One of the most significant cultural achievements of Late Antiquity lies in the domains of philosophy and religion, more particularly in the establishment and development of Neoplatonism as one of the chief vehicles of thought and subsequent channel for the transmission of ancient philosophy to the medieval and renaissance worlds. Important, too, is the emergence of a distinctive Christian philosophy and theology based on a foundation of Greek pagan thought. This book provides an introduction to the main ideas of Neoplatonism and some of the ways in which they influenced Christian thinkers.

"One should not take up the Laws as a plan for a new society nor as a means to critique one's own nation and its customs. Indeed, the Laws benefits most those readers who are comfortable in their lover for and allegiance to the standards and institutions of their time and place. Perhaps this claim sounds surprising. But it should surprise only those who believe that love and loyalty are deep set obstacles to thought and reflections. In contrast, such attachments, and not their facile critique, are precisely what lead us to take a healthy interest in and reflect fruitfully upon other people's ways. The characters of the Laws recognize this truth as well. They recommend that the highest body of the new city, a council of thinkers and legislators, young and old, should regularly send spies to other nations, to search out the "beauties" in their foreign habits, beauties that might-or might not-be able to be transplanted back to the council's city. The following study of the Laws attempts to do something of the same thing, to read Plato's dialogue as, in effect, a foreign country, through which readers are led as if they were on a mission for our own Nocturnal Council." -Albert Keith Whitaker, from the Introduction

Socrates is one of the most influential philosophers in western civilisation, and Plato his most famous pupil. The Euthyphro, Apology of Socrates, Crito and the death scene from the Phaedo are Plato's account of Socrates' trial and execution, and together they provide the most important depiction of Socrates' ideas.
In this GuideBook, Brickhouse and Smith provide clear explanations of these texts for students coming to them for the first time. Situating the works in their historical context, the authors carefully go through each text, exploring the philosophical issues raised in an accessible way.
Plato and the Trial of Socrates is the ideal introduction to both the ideas of Socrates and the work of Plato.

Richard Sorabji presents a fascinating study of Gandhi's philosophy in comparison with Christian and Stoic thought. Sorabji shows that Gandhi was a true philosopher. He not only aimed to give a consistent self-critical rationale for his views, but also thought himself obliged to live by what he taught-something that he had in common with the ancient Greek and Christian ethical traditions. Understanding his philosophy helps with re-assessing the consistency of his positions and life. Gandhi was less influenced by the Stoics than by Socrates, Christ, Christian writers, and Indian thought. But whereas he re-interpreted those, he discovered the congeniality of the Stoics too late to re-process them. They could supply even more of the consistency he sought. He could show them the effect of putting their unrealised ideals into actual practice. They from the Cynics, he from the Bhagavadgita, learnt the indifference of most objectives. But both had to square that with their love for all humans and their political engagement. Indifference was to both a source of freedom. Gandhi was converted to non-violence by Tolstoy's picture of Christ. But he addressed the sacrifice it called for, and called even protective killing violent. He was nonetheless not a pacifist, because he recognized the double-bind of rival duties, and the different duties of different individuals, which was a Stoic theme. For both Gandhi and the Stoics it accompanied doubts about universal rules. Sorabji's expert understanding of these ethical traditions allows him to offer illuminating new perspectives on a key intellectual figure of the modern world, and to show the continuing resonance of ancient philosophical ideas.

It had been thought that theCleitophon was a spurious dialogue. Its brevity and the fact that Socrates does not respond to accusations from Cleitophon suggested to scholars that it was only a fragment. However, in the last fifteen years, the complete and authentic dialogue was rediscovered. Upon its discovery, scholars have almost universally agreed that the Cleitophon is the introduction to Plato'sRepublic. In Plato's Cleitophon: On Socrates and the Modern Mind editor, translator, and author, Mark Kremer, has mined some of the best scholarship on the relationship of Plato's Cleitophon and its relationship to modern thought. It is the contention of the editor that the Cleitophon, is an ancient example of the psychic, social, cultural, and moral strain that is put upon the citizens of a republic when their society begins to erode on all fronts. This work has the potential to afford readers an ancient perspective on ourselves by showing us how we appear in Plato's mind. It should be read by anyone who has ever read Plato'sRepublic; as well as anyone who is concerned about the social, psychic, cultural, and moral effects of postmodernity and globalization.

How to live a better life. One of the most important books on Western philosophy - a powerful and inspirational guide for the complicated world of today 'Refreshing and restorative' GUARDIAN 'An ancient work of spiritual reflection which remains a powerful reminder of how we could live a more dignified life by avoiding deceit, vanity and greed' OK MAGAZINE Few ancient works have been as influential as the MEDITATIONS of Marcus Aurelius. Filled with wisdom, practical guidance, and profound understanding of human behaviour, it remains one of the greatest works of spiritual and ethical reflection ever written. Marcus's insights and advice - on everything from living in the world to coping with adversity and interacting with others - have made the MEDITATIONS required reading for statesmen and philosophers alike, while generations of ordinary readers have responded to the straightforward intimacy of his style. In Gregory Hays's translation Marcus's thoughts speak with a new immediacy. Never before have Marcus's insights been so directly and powerfully presented.

This collection of essays focuses on the reception of Plato and Greek political thought in the work of some major (pre)Victorian classical scholars and expands on a remarkable range of hotly debated issues on the interpretation of Greek antiquity. The central figure in this volume is the radical philosopher, utilitarian, and Platonist George Grote, whose works on the history of Greece and Plato moved away from traditional models of classical interpretation. His works and their background are critically explored in light of his philosophical commitment and political radicalism. Article IV brings to light a forgotten manuscript by Grote, "On the Character of Socrates," produced in the 1820s. Grote sought to counter the current literature on ancient Greece and its predominant motifs, which is here examined in its own right along with an independent study on Bishop Connop Thirlwall's influential History of Greece. The second half of this volume is devoted to analyzing important aspects of the revival of Platonic studies in the ideological and discursive context of early and middle Victorian times. This collection of essays presents comprehensive and illuminating contextual analyses of nineteenth-century works on classical reception, providing simultaneously a rich bibliographic guide to further research.

This work offers the first complete reinterpretation of Empedocles - one of the founding figures of Western philosophy - since the publication of the Strasbourg papyrus in 1999 brought new fragments of his lost work to light. Simon Trépanier reconstructs a single original philosophical poem, against previous interpretations which allocate our extant fragments on two works: a religious poem, The Purifications, and a scientific poem, On Nature.
The resulting single work is best understood as a philosophical masterpiece whose function was to persuade the hearer of a radically new conception of the universe, one that combined a belief in reincarnation and afterlife judgment with a rigorous and uncompromising physics, both conceived in response to puzzles about thought and Being. While remaining sensitive to philological detail and the full range of available evidence, this study presents a revolutionary approach to a challenging author. The unity of his thought, now discernible for the first time, allows Empedocles a more coherent

How can citizens be persuaded to voluntarily obey good laws? Randall Baldwin Clark addresses this question by looking at one of the oldest works ever to pose it: Plato's Laws. The Law Most Beautiful and Best explores one of the most striking metaphors in the Laws: the suggestion that the gentle and persuasive bedside manner that characterizes rational medicine should serve as the model for political persuasion. Clark's careful reading of the Laws challenges traditional interpretations of this metaphor, emphasizing instead the way the dialogue subtly reasserts the efficacy of the magical arts. Just as the Athenian stranger treats his patients with a combination of rational and irrational therapies, so too must the philosophical reader should he wish to preserve his city's health be willing to avail himself of both the gentle persuasion of reasoned discourse and the enchanting coercion of irrational rhetoric. Both a close examination of the Laws and a thoughtful approach to an ageless political dilemma, The Law Most Beautiful and Best is essential reading for scholars interested in jurisprudence, classics, rhetoric, and political science."

C.C.W. Taylor presents a selection of his essays in ancient philosophy, drawn from forty years of writings on the subject. The central theme of the volume is the moral psychology of Plato and Aristotle, with a special focus on pleasure and related concepts, an area central to Greek ethical thought. Taylor also discusses Socrates and the Greek atomists (including the Epicureans), showing how Plato's ethics grows out of the thought of Socrates, and that pleasure is also a central concept for the atomists.
Pleasure, Mind, and Soul provides a fascinating survey of a range of important topics in the work of some of the greatest ancient philosophers, and which remain the subject of lively philosophical debate today.

Tatian is a significant figure in the early Church, his work both representing and revealing his second century context. This study offers a detailed exploration of his thought. It is also a valuable introduction to the entire period, particularly the key developments it witnessed in Christianity.
Emily Hunt examines a wide range of topics in depth: Tatian's relationship with Justin Martyr and his Oration to the Greeks; the Apologetic attempt to defend and define Christianity against the Graeco-Roman world, and Christian use of hellenistic philosophy. Tatian was accused of heresy after his death, and this work sees him at the heart of the orthodox/heterodox debate. His links with the East, and his Gospel harmony the Diatessaron, lead to an exploration of Syriac Christianity and asceticism.
In the process, scholarly assumptions about heresiology and the Apologists' relationship with hellenistic philosophy are questioned, and the development of a Christian philosophical tradition is traced from Philo, through Justin Martyr, to Tatian - and then within several key Syriac writers.
This is the first dedicated study of Tatian for more than 40 years.

This book examines the studies of Aristotle's Poetics and related texts in which three Medieval philosophers proposed a conception of poetic validity (beauty), and a just relation between subjects in a community (goodness).

Tatian is a significant figure in the early Church, his work both representing and revealing his second century context. This study offers a detailed exploration of his thought. It is also a valuable introduction to the entire period, particularly the key developments it witnessed in Christianity.
Emily Hunt examines a wide range of topics in depth: Tatian's relationship with Justin Martyr and his Oration to the Greeks; the Apologetic attempt to defend and define Christianity against the Graeco-Roman world, and Christian use of hellenistic philosophy. Tatian was accused of heresy after his death, and this work sees him at the heart of the orthodox/heterodox debate. His links with the East, and his Gospel harmony the Diatessaron, lead to an exploration of Syriac Christianity and asceticism.
In the process, scholarly assumptions about heresiology and the Apologists' relationship with hellenistic philosophy are questioned, and the development of a Christian philosophical tradition is traced from Philo, through Justin Martyr, to Tatian - and then within several key Syriac writers.
This is the first dedicated study of Tatian for more than 40 years.

Contents:
Chapters:
1. Aristotle: the philosophy of nature
2. Aristotle's logic and metaphysics
3. Aristotle: Aesthetics and philosophy of mind
4. Aristotle: Ethics and politics
5. The Peripatetic school
6. Epicureanism
7. Stoicism
8. The sceptics
9. The exact sciences in Hellenistic times: Texts and issues
10. Hellenistic biological sciences
11. Neo-Platonism
12. Augustine

Can the education which so many search for today on our college campuses be found in the works of a past author? On the Socratic Education: An Introduction to the Shorter Platonic Dialogues uncovers the education that Socrates sought on his own behalf and, in so doing, made available to others. Sixteen dialogues are discussed, each considered on its own, but also placed within the context of Plato's account of the Socratic quest. The aim of the book is to make Socrates' investigation and resolution of the questions that still concern us as human beings more accessible to serious contemporary readers.

Contents:
Chapters:
1. The Polis and its culture
2. The Ionians
3. Heraclitus
4. Pythagoreans and Eleatics
5. Empedocles
6. Anaxagoras and the atomists
7. The Sophists
8. Greek arithmetic, geometry and harmonics: Thales to Plato
9. Socrates and the beginnings of moral philosophy
10. Plato: metaphysics and epistemology
11. Plato: ethics and politics
12. Plato: aesthetics and psychology

In the 20th century theorists of mind were almost exclusively concerned with various versions of the materialist thesis, but prior to current debates accounts of soul and mind reveal an extraordinary richness and complexity which bear careful and impartial investigation. This book is the first single-authored, comprehensive work to examine the historical, linguistic and conceptual issues involved in exploring the basic features of the human mind - from its most remote origins to the beginning of the modern period. MacDonald traces the development of an armature of psychical concepts from the Old Testament and Homer's works to the 18th century advocacy of an empirical science of the mind. Along the way, detailed attention is paid to the Presocratics, Plato, Aristotle, the Stoics and Epicurus, before turning to look at the New Testament, Neoplatonism, Augustine, Medieval Islam, Aquinas and Dante. Treatment of Renaissance theories is followed by an unusual (perhaps unique) chapter on the words "soul" and "mind" in English literature from Chaucer to Shakespeare; the story then rejoins the mainstream with analyses of Descartes, Spinoza, Leibniz, Hobbes, Locke, Berkeley, and Hume. Chapter-focused bibliographies.

The "theory of forms" usually attributed to Plato is one of the most famous of philosophical theories, yet it has engendered such controversy in the literature on Plato that scholars even debate whether or not such a theory exists in his texts. Plato's Forms: Varieties of Interpretation is an ambitious work that brings together, in a single volume, widely divergent approaches to the topic of the forms in Plato's dialogues. With contributions rooted in both Anglo-American and Continental philosophy, the book illustrates the contentious role the forms have played in Platonic scholarship and suggests new approaches to a central problem of Plato studies.

An innovative and insightful exploration of the passionate early life of Socrates and the influences that led him to become the first and greatest of philosophers

Socrates: the philosopher whose questioning gave birth to the ideas of Western thought, and whose execution marked the end of the Athenian Golden Age. Yet despite his pre-eminence among the great thinkers of history, little of his life story is known. What we know tends to begin in his middle age and end with his trial and death. Our conception of Socrates has relied upon Plato and Xenophon – men who met him when he was in his fifties and a well-known figure in war-torn Athens.

There is mystery at the heart of Socrates' story: what turned the young Socrates into a philosopher? What drove him to pursue with such persistence, at the cost of social acceptance and ultimately of his life, a whole new way of thinking about the meaning of existence?

In this revisionist biography, Armand D'Angour draws on neglected sources to explore the passions and motivations of young Socrates, showing how love transformed him into the philosopher he was to become. What emerges is the figure of Socrates as never previously portrayed: a heroic warrior, an athletic wrestler and dancer – and a passionate lover. Socrates in Love sheds new light on the formative journey of the philosopher, finally revealing the identity of the woman who Socrates claimed inspired him to develop ideas that have captivated thinkers for 2,500 years.

In narrative style, Plato and the Founding of the Academy illustrates how the dialogue usually known as the Republic (but which Plato called the Polity) is constructed on the basis of simple but technical mathematical and harmonical principles, or numbers. These numbers clarify the structure and unity of Plato's most famous dialogue and offer new insights into its philosophical content, therapeutic intent, and its relation to the founding of the Academy. The author thoroughly explains the process of Plato's composition thus revealing the intent in the founding of his academy.

Plotinus (AD 205-270) was the founder of Neoplatonism, whose thought has had a profound influence on medieval philosophy, and on Western philosophy more broadly. In this engaging book, Eyjolfur K. Emilsson introduces and explains the full spectrum of Plotinus' philosophy for those coming to his work for the first time. Beginning with a chapter-length overview of Plotinus' life and works which also assesses the Platonic, Aristotelian and Stoic traditions that influenced him, Emilsson goes on to address key topics including: Plotinus' originality the status of souls Plotinus' language the notion of the One or the Good Intellect, including Plotinus' holism the physical world the soul and the body, including emotions and the self Plotinus' ethics Plotinus' influence and legacy. Including a chronology, glossary of terms and suggestions for further reading, Plotinus is an ideal introduction to this major figure in Western philosophy, and is essential reading for students of ancient philosophy and classics.

This fascinating examination of the development of virtue ethics in the early stages of western civilization deals with a wide range of philosophers and schools of philosophy -- from Socrates and the Stoics to Plato, Aristotle, and the Epicureans, among others. This introduction examines those human attributes that we have come to know as the "stuff" of virtue: desire, happiness, the "good," character, the role of pride, prudence, and wisdom, and links them to more current or modern conceptions and controversies.

The tension between viewing ethics and morality as fundamentally religious or as fundamentally rational still runs deep in our culture. A second tension centers on whether we view morality primarily in terms of our obligations or primarily in terms of our desires for what is good. The Greek term "arete," which we generally translate as "virtue," can also be translated as "excellence." "Arete" embraced both intellectual and moral excellence as well as human creations and achievements. Useful, certainly, for classrooms, "Virtue Ethics" is also for anyone interested in the fundamental question Socrates posed, "What kind of life is worth living?"

This edition of volume 1 in the series Rutgers University Studies in Classical Humanities concerns Hellenistic ethics. Its particular focus is the compendium of Stoic and Peripatetic ethics attributed to Arius Didymus, court philosopher to the Roman emperor Caesar Augustus. Arius was admired in antiquity for his Consolatio addressed to Livia, Augustus' wife, on the death of her son Drusus. He was also known for having advised Augustus to spare the inhabitants of Alexandria when that city fell to the army of Augustus. Arius was, then, an important advisor to a powerful emperor; he held the position that Plato dreamed of and Kant recommended. He advised the ruler of the Mediterranean world and practiced an ethics based on his knowledge of Hellenistic philosophy. That knowledge is discussed in On Stoic and Peripatetic Ethics.

Prior to the publication of On Stoic and Peripatetic Ethics, Arius was best known in the English-speaking world for fragments concerning physical philosophy. There were some works in German and Italian but discussion in English was meager and largely inconsequential. Within the English-speaking world, there is now a significant and growing body of scholarly literature on Arius' compendium. Far from supplanting the present volume, this body of literature underlines the importance of the volume and builds on issues raised in it.

The mythical narrative of transmigration tells the story of myriad wandering souls, each migrating from body to body along a path of recurrence amid the becoming of the All.
In this highly original study, James Luchte explores the ways in which the concept of transmigration is a central motif in Pythagoras' philosophy, representing its fundamental meaning. Luchte argues that the many strands of the tale of transmigration come together in the Pythagorean philosophical movement, revealing a unity in which, for Pythagoreans, existence and eschatology are separated only by forgetfulness. Such an interpretation that seeks to retrieve the unity of Pythagorean thought goes against the grain of a long-standing tradition of interpretation that projects upon Pythagoras the segregation of 'mysticism' and 'science'. Luchte lays out an alternative interpretation of Pythagorean philosophy as magical in the sense that it orchestrates a holistic harmonization of theoria and praxis and through this reading discloses the radical character of Pythagorean philosophy.

The philosophers of the Roman world were asking questions whose answers had practical effects on people's lives in antiquity, and which still influence our thinking to this day. In spite of being neglected in the modern era, this important age of philosophical thought is now undergoing a revival of interest.
Mark Morford's lively survey makes these recent scholarly developments accessible to a wide audience, examining the writings and ideas of both famous and lesser known figures - from Cato the Censor in 155 BCE to Marcus Aurelius in 180 CE. Based around extensive and fully translated quotations from the philosophical texts of the era, full consideration is given throughout to historical, political and cultural context.