Luke and the Politics of Homeric Imitation: Luke-Acts as Rival to the Aeneid argues that the author of Luke-Acts composed not a history but a foundation mythology to rival Vergil's Aeneid by adopting and ethically emulating the cultural capital of classical Greek poetry, especially Homer's Iliad and Odyssey and Euripides's Bacchae. For example, Vergil and, more than a century later, Luke both imitated Homer's account of Zeus's lying dream to Agamemnon, Priam's escape from Achilles, and Odysseus's shipwreck and visit to the netherworld. Both Vergil and Luke, as well as many other intellectuals in the Roman Empire, engaged the great poetry of the Greeks to root new social or political realities in the soil of ancient Hellas, but they also rivaled Homer's gods and heroes to create new ones that were more moral, powerful, or compassionate. One might say that the genre of Luke-Acts is an oxymoron: a prose epic. If this assessment is correct, it holds enormous importance for understanding Christian origins, in part because one may no longer appeal to the Acts of the Apostles for reliable historical information. Luke was not a historian any more than Vergil was, and, as the Latin bard had done for the Augustine age, he wrote a fictional portrayal of the kingdom of God and its heroes, especially Jesus and Paul, who were more powerful, more ethical, and more compassionate than the gods and heroes of Homer and Euripides or those of Vergil's Aeneid.

This volume offers a comprehensive survey of the main periods, schools, and individual proponents of scepticism in the ancient Greek and Roman world. The contributors examine the major developments chronologically and historically, ranging from the early antecedents of scepticism to the Pyrrhonist tradition. They address the central philosophical and interpretive problems surrounding the sceptics' ideas on subjects including belief, action, and ethics. Finally, they explore the effects which these forms of scepticism had beyond the ancient period, and the ways in which ancient scepticism differs from scepticism as it has been understood since Descartes. The volume will serve as an accessible and wide-ranging introduction to the subject for non-specialists, while also offering considerable depth and detail for more advanced readers.

Philo of Alexandria's Ethical Discourse: Living in the Power of Piety proposes a fresh approach to better understand Philo's ethics exploring the virtue of piety. In this exceptionally well-researched book, Nelida Naveros Cordova analyzes five major uses of piety in Philo's treatises- piety and the Decalogue; piety as a foundational virtue; piety as the opposite of impiety; the practice of piety, and the relationship between piety and love of humanity. Naveros carefully examines each of these five uses within both the Hellenistic Jewish and Greek philosophical traditions, focusing particularly on piety's primary role in Philo's teaching about the acquisition of virtues and the avoidance of vices. Naveros argues that in his ethical discourse, Philo incorporates language familiar in ancient Greek philosophical ethical systems to attribute qualities and powers to the virtue of piety. This book illustrates the way Philo moves beyond both Hellenistic Jewish and Greek philosophical traditions by comprehensively showing how he develops the place of piety, from being a subordinate virtue in Greek catalogue of virtues to becoming a foundational virtue. Naveros brings evidence from ancient Greco-Roman and major Hellenistic Jewish texts as well as modern secondary literature in order to argue and support a plausible case for the understanding of Philo's unique configuration of his own ethical discourse, his view of virtue ethics, and his philosophical stance. To date, this is an original study on Philo's ethics, and the first to offer the fullest evaluation of piety within the categories of ancient ethical systems.

Brad Inwood presents a selection of his most influential essays on the philosophy of Seneca, the Roman Stoic thinker, statesman, and tragedian of the first century AD. Including two brand-new pieces, and a helpful introduction to orient the reader, this volume will be an essential guide for anyone seeking to understand Seneca's fertile, wide-ranging thought and its impact on subsequent generations. In each of these essays Seneca is considered as a philosopher, but with as much account as possible taken of his life, his education, his intellectual and literary background, his career, and his self-presentation as an author. Seneca emerges as a discerning and well-read Stoic, with a strong inclination to think for himself in the context of an intellectual climate teeming with influences from other schools. Seneca's intellectual engagement with Platonism, Aristotelianism, and even with Epicureanism involved a wide range of substantial philosophical interests and concerns. His philosophy was indeed shaped by the fact that he was a Roman, but he was a true philosopher shaped by his culture rather than a Roman writer trying his hand at philosophical themes. The highly rhetorical character of his writing must be accounted for when reading his works, and when one does so the underlying philosophical themes stand out more clearly. While it is hard to generalize about an overall intellectual agenda or systematic philosophical method, key themes and strategies are evident. Inwood shows how Seneca's philosophical ingenium worked itself out in a fundamentally particularistic way as he pursued those aspects of Stoicism that engaged him most forcefully over his career.

