Chapter Three. Brucker’s Practice II: His Expositions Of Thales, Plato And Aristotle

This chapter focuses on Brucker's expositions of three early Greek thinkers, namely one Presocratic thinker, Thales of Miletus, and two major figures from classical Greek philosophy, Plato and Aristotle. It then deals with the following questions in relation to each of the three Ancient philosophers: (i) On which sources does Brucker base his account of each individual philosopher? (ii) Does Brucker attribute a system of philosophy to each of the three philosophers? If (ii) is answered positively, the chapter poses the following questions; (iii) which general principles are identified by Brucker in each of these three systems of philosophy? (iv) How does Brucker reconstruct their individual systems of philosophy? (v) Do the key elements in these reconstructions, e.g. general principles, have a solid, textual basis?Keywords: Aristotle; Brucker; Greek philosophy; Plato; Thales