G. R. Boys-Stones is Professor of Classics and Philosophy at the University of Toronoto. He was previously Professor of Ancient Philosophy at the University of Durham, and founding Co-Director of the Durham Centre for Ancient and Medieval Philosophy.

• Part I:. Ancient Wisdom: Stoic Exegesis


• 1: The Outlook of Primitive Man: Beginnings of a Theory


• 2: The Recovery of Primitive Wisdom in Early Stoicism


• 3: Primitive Wisdom and Stoic Exegesis after Posidonius


• 4: Antiquity in Graeco-Egyptian Anti-Semitism


• 5: Antiquity in Jewish Apologetic


• Part II: Ancient Tradition: Post-Hellenistic Philosophy


• 6: The Authority of Plato and Primitive Wisdom


• 7: Divergence and Disagreement: The Platonist Alternative to Scepticism


• 8: The Invention of Hebraeo-Christian Orthodoxy


• 9: The 'Dependency Theme'

This study argues that a revolution in the approach to philosophy took place during the first centuries of our era. Covering topics in Stoicism, Hellenistic antisemitism and Jewish apologetic, Platonism, and early Christian philosophy, it examines a trend to seek for the truth in antiquity which shaped the future course of Western thought.