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Books > Philosophy > Western philosophy > Ancient Western philosophy to c 500 > General
This book presents a thorough study and an up to date anthology of Plato's Protagoras. International authors' papers contribute to the task of understanding how Plato introduced and negotiated a new type of intellectual practice - called philosophy - and the strategies that this involved. They explore Plato's dialogue, looking at questions of how philosophy and sophistry relate, both on a methodological and on a thematic level. While many of the contributing authors argue for a sharp distinction between sophistry and philosophy, this is contested by others. Readers may consider the distinctions between philosophy and traditional forms of poetry and sophistry through these papers. Questions for readers' attention include: To what extent is Socrates' preferred mode of discourse, and his short questions and answers, superior to Protagoras' method of sophistic teaching? And why does Plato make Socrates and Protagoras reverse positions as it comes to virtue and its teachability? This book will appeal to graduates and researchers with an interest in the origins of philosophy, classical philosophy and historical philosophy.
Pride is pervasive in Roman texts, as an emotion and a political and social concept implicated in ideas of power. This study examines Roman discourse of pride from two distinct complementary perspectives. The first is based on scripts, mini-stories told to illustrate what pride is, how it arises and develops, and where it fits within the Roman emotional landscape. The second is semantic, and draws attention to differences between terms within the pride field. The peculiar feature of Roman pride that emerges is that it appears exclusively as a negative emotion, attributed externally and condemned, up to the Augustan period. This previously unnoticed lack of expression of positive pride in republican discourse is a result of the way the Roman republican elite articulates its values as anti-monarchical and is committed, within the governing class, to power-sharing and a kind of equality. The book explores this uniquely Roman articulation of pride attributed to people, places, and institutions and traces the partial rehabilitation of pride that begins in the texts of the Augustan poets at the time of great political change. Reading for pride produces innovative readings of texts that range from Plautus to Ausonius, with major focus on Cicero, Livy, Vergil, and other Augustan poets.
The second edition of Five Dialogues presents G. M. A. Grube's distinguished translations, as revised by John Cooper for Plato, Complete Works . A number of new or expanded footnotes are also included along with an updated bibliography.
Chinese and Greek ethics remain influential in modern philosophy, yet it is unclear how they can be compared to one another. This volume, following its predecssor 'How should one live?' (DeGruyter 2011), is a contribution to comparative ethics, loosely centered on the concepts of life and the good life. Methods of comparing ethics are treated in three introductory chapters (R.A.H.King, Ralph Weber, G.E.R. Lloyd), followed by chapters on core issues in each of the traditions: human nature (David Wong, Guo Yi), ghosts (Paul Goldin), happiness (Christoph Harbsmeier), pleasure (Michael Nylan), qi (Elisabeth Hsu & Zhang Ruqing), cosmic life and individual life (Dennis Schilling), the concept of mind (William Charlton), knowledge and happiness (Joerg Hardy), filial piety (Richard Stalley), the soul (Hua-kuei Ho), and deliberation (Thomas Buchheim). The volume closes with three essays in comparison - Mencius and the Stoics (R.A.H. King), equanimity (Lee Yearley), autonomy and the good life (Lisa Raphals). An index locorum each for Chinese and Greco-Roman authors, and a general index complete the volume.
This book will be the second volume in the American Classical Studies series. The subject is Sextus Empiricus, one of the chief sources of information on ancient philosophy and one of the most influential authors in the history of skepticism. Sextus' works have had an extraordinary influence on western philosophy, and this book provides the first exhaustive and detailed study of their recovery, transmission, and intellectual influence through Late Antiquity, the Middle Ages, and the Renaissance. This study deals with Sextus' biography, as well as the history of the availability and reception of his works. It also contains an extensive bibliographical section, including editions, translations, and commentaries.
Cosmology and Self in the Apostle Paul challenges the traditional
reading of Paul. Troels Engberg-Pedersen argues that the usual,
mainly cognitive and metaphorical, ways of understanding central
Pauline concepts, such as 'being in Christ', 'having God's pneuma
(spirit), Christ's pneuma, and Christ himself in one', must be
supplemented by a literal understanding that directly reflects
Paul's cosmology.