Collected here in two volumes are the complete works of Plato, in the classic translation by Benjamin Jowett. One of the most influential thinkers of Ancient Greece or any other era, Plato formed the basis of Western philosophy. Mostly written in the form of dialogues with his teacher Socrates as the protagonist, his works address themes as varied as metaphysics, psychology, pedagogy, politics, and ethics. Despite the weighty subject matter, Plato's writing remains accessible to the general reader, and infused with wit and humor. Why is Plato worth reading today? His dialogues are vitally concerned with how we should live. His arguments always have an engagement with life. He combines the logical rigor of a philosopher with the imagination and artistry of a poet. In short, despite the passage of thousands of years, Plato remains relevant and compelling.

Grounded in a lifetime of research and interpretive work and informed by careful study of recent archaeological discoveries of alternate versions of the text, Brook Ziporyn, one of the preeminent explicators of Eastern religions in English, brings us a revelatory new translation-and a radical reinterpretation-of the central text of Taoist thought. Ziporyn offers an alternative to the overly comforting tone of so many translations, revealing instead the electrifying strangeness and explosively unsettling philosophical implications of this famously ambiguous work. In Ziporyn's hands, this is no mere "wisdom book" of anodyne affirmations or mildly diverting brain-teasers-this pathbreaking Daodejing will forever change how the text is read and understood in the West.

This is the first book-length study of Philo (159-84 BC), the principal philosophical teacher of Cicero. Charles Brittain reconstructs the Platonic Academy's gradual rejection of scepticism under Philo's leadership, which prepared the way for the revival of Platonism in the first century AD. The Appendix contains a full collection of the testimonia and 'fragments' of Philo.

Nine leading scholars of ancient philosophy from Europe, the UK, and North America offer a systematic study of Book Beta of Aristotle's Metaphysics. The work takes the form of a series of aporiai or "difficulties" which Aristotle presents as necessary points of engagement for those who wish to attain wisdom. The topics include causation, substance, constitution, properties, predicates, and generally the ontology of both the perishable and the imperishable world. Each contributor discusses one or two of these aporiai in sequence: the result is a discursive commentary on this seminal text of Western philosophy.

The unforeseeably complex socio-economic and environmental challenges of the 21st century must be tackled by placing faith in the power of mankind to integrate established wisdom and new knowledge, and in our ability to collaborate for a sustainable future. Departing from this, a global 2011 conference debating papers devoted to the impact of ancient philosophy, focusing on Confucius and Aristotle, in modern leadership and management was organized by Hanban, the Athens University of Economics & Business, and the University of International Economics & Business, Beijing, China. A rich sourcebook for a broad audience, this unique volume presents the wide array of conference contributions by international thought-leaders. Departing from a foundation of general concepts of ethics and leadership the book then delves into questions about how philosophy shape emerging economic and business systems, to end with direct lessons from ancient philosophy for contemporary business challenges.

Thomas Eisele explores the premise that the Socratic method of inquiry need not teach only negative lessons (showing us what we do not know, but not what we do know). Instead, Eisele contends, the Socratic method is cyclical: we start negatively by recognizing our illusions, but end positively through a process of recollection performed in response to our disillusionment, which ultimately leads to renewal. Thus, a positive lesson about our resources as philosophical investigators, as students and teachers, becomes available to participants in Socrates' robust conversational inquiry.

"Bitter Knowledge "includes Eisele's detailed readings of Socrates' teaching techniques in three fundamental Platonic dialogues, "Protagoras, Meno," and "Theaetetus," as well as his engagement with contemporary authorities such as Gregory Vlastos, Martha Nussbaum, and Stanley Cavell. Written in a highly engaging and accessible style, this book will appeal to students and scholars in philosophy, classics, law, rhetoric, and education.

