R. J. Hankinson traces the history of ancient Greek thinking about causation and explanation, from its earliest beginnings through more than a thousand years to the middle of the first millennium of the Christian era. He examines ways in which the Ancient Greeks dealt with questions about how and why things happen as and when they do, about the basic constitution and structure of things, about function and purpose, laws of nature, chance, coincidence, and responsibility.

The Sceptics is the first comprehensive, up-to-date treatment of Greek scepticism, from the beginnings of epistemology with Xenophanes, to the final full development of Pyrrhonism as presented in the work of Sextus Empiricus. Tracing the evolution of scepticism from 500 B.C to A.D 200, this clear and rigorous analysis presents the arguments of the Greek sceptics in their historical context and provides an in-depth study of the various strands of the sceptical tradition.

This new edition of a short but fascinating text by Galen on causal theory contains the first translation of it into any modern language, and the first philosophical commentary thereon. The commentary ranges widely in Galen's oeuvre and compares his views with those of other ancient theorists. The introduction deals in detail with Galen's life and work, with both the philosophical and medieval background to his causal theory, and with the history of the text itself.