Abstract

Furley’s book deals with two disparate, if ultimately relatable, themes: ‘Invisible Magnitudes’ and ‘Aristotle and Epicurus on Voluntary Action’. Both topics feature in Epicureanism. The first is concerned with the minimal parts of atoms and discusses the origins of the notion in, for example, Eleatic puzzles about divisibility, the atomism of Democritus and Aristotle’s continuum. The second topic deals with the familiar problem of free will and the ‘swerve’: here the author in his interpretation parts company with Bailey and Giussani. For him the Epicurean theory on this point is intended to be a correction of Aristotelianism. In brief in relation to both topics the author attempts to show that Epicureanism corrected Aristotle who had corrected the Atomists. The argument is well sustained and impressively documented.