Erlend Dr. MacGillivray's Epictetus and Laypeople: A Stoic Stance toward the Rest of Humanity explores the understanding that ancient philosophers had towards the vast majority of people at the time, those who had no philosophical knowledge or adherence-laypeople. After exploring how philosophical identity was established in antiquity, this book examines the Stoic philosopher Epictetus, who reflected upon laypeople with remarkable frequency. MacGillivray shows that Epictetus maintained his stance that a small and distinguishable group of philosophically aware individuals existed, alongside his conviction that most of humanity can be inclined to act in accordance with virtuous principles by their dependence upon preconceptions, civic law, popular religion, exempla, and the adoption of primitive conditions, among other means. This book also highlights other Stoics and their commentators to show that the means of lay reform that MacGillivray explores were not just implicitly understood in antiquity, but reveal a well-developed system of thought in the school which has, until now, evaded the notice of modern scholars.

Plato versus Parmenides investigates the concept of genesis, or coming into being, a problem that has absorbed the greatest philosophical thinkers. Robert J. Roecklein explores two philosophical giants who tackled this issue: Plato and Parmenides from Elea. Particularly interesting to Roecklein is how the respective arguments of reality, or lack thereof, of coming into being functions as a political barometer: how Plato and Parmenides sketch foundations for political regimes. Plato and Parmenides, philosophers of immeasurable respect and influence, represented two sides of a fierce debate. On one side, Parmenides gives the famous argument that coming into being cannot possibly be a reality in nature. The other side, Plato proves in his dialogue the Parmenides that coming into being is a very real thing in nature. He argues that perception does indeed provide accurate information about the external world. In Plato versus Parmenides, Robert J. Roecklein presents the great debate between these two schools, and examines the disposition of other PreSocratic philosophers who were influenced by these great intellectual rivals.

If we are to distinguish mere non-being from that which is not, yet may be, from that which was not, yet could have been, or from that which will not be, yet could become, we are committed in some way to grant being to possibilities. The possible is not actual; yet it is not nothing. What then could it be? What ontological status could it possess? In Contingency, Time, and Possibility: An Essay on Aristotle and Duns Scotus, Pascal Massie opens these questions by combining two approaches: First, an original inquiry that analyses the notions of chance, fate, event, contradiction, and so forth, and suggests that the distinction between potency and act arises from a confrontation with the impossible. Second, a historical inquiry that focuses on Aristotle and Duns Scotus, two key figures contributing to a fundamental transformation in the history of Western ontology; namely, the transition from a metaphysics of nature (Aristotle) to a metaphysics of the will (Scotus). In doing so, this book departs from the prevailing interpretation of the history of modal logic according to which Scotus rejected the principle of plenitude attributed to Aristotle and replaced the ancient diachronic theory of possibilities with a synchronic one, thereby contributing to a "possible world's semantics." Rather, Massie argues that in its proper ontological import, the question of possibility concerns the limit between being and non-being and that this limit must be thought in terms of temporality. With Scotus, however, a radical shift occurs. Possibilities are understood in terms of will, creation, omnipotence, and transcending freedom. As such, they belong to the realm of what is supremely actual (i.e., superabundant activity). What used to be understood as a lesser degree of being (the quasi non-being of uninformed matter and mere possibilities) becomes the mark of omnipotence.

Recovering the Ancient View of Founding questions the consensus view of contemporary scholars who view Cicero as an eclectic and unoriginal political thinker. For them, De Legibus is perhaps the most striking example of this eclecticism. They say that Cicero claims a universal ground for laws that would restore the political privileges of his own aristocratic class. Yet Timothy Caspar shows that Cicero offers a unified, coherent, and original teaching about politics whose aim is justice for the entire republic, not just a part of it. Contrary to the prevailing view, Cicero does not embrace but rejects Stoicism and any philosophy that culminates in a community of the wise as a standard for politics. Instead, nature serves as the foundation of Cicero's laws, and he elucidates a political standard grounded in nature and applicable to all citizens. Thus, the law codes of De Legibus are not only in harmony with but required by Cicero's natural law principles. Caspar's Recovering the Ancient View of Founding is a reinterpretation of a key work of ancient Roman political philosophy and belongs on the bookshelf of anyone interested in philosophy, politics, or ancient Rome.

