Dream Your Life Away

This book forms a major contribution to the discussion on fate, providence, and moral responsibility in antiquity, the Middle Ages and early modern times. The thirty-seven chapters of this book cover the history of the philosophical problems of freedom and determinism since its origins in pre-Socratic philosophy up to the seventeenth century. The main focus points are classic Antiquity (Plato and Aristotle), the Neoplatonic synthesis of late Antiquity (Plotinus, Proclus, Simplicius), and thirteenth-century scholasticism (Thomas Aquinas, Henry of Ghent). These points not only represent key moments in the intellectual history of the West, but also feature the central figures and periods to which Carlos Steel has devoted his philosophical career.