Language and Nature in the Classical Roman World

Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2019.

Verlinsky Alexander

Under the general editorship: G. Pezzini, B. Taylor

A familiar theme in Greek philosophy, largely due to the influence of Plato's Cratylus, linguistic naturalism (the notion that linguistic facts, structures or behaviour are in some significant sense determined by nature) constitutes a major but under-studied area of Roman linguistic thought. Indeed, it holds significance not only for the history of linguistics but also for philosophy, stylistics, rhetoric and more. The chapters in this volume deal with a range of naturalist theories in a variety of authors including Cicero, Varro, Nigidius Figulus, Posidonius, and Dionysius of Halicarnassus. The result is a complex and multi-faceted picture of how language and nature were believed to interrelate in the classical Roman worl

Chapters

Posidonius’ Linguistic Naturalism and Its Philosophical Pedigree

Verlinsky Alexander, , in: Language and Nature in the Classical Roman World.: Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2019. Ch. 1 P. 15–45.

The importance of Posidonius of Apamea (c.  c.  BC) for the Roman intellectual life of the late Republic and the Empire (especially in its first two centuries) can hardly be overestimated.His philosophical and scientific work, of which we now have only fragments, ranged from the traditional fields of Stoicism natural philosophy, logic, ethics (includingmoral psychology) to the painstaking ...

Added: July 2, 2025

Keywords: ancient philosophy, classical studies