Protagoras is one of Plato's most delightfully comic and playful dialogues, and is also one of his most important. This new edition of Plato's Protagoras provides a rigorously clear and accurate translation that communicates Plato's puns, metaphors, figures of speech, and other verbal techniques naturally; allowing scholars to feel the full scope of Plato's rhetoric. Translators James Arieti and Roger Barrus confront and discuss the critical linguistic choices made in rendering difficult or obscure terms into an easily readable and understandable rendition. They also include an historical overview of the intellectual milieu of fifth-century B.C.E. Athens, careful biographies of the dialogues major characters, notes that discuss the major issues, citations of the literary and philosophical parallels, and call attention to rhetorical tactics. In addition, Arieti and Barrus provide appendices on the challenges of translating Plato's Greek into English, the diverse modern interpretations of the ode by Simonides that Socrates and Protagoras lampoon, the relationship of the dialogue to Aristotle's Sophistical Refutations, and a glossary elucidating many of the key words in the dialogue.

Many recent discoveries have confirmed the importance of Orphism for ancient Greek religion, philosophy and literature. Its nature and role are still, however, among the most debated problems of Classical scholarship. A cornerstone of the question is its relationship to Christianity, which modern authors have too often discussed from apologetic perspectives or projections of the Christian model into its supposed precedent. Besides, modern approaches are strongly based on ancient ones, since Orpheus and the poems and mysteries attributed to him were fundamental in the religious controversies of Late Antiquity. Both Pagan and Christian authors often present Orphism as a precedent, alternative or imitation of Chistianity.This free and thorough study of the ancient sources sheds light on these controversial questions. The presence of the Orphic tradition in Imperial Age, documented by literary and epigraphical evidence, is confronted with the informations transmitted by Christian apologists on Orphic poems and cults. The manifold Christian treatments of Pagan sources, and their particular value to understand Greek religion, are illuminated by this specific case, which exemplifies the complex encounter between Classical culture and Jewish-Christian tradition.

A revisionist account of the most famous trial and execution in Western civilization -- one with great resonance for modern society
In the spring of 399 BCE, the elderly philosopher Socrates stood trial in his native Athens. The court was packed, and after being found guilty by his peers, Socrates died by drinking a cup of poison hemlock, his execution a defining moment in ancient civilization. Yet time has transmuted the facts into a fable. Aware of these myths, Robin Waterfield has examined the actual Greek sources, presenting a new Socrates, not an atheist or guru of a weird sect, but a deeply moral thinker, whose convictions stood in stark relief to those of his former disciple, Alcibiades, the hawkish and self-serving military leader. Refusing to surrender his beliefs even in the face of death, Socrates, as Waterfield reveals, was determined to save a morally decayed country that was tearing itself apart. Why Socrates Died is then not only a powerful revisionist book, but a work whose insights translate clearly from ancient Athens to the present day.

"From the Hardcover edition."

How modern philosophers use and perpetuate myths about prehistory The state of nature, the origin of property, the origin of government, the primordial nature of inequality and war - why do political philosophers talk so much about the Stone Age? And are they talking about a Stone Age that really happened, or is it just a convenient thought experiment to illustrate their points? Karl Widerquist and Grant S. McCall take a philosophical look at the origin of civilisation, examining political theories to show how claims about prehistory are used. Drawing on the best available evidence from archaeology and anthropology, they show that much of what we think we know about human origins comes from philosophers' imagination, not scientific investigation. Key Features Shows how modern political theories employ ambiguous factual claims about prehistory Brings archaeological and anthropological evidence to bear on those claims Tells the story of human origins in a way that reveals many commonly held misconceptions