Greek tragedy occupies a prominent place in the development of early Greek thought. However, even within the partial renaissance of debates about tragedy's roots in the popular thought of archaic Greece, its potential connection to the early philosophical tradition remains, with few exceptions, at the periphery of current interest. This book aims to show that our understanding of Aeschylus' Oresteia is enhanced by seeing that the trilogy's treatment of Zeus and Justice (Dike) shares certain concepts, assumptions, categories of thought, and forms of expression with the surviving fragments and doxography of certain Presocratic thinkers (especially Anaximander, Xenophanes, Heraclitus, and Parmenides). By examining several aspects of the tragic trilogy in relation to Presocratic debates about theology and cosmic justice, it shows how such scrutiny may affect our understanding of the theological 'tension' and metaphysical assumptions underpinning the Oresteia's dramatic narrative. Ultimately, it argues that Aeschylus bestows on the experience of human suffering, as it is given in the contradictory multiplicity of the world, the status of a profound form of knowledge: a meeting point between the human and divine spheres.
Focusing on the period of philosophy from the pre-Socratics to Plotinus, "Philosophy of the Ancients" is a lucid, up-to-date introduction to the study of the classic Greek and Roman philosphers. This volume offers the reader a broad range of coverage of ancient philosophy, while the major emphasis of each philospher are distilled so as to afford meaning and insight. From the pre-Socratics through Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle to the Stoics, Epicurus, Neoplatonism, and finally Plotinus the student will find a presentation of the salient features of these philosophers. Since our philosophical understanding today should be based on an awareness of the antecedents of our philosophical ideas, Friedo Ricken concentrates in his work on the questions, concepts, and claims from the ancient period that are also indispensable for contemporary philosophy.
In a new interpretation of Parmenides philosophical poem On Nature, Vishwa Adluri considers Parmenides as a thinker of mortal singularity, a thinker who is concerned with the fate of irreducibly unique individuals. Adluri argues that the tripartite division of Parmenides poem allows the thinker to brilliantly hold together the paradox of speaking about being in time and articulates a tragic knowing: mortals may aspire to the transcendence of metaphysics, but are inescapably returned to their mortal condition.Parmenides.
Both Aristotle and moral psychology have been flourishing areas of philosophical inquiry in recent years. This volume aims to bring the two streams of research together, offering a fresh infusion of Aristotelian insights into moral psychology and philosophy of action, and the application of developed philosophical sensibility as regards the reading of Aristotelian texts. The contributors offer stimulating new examinations of Aristotle's understanding of the various psychological states, dispositions, processes, and acts -- including reasoning and deliberation -- that contribute to the understanding of human action and its ethical appraisal.
Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy is a volume of original articles on all aspects of ancient philosophy. The articles may be of substantial length, and include critical notices of major books. OSAP is now published twice yearly, in both hardback and paperback. 'The serial Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy (OSAP) is fairly regarded as the leading venue for publication in ancient philosophy. It is where one looks to find the state-of-the-art. That the serial, which presents itself more as an anthology than as a journal, has traditionally allowed space for lengthier studies, has tended only to add to its prestige; it is as if OSAP thus declares that, since it allows as much space as the merits of the subject require, it can be more entirely devoted to the best and most serious scholarship.' Michael Pakaluk, Bryn Mawr Classical Review
Luis E. Navia provides a comprehensive examination of the ideas and contributions of a Greek philosopher who was influential in the development of classical Cynicism. Based on both primary and secondary sources as well as the findings of modern scholarship, it is a unique contribution to the study of Antisthenes. An important philosopher, only two English-language books about him have been published in the last eighty years. With his clear and accessible narrative style, Navia succeeds in reconstructing Antisthenes' biography resurrecting this ancient philosopher's ideas as still relevant to this day. Navia describes an integral moment in the history of Greek philosophy--the presence of Antisthenes as a student of the Sophists, an associate of Socrates, and the originator of the Cynic movement. This detailed study of the principal sources, includes an index of relevant names, a bibliography of over two hundred and fifty titles, and an appendix consisting of an extensively annotated translation of Diogenes Laertius' biography of Antisthenes.
Plotinus, the most profound philosopher of the third century C.E.,
has been influential on Byzantine and Western Christianity, and
Islam. In the West, Augustine brought Plotinian philosophy into
Christianity, ensuring the interest of a long line of Christian
thinkers. As Margaret Miles shows, Plotinus's philosophy holds both
perennial attraction and offers specific contributions to
particular issues at the beginning of the twenty first century.