"This book is original, fresh, and of very high quality, opening up these Platonic texts, central to Western culture, in new ways. In addition, it establishes a method that others can use and apply to the other dialogues. It would be a wonderful text to assign in courses in philosophy, basic humanities, education, and law." --James Boyd White, University of Michigan

"Through his thoughtful and incisive readings of Plato, Thomas Eisele puts Socrates in a new light. In Eisele's hands, Socrates offers us a method not simply for philosophy but for the challenges of life and mind. This superb book builds on the great readings of Plato, adding to the richness of our understanding of the enigmatic figure of Socrates. These are profound readings of Plato." --Dennis Patterson, Rutgers University School of Law

"Eisele's book is much more than an erudite, seductive, and imaginative exploration of three central Platonic dialogues. It is also a fine general treatment of philosophy, discussing the kind of finality or closure to which philosophical questions are susceptible and the appropriate stance of the inquirer. It considers the pedagogy of philosophy and law brilliantly." --Thomas Morawetz, University of Connecticut School of Law

This book, originally published in 1991, sets forth the assumptions about thought and language that made falsehood seem so problematic to Plato and his contemporaries, and expounds the solution that Plato finally reached in the Sophist. Free from untranslated Greek, the book is accessible to all studying ancient Greek philosophy. As a well-documented case study of a definitive advance in logic, metaphysics and epistemology, the book will also appeal to philosophers generally.

In The Beginning of Knowledge, Gadamer reminds us that philosophy for the Greeks was not just a question of metaphysics and epistemology but encompassed cosmology, physics, mathematics, medicine, and the entire reach of theoretical curiosity and intellectual mastery. Whereas his book The Beginning of Philosophy dealt with the inception of philosophical inquiry, this new book brings together nearly all of GadamerAEs previously published but never translated essays on the Presocratics. Beginning with a hermeneutical and philological investigation of the Heraclitus fragments (1974 and 1990), he then moves on to a discussion of the Greek Atomists (1935) and the Presocratic cosmologists (1964). In the last two essays (1978 and 1994/95), Gadamer elaborates on the profound debt that modern scientific thinking owes to the Greek philosophical tradition

The Psychoanalysis of Overcoming Suffering: Flourishing Despite Pain offers a guide to understanding and working with a range of everyday causes of suffering from a psychoanalytic perspective. The book delineates some of the underappreciated, everyday facets of the troubling and challenging psychological experiences associated with love, work, faith, mental anguish, old age, and psychotherapeutic caregiving. Examining both the suffering of the patient and therapist, Paul Marcus provides pragmatic insights for changing one's way of being to make suffering sufferable. Written in a rich but accessible style, one that draws from ancient wisdom and spirituality, The Psychoanalysis of Overcoming Suffering provides an essential guide for psychoanalysts and psychotherapists and their clients, and will also appeal to anyone who is interested in understanding how we suffer, why we suffer and what we can do about it.

This book analyses the diverse ways in which women have been represented in the Puranic traditions in ancient India - the virtuous wife, mother, daughter, widow, and prostitute - against the socio-religious milieu around CE 300-1000. Puranas (lit. ancient narratives) are brahmanical texts that largely fall under the category of socio-religious literature which were more broad-based and inclusive, unlike the Smrtis, which were accessible mainly to the upper sections of society. In locating, identifying, and commenting on the multiplicity of the images and depictions of women's roles in Puranic traditions, the author highlights their lives and experiences over time, both within and outside the traditional confines of the domestic sphere. With a focus on five Mahapuranas that deal extensively with the social matrix Visnu, Markandeya Matsya, Agni, and Bhagavata Puranas, the book explores the question of gender and agency in early India and shows how such identities were recast, invented, shaped, constructed, replicated, stereotyped, and sometimes reversed through narratives. Further, it traces social consequences and contemporary relevance of such representations in marriage, adultery, ritual, devotion, worship, fasts, and pilgrimage. This volume will be of interest to researchers and scholars in women and gender studies, ancient Indian history, religion, sociology, literature, and South Asian studies, as also the informed general reader.

The Symposium is Plato's dramatic masterpiece, his most perfect work and arguably his most seminal dialogue. Its influence on the minds of Europe, from Plotinus to Proust, is everywhere in evidence. Yet today when we talk of Platonic love we are not near Plato's conception. This translation aims to recover the sense of Plato's original idea.

Collected in this volume are some of the most important articles published on the philosophy of the Greeks before Socrates. They cover: The nature of Presocratic thought The sources of our knowledge of the Presocratics The earliest philosophers up to Heraclitus

Aristotle (384 - 322 B.C.) taught logic to Alexander the Great and, by virtue of his philosophical works, to every philosopher since, from Marcus Aurelius, to Thomas Aquinas, to Mortimer J. Adler. Now Adler instructs the world in the "uncommon common sense" of Aristotelian logic, presenting Aristotle's understandings in a current, delightfully lucid way. He brings Aristotle's work to an everyday level. By encouraging readers to think philosophically, Adler offers us a unique path to personal insights and understanding of intangibles, such as the difference between wants and needs, the proper way to pursue happiness, and the right plan for a good life.