In this pathbreaking interpretation of Plato's foundational text of political philosophy, Carolina Araujo reveals how the Republic remains ripe for an interpretation grounded in notions of cooperation, flourishing and justice relevant to the diversity of contemporary life. Plato's Republic has the Greek name of Politeia that Araujo translates as "the way of life of the citizens," not "the State" or "the form of government" as it more traditionally rendered. Plato's treatise, Politeia, depicts the rich array of patterns emerging from human interaction and enquires into the best amongst them. Cooperative Flourishing in Plato's Republic returns to these important questions about society - how to live with a vast diversity of personalities, with different interests and abilities, all of them trying to flourish - and asks how best can we share our environment? With rigorous philosophical analysis of the Greek text, accompanied by original translations of the most important passages, Araujo upends mainstream scholarship to progress Socrates' "bottom-up" view of politics and rejects previous readings of the Republic as a proto-totalitarian text, psychological study or lengthy analogy. By defending a theory of Platonic justice that is rooted in cooperative flourishing, the public education of all citizens and the contribution of philosophers to political life, "the beautiful city", which Plato called Kallipolis, emerges as a hopeful possibility.

Plato's Cratylus is about language, specifically about names (onomata), a category that includes proper names, common nouns, adjectives, participles and infinitives. On first reading it may appear to be a somewhat arcane work almost half of which is devoted to a discussion of what appear to be far-fetched etymologies of Greek words. When properly understood, however, this apparently unprepossessing material serves an important philosophical purpose. As Plato's most focused discussion of language, the text should be useful for every student of his work, and should also be of interest to anyone interested in Greek thought, the history of semantics, or the philosophy of language.

The central aim of The Crane's Walk is to show that we can conceive and live with a pluralism of standpoints that have conflicting standards for truth, while the truth of each is at the same time entirely unaffected by the truth of the others. The book tries to show that Plato's work expresses this kind of pluralism. It also argues that the central claims about truth and pluralism are justified and important in their own right, whether or not we ultimately agree about what Plato's standpoint is.Our local and global communities are currently torn apart by conflicts within and between a host of different pluralist (for example, multiculturalism) and absolutist commitments. The author argues for the possibility of a coordination of absolute and relative truth that allows an understanding of both (some) relativist and (some) absolutist positions as fully legitimate, and as able to exist in a coherently paradoxical relation to their opposites. On the basis of this understanding, these conflicts of perspectives and of moral commitments may often be resolved or alleviated in ways that all sides can recognize as reasonable and fair.The book also argues that this coordination of logically incompatible conceptions of truth gives helpful insight into a variety of problems basic to traditional metaphysics and epistemology.The longest tradition of Plato scholarship rightly identifies crucial faults in Plato's Theory of Ideas. The author argues that Plato deliberately displayed those faults, because he aimed to demonstrate the indispensable truth-giving dimensions of basic kinds of error or illogic. These dimensions of error, crucial to the establishment of truth, are what both require and legitimatethe paradoxical coordination of logically incompatible conceptions of truth. Connecting this idea with some growing currents of Plato scholarship, the author emphasizes, in addition to the dialogues' arguments, the importance of their various non-argumentative features, including their drama, myths, fictions, anecdotes, and humor. From a purely logical standpoint, these are argumentative errors. Unlike the newer scholarship, however, the author emphasizes the importance of these features as they are left unanalyzed, left as trivial or logically mistaken (rather than, say, as ironically pointing the attentive reader toward the valid version). He argues that these unanalyzed non-argumentative features function rigorously, as a lever with which to question and justify the enterprise of rational argument itself, without circularly presupposing its standards.In particular, this allows conflicting ideas of rationality and truth to be examined and justified in a common area that is also sufficiently outside the criteria of rationality of each to avoid circularity, and to avoid illegitimately assimilating any position to the standards of another.