Miles offers a fresh interpretation which situates Plotinus's philosophical ideas in the context of society and culture in which those ideas developed. Using extant evidence (the "Enneads," Porphyry's "Life"), she reconstructs an intense third-century conversation, n namely the relationship of body and soul. Mile's portrayal of Plotinus will encourage readers from a range of disciplines to question their construction of body, "self," and identity.
Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy is an annual publication which
includes original articles, which may be of substantial length, on
a wide range of topics in ancient philosophy, and review articles
of major books.
Plotinus' mysticism of henosis, unification with the One, is a highly controversial topic in Plotinian scholarship. This book presents a careful reading of the Enneads and suggests that Plotinus' mysticism be understood as mystical teaching that offers practical guidance concerning henosis. It is further argued that a rational interpretation thereof should be based on Plotinus' metaphysics, according to which the One transcends all beings but is immanent in them. The main thesis of this book is that Plotinus' mystical teaching does not help man attain henosis on his own, but serves to remind man that he fails to attain henosis because it already pertains to his original condition. Plotinus' mysticism seeks to change man's misconception about henosis, rather than his finite nature.
Historically speaking, the majority of efforts in the study of ancient Greek physics have traditionally been devoted either to the analysis of the surviving evidence concerning Presocratic philosophers or to the systematic examination of the Platonic and the Aristotelian oeuvre. The aim of this volume is to discuss the notion of space by focusing on the most representative exponents of the Hellenistic schools and to explore the role played by spatial concepts in both coeval and later authors who, without specifically thematising these concepts, made use of them in a theoretically original way. To this purpose, renowned scholars investigate the philosophical and historical significance of the different conceptions of space endorsed by various thinkers ranging from the end of the Classical period to the middle Imperial age. Thus, the volume brings to light the problematical character of the ancient reflection on this topic.
Modern studies of classical utopian thought are usually restricted to the Republic and Laws of Plato, producing the impression that Greek speculation about ideal states was invariably authoritarian and hierarchical. In this book, however, Dawson sets Plato in the context of the whole ancient tradition of philosophical utopia. He distinguishes two types of Greek utopia, relating both to the social and the political background of Greece between the fifth and third centuries B.C. Dawson outlines a "low" utopianism that arose from the Greek colonizing movement. A comprehensive program for an ideal city-state, conceived as a critique of existing institutions and a model for limited reform, it was intended for literal implementation. A "high" utopianism arose from the practical utopias--a theoretical system with unattainable standards of social reform designed as a thought experiment for exploring the potentialities of human nature and society. This more abstract model looked at institutional change at a much deeper level than was possible in real political reform. The second, higher utopianism, which was based on total communism in property and family, is the focus of Dawson's study. Attempting to reconstruct the lost utopian works of the Stoics, Dawson argues that their ideal state was universal and egalitarian, in deliberate contrast to the hierarchical and militaristic utopia of Plato. He further asserts that both theories were intended to bring about long-range social reform, though neither was meant for direct implementation. Dawson offers an explanation for the disappearance of the utopian tradition in the later Hellenistic age. Finally, he traces the survival of communist ideas inearly Christianity. Far from being merely another commentary on Plato's Republic, Cities of the Gods is a comprehensive study of the whole ancient tradition of philosophical speculation about ideal societies. Distinguishing two types of Greek utopian literature--the practical and the theoretical--Dawson focuses on the contrast between the authoritarian Platonic utopias and the egalitarian stoic utopias. He traces the history of utopian and communist ideas in pagan and Christian thought to the end of the Roman Empire. This book will be of interest to scholars, as well as general readers, interested in philosophy, political science, classical studies, and religion.
Method and Metaphysics presents twenty-six essays in ancient
philosophy by Jonathan Barnes, one of the most admired and
influential scholars of his generation. The essays span four
decades of his career, and are drawn from a wide variety of
sources: many of them will be relatively unknown even to
specialists in ancient philosophy. Several essays are now
translated from the original French and made available in English
for the first time; others have been substantially revised for
republication here.
The birth of philosophical thought across the ancient world brought with it a keen interest in the study of leadership - reflections on who should lead and on how to create the best leadership structures became central to the debates of most prominent ancient philosophers. Philosophy and Leadership offers a panorama of the main philosophies, both ancient and modern, which form the basis of contemporary leadership theories. This book will draw on many philosophical positions to offer a critique of the most important nodes