The Return of Innatism
Epistemology in Post-Hellenistic and Late Antique Philosophy
Paperback (Forthcoming)
(December 2026)
ISBN: 9782503626710
Price: $82.00
This volume explores epistemological issues and debates in post-Hellenistic and late antique philosophy.
This volume investigates the development of epistemological debates in post-Hellenistic and late antique philosophy, with particular attention to the enduring influence exerted by Hellenistic reflections on the nature of knowledge and the process of knowledge acquisition on later philosophical movements in the Greco-Roman tradition. Hellenistic thinkers placed the question of the possibility and foundation of knowledge at the forefront of philosophical inquiry, developing sophisticated theories to describe how it is possible to attain knowledge and to neutralize sceptical threats starting from a secure empirical basis able to provide infallible criteria of truth. The aim of the volume is to shed new light on the elements of continuity and influence—and not only of transformation or rupture—between the rich epistemological discussions of the Hellenistic era and later theorizing about knowledge and associated forms of cognition, both within the same schools of thought and across rival schools. The progressive reappearance of anti-empirical, rationalist theories of knowledge and the dominance acquired by dogmatic Platonism over competing philosophical movements led to the return of innatism and of the doctrine of recollection of inborn, latent cognitive contents as the prevailing epistemological framework in late antiquity. Yet, as the studies collected here show, this prevalent trend does not entail a simple rejection or neglect of the Hellenistic heritage, but rather a critical confrontation and, at times, a polemical appropriation of some central epistemological tenets developed by the Hellenistic schools.
Other Titles in this Series
La statut de la perception sensible dans les Questions a Thalassios de Maxime le Confesseur
Volume 31
Scepticisme et religion
Constantes et evolutions, de la philosophie hellenistique a la philosophie medievale
Volume 21
To See into the Life of Things
The Contemplation of Nature in Maximus the Confessor and his Predecessors
Volume 18
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