Abstract

In spite of the subject matter, however, Nightingale takes pains to explain that she does not intend to be doing philosophy per se. She is not offering a “philosophical analysis” of the epistemology of Plato and Aristotle, but rather an investigation of “the foundational construction of theoretical philosophy in its intellectual and its cultural context”. Likewise, although she admits to exploring “the philosophical and historical ramifications” of Plato and Aristotle’s appropriation of theoria, Nightingale’s emphasis is more sociological and political than philosophical—witness her recurrent theme of Plato and Aristotle’s trying to package and sell their version of theoria to the aristocratic segment of Greece.