This concise anthology of primary sources designed for use in an ancient philosophy survey ranges from the Presocratics to Plato, Aristotle, the Hellenistic philosophers, and the Neoplatonists. The Second Edition features an amplified selection of Presocratic fragments in newly revised translations by Richard D. McKirahan. Also included is an expansion of the Hellenistic unit, featuring new selections from Lucretius and Sextus Empiricus as well as a new translation, by Peter J. Anderson, of most of Seneca's De Providentia . The selections from Plotinus have also been expanded.

This book presents a positive account of Aristotle's theory of political economy, arguing that it contains elements that may help us better understand and resolve contemporary social and economic problems. The book considers how Aristotle's work has been utilized by scholars including Marx, Polanyi, Rawls, Nussbaum and Sen to develop solutions to the problem of injustice. It then goes on to present a new Social Welfare Function (SWF) as an application of Aristotle's theory. In exploring how Aristotle's theories can be applied to contemporary social welfare analysis, the book offers a study that will be of relevance to scholars of the history of economic thought, political theory and the philosophy of economics.

First published in 1991, this book - through the examination of ancient Greek literary, philosophical and legal texts - analyses how the Athenian torture of slaves emerged from and reinforced the concept of truth as something hidden in the human body. It discusses the tradition of understanding truth as something that is generally concealed and the ideas of 'secret space' in both the female body and the Greek temple. This philosophy and practice is related to Greek views of the 'Other' (women and outsiders) and considers the role of torture in distinguishing slave and free in ancient Athens. A wide range of perspectives - from Plato to Sartre - are employed to examine the subject.

A chronological guide to influential Greek and Roman writers, Fifty Key Classical Authors is an invaluable introduction to the literature, philosophy and history of the ancient world. Including essays on Sappho, Polybius and Lucan, as well as on major figures such as Homer, Plato, Catullus and Cicero, this book is a vital tool for all students of classical civilization.

The ancient philosophical school of Epicureanism tried to argue that death is "nothing to us." Were they right? James Warren provides a comprehensive study and articulation of the interlocking arguments against the fear of death found not only in the writings of Epicurus himself, but also in Lucretius' poem De rerum natura and in Philodemus' work De morte. These arguments are central to the Epicurean project of providing ataraxia (freedom from anxiety) and therefore central to an understanding of Epicureanism as a whole. They also offer significant resources for modern discussions of the value of death--one which stands at the intersection of metaphysics and ethics. If death is the end of the subject, and the subject can not be benefited nor harmed after death, is it reasonable nevertheless to fear the ceasing-to-be? If the Epicureans are not right to claim that the dead can neither be benefited nor harmed, what alternative models might be offered for understanding the harm done by death and do these alternatives suffer from any further difficulties? The discussion involves consideration of both ethical and metaphysical topics since it requires analysis not only of the nature of a good life but also the nature of personal identity and time. A number of modern philosophers have offered criticisms or defences of the Epicureans' views. Warren explores and evaluates these in the light of a systematic and detailed study of the precise form and intention of the Epicureans' original arguments.
Warren argues that the Epicureans also were interested in showing that mortality is not to be regretted and that premature death is not to be feared. Their arguments for these conclusions are to be found in their positive conception of the nature of a good and complete life, which divorce the completeness of a life as far as possible from considerations of its duration. Later chapters investigate the nature of a life lived without the fear of death and pose serious problems for the Epicureans being able to allow any concern for the post mortem future and being able to offer a positive reason for prolonging a life which is already complete in their terms.

Euripides and the Boundaries of the Human presents the first single volume reading in nearly fifty years of all of Euripides' surviving plays. Rather than the piece meal examination of one or a handful of dramas in monograph or article form, the book insists on the thematic and stylistic parallels that unite a diverse canon of works. Euripides is often referred to as the most modern of the three Ancient Greek Tragedians, but in what way can the work of this fifth century BC artist be claimed as modern? The multi layered presentation of character is new within the context of Athenian Tragedy. The plays reveal also equal concern with the preservation and re-vitalization of tradition, especially with respect to the portrayal of the Olympian gods. Euripidean drama upholds tradition just as vigorously as it posits a new kind of realism in character portrayal in the Ancient Theatre. Euripidean drama fuses what was old with what was new in order to revitalize and perpetuate the art of tragedy. This book will be of interest to professionals and students in the fields of Classics, Greek Drama in Translation or the original Greek, Theatre Studies, Comparative Literature, Tragedy and Religion.