This book features many of the leading voices championing the revival of Neo-Aristotelian Ethical Naturalism (AN) in contemporary philosophy. It addresses the whole range of issues facing this research program at present. Coverage in the collection identifies differentiations, details standpoints, and points out new perspectives. This volume answers a need: AN is quite new to contemporary philosophy, despite its deep roots in the history of philosophy. As yet, there are many unanswered questions regarding its relation to contemporary views in metaethics. It is certainly not equivalent to dominant naturalistic approaches to metaethics in Anglophone philosophy. Indeed, it is not obviously incompatible with some approaches identified as nonnaturalistic. Further, there are controversies regarding the views of the first wave of virtue revivalists. The work of G.E.M. Anscombe and Philippa Foot is frequently misunderstood, despite the fact that they are important figures in the contemporary revival. This volume details a robust approach to ethics by situating it within the context of human life. It will help readers to better understand how AN raises deep questions about the relation of action and its evaluation to human nature. Neo-Aristotelians argue that something like the traditional cardinal virtues, practical wisdom, temperance, justice and courage, are qualities that perfect human reason and desire.

In this book of brilliantly erudite and precise discussions, Pierre Hadot explains that for the Ancients philosophy was not reducible to the building of a theoretical system: it was above all a choice about how to live one's life.
One of the most influential historians of ancient philosophy in the world today, Hadot is adept at using ancient philosophers to illuminate the relevance of their ideas to contemporary life. In this book, which is an ideal introduction to Hadot's more scholarly "What is Ancient Philosophy?," we learn that to be an Epicurean is not merely to think like one; it is to adopt a way of living where limiting desires is the condition for happiness. Being an Aristotelian, similarly, is to choose a life that involves contemplation, and being a Cynic is to follow Diogenes in his refusal of quotidian convention and the mentality of ordinary people. If so many Ancient philosophers founded schools, Hadot explains, it was precisely because they were proposing how to live life on a daily basis. We learn here that the history of philosophy has been something more than just that of a discourse. The founding texts of Greek philosophy, after all, were notes taken from oral exercises undertaken in concrete circumstances and contexts, most often a dialogue between students and specific interlocutors who meant to shed light on their students' real existence. The immense contribution of this book, which also traces Hadot's own personal itinerary in a touching manner, is to remind us, through direct language and numerous examples, what the theoretical aspect of philosophy often masks: its vital and existential dimensions.

A philosophy still relevant in the modern world, Pigliucci, one of the top philosophers on Twitter and a regular contributor to the New York Times, Newsweek, Washington and Huffington Posts, shows how you can apply stoicism to your everyday life and make it more meaningful. With practical tips and exercises, meditations and mindfulness, this is perfect for fans of Jules Evans' Philosophy of Life - or anyone wanting to imbue their life with new meaning. 'Pigliucci makes a good case for Stoicism and living stoically' -- Daily Telegraph 'A good case for the enduring relevance of 2,000-year-old precepts' -- TIMES HIGHER EDUCATION SUPPLEMENT 'Enjoyed reading this - enough information to be enlightening and clear and simple enough for a novice in the field to access easily' -- ***** Reader review 'Enlightening' -- ***** Reader review 'Loved this book so much' -- ***** Reader review 'Easy to understand with just the right twist of Philosophy' -- ***** Reader review 'Very thought provoking' -- ***** Reader review 'A great book full of great wisdom' -- ***** Reader review 'I am loving this book. Have been reading it non-stop since I got it' -- ***** Reader review ********************************************************************************************** 'In this thought-provoking book, Massimo Pigliucci shares his journey of discovering the power of Stoic practices in a philosophical dialogue with one of Stoicism's greatest teachers.' RYAN HOLIDAY, BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF THE OBSTACLE IS THE WAY AND THE DAILY STOIC Who am I? What am I doing? How ought I to live my life? Stoicism teaches us to acknowledge our emotions, reflect on what causes them and redirect them for our own good. Whenever we worry about how to be happy, we are worrying about how to lead a good life. No goal seems more elusive. Massimo Pigliucci explores this remarkable philosophy and how its wisdom can be applied to our everyday lives in the quest for meaning. He shows how stoicism teaches us the importance of a person's character, integrity and compassion. Whoever we are, we can take something away from stoicism and, in How to be a Stoic, with its practical tips and exercises, meditations and mindfulness, he also explains how relevant it is to every part of our modern lives.

Text in Danish.

