Presocratics, Catherine Osborne's Presocratic Philosophy: A Very Short Introduction is a brief alternative way in, while Kirk, Raven and Schofield's The Presocratic Philosophers prints the fragments in Greek and English with scholarly commentary. It is the natural next step after Adamson's Part I for anyone who wants to work with the evidence.

Long and Sedley's The Hellenistic Philosophers is a sourcebook for the Epicureans, Stoics and sceptics, the period that this volume leaves to its sequel. Students moving on to it should know that Adamson's volume ends with the immediate followers of Plato and Aristotle.

How to Use This Book

No previous study of philosophy or of the ancient world is assumed. Read the preface first for the "without any gaps" approach and the note on references, and keep the dates table and map at hand. Each short chapter can be read in one sitting, before the class on that thinker or text.

For a course built around Plato and Aristotle, the core is Chapters 13–28 and 29–41. Chapters 21–22 on the Republic and 37–38 on the ethics pair naturally with the set texts. Chapters 1–12 suit a unit on the Presocratics and Sophists. The more unusual chapters, on the Hippocratic Corpus, Aristotle's biology and women in ancient philosophy, are good starting points for essays off the beaten track.

As the preface urges, treat the book as an invitation to the primary sources: after each chapter, read the dialogue or treatise it discusses. Use the further-reading section to find scholarly work for essays. The podcast interviews at historyofphilosophy.net offer second opinions on many of the same topics.