The Cambridge Companion to Greek and Roman Philosophy (Cambridge Companions to Philosophy)

This volume does not aim to reveal all of the mysteries of ancient philosophy to the novice, but it does aim to equip that reader with enough background material that he will be able to enter that world. Twelve overviews, each written by an authority in that area of philosophy, guides the reader through the principal schools of thought and the ideas of their main proponents. Concepts are sometimes explained in tables and are always supported by extracts but the main attraction of this work is that the contributors explain in layman's terms the basic ideas of philosophy and discuss clearly the logic of the ancient arguments. The book gets off to a good start with David Sedley's introduction which argues that Greek and Roman philosophers were mainly concerned with two dilemmas: what is a good life and why doesn't the earth fall. Includes a useful glossary.