THIS BOOK WILL HELP YOU
- to appreciate the revolution in thinking brought about by the Ancient Greek philosophers, who sought to make sense of the world through analysis, reasoning and argument
- to recognize the key ideas of the most significant philosophers and their contribution to Western thought
- to learn about the philosophers' lives, and their impact on society
- to appreciate the value of questioning received wisdom and submitting it to rigorous analysis

To live in the modern world is to owe a debt of gratitude to the Ancient Greeks. Ancient Greece was one of the wellsprings of European civilization, and the Greeks were both the pioneers of rigorous analytical thought and the creators of prose and poetry that speak to us over the centuries.
Materialism and idealism form the two major strands of Greek philosophy: thinking about the universe, nature and matter; and thinking about humanity, politics, justice, good and evil, and our relationship with the divine. The Greeks were the first to distinguish between myth and philosophy, and to develop a scientific method of enquiry. In ancient Greece 'natural philosophers' studied mathematics, physics, logic, cosmology, medicine, Politics, ethics and aesthetics. Democracy, atoms, copycat killings -- the Greeks had opinions on these and many more, and their conclusions have often proved prescient. Cynicism and Stoicism are Greek philosophical schools whose names have passed into common parlance.
This lucid introduction to Greek philosophy links important ideas to key personalities and places. It shows the development and movement of people and ideas around the Mediterranean world, from the time of the earliest pre Socratic philosophers, through Pythagoras, Heraclitus, and the Sophists to Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, the Cynics and the Stoics. Written in a clear and engaging style, it is a fascinating account of the major source of Western culture and today's knowledge-based society.

ACCESS THE WORLD'S PHILOSOPHIES
"Simple Guides: Philosophy" is a series of concise introductions to the major philosophies of the world. Written by experts in the field, these accessible guides offer a fascinating account of the rich variety of arguments ideas and systems of thought articulated by different cultures in the attempt to explore and define the nature of reality, and the meaning, purpose and proper conduct of life.
The "Simple Guides" will appeal to analytical thinkers and spiritual seekers alike. Taken together, they provide a basic introduction to the evolution of human thought, and a point of reference for further exploration and discovery. By offering essential insights into the world views of different societies, they also enable travellers to behave in a way that fosters mutual respect and understanding.

Contradicting the long-held belief that Aristotle was the first to discuss individuation systematically, Mary Margaret McCabe argues that Plato was concerned with what makes something "a something" and that he solved the problem in a radically different way than did Aristotle. McCabe explores the centrality of individuation to Plato's thinking, from the "Parmenides" to the "Politicus," illuminating Plato's later metaphysics in an exciting new way.

Tradition associates Plato with the contrast between the particulars of the sensible world and transcendent forms, and supposes that therein lies the center of Plato's metaphysical universe. McCabe rebuts this view, arguing that Plato's thinking about individuals--which informs all his thought--comes to focus on the tension between "generous" or complex individuals and "austere" or simple individuals. In dialogues such as the "Theaetetus" and the "Timaeus" Plato repeatedly poses the question of individuation but cannot provide an answer. Later, in the "Sophist," the "Philebus," and the "Politicus," Plato devises what McCabe calls the "mesh of identity," an account of how individuals may be identified relative to each other. The mesh of identity, however, fails to explain satisfactorily how individuals are unified or made coherent. McCabe asserts that individuation may be absolute--and she questions philosophy's longtime reliance on Aristotle's solution.

In Visible and Invisible in Greek Philosophy, Professor Yamakawa has collected a number of groundbreaking essays covering the entire history of Greek philosophy from the Presocratics to the Postaristotelians. He explores in a systematic and methodical manner "the dynamic correlation between the visible and the invisible aspects of Greek philosophers' particularly thoughts."--Christos Evangeliou, Honorary President, The International Association for Greek Philosophy, Professor of Philosophy, Towson University

This is the first English translation of Proclus' commentary on Plato's Parmenides. Glenn Morrow's death occurred while he was less than halfway through the translation, which was completed by John Dillon. A major work of the great Neoplatonist philosopher, the commentary is an intellectual tour de force that greatly influenced later medieval and Renaissance thought. As the notes and introductory summaries explain, it comprises a full account of Proclus' own metaphysical system, disguised, as is so much Neoplatonic philosophy, in the form of a commentary.