This volume represents some of the activities of the Boston Area Colloquium in Ancient Philosophy from the academic year 1996-97. It contains eight colloquia which were hosted by seven different universities within the greater Boston area. The volume is dominated by discussions of the works of Plato, while there is one colloquium dedicated to Artistotle and another to Sophocles' Philoctetes. With regard to Plato, his notion of the philosopher-ruler gets most attention, while other topics discussed include his concept of thinking, the role which perplexity plays in his dialogues, his theory of sense perception in the Timaeus, and the image of the prisoners in the Republic. With respect to Aristotle there is a discussion of essence and necessity in his concept of science, while the paper on Sophocles discusses the related themes of friendship and virtue.

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Contributions by: Monique Dixsaut, Klaus Brinkmann, Christopher R. Matthews, Martin Andic, John Cooper, Phillip Mitsis, Robert Bolton, William Wians, Dana Miller, Nicholas Smith, David Roochnik, Malcolm Schofield, Rachana Kamteker, Julius Moravcsik, Luc Brisson, David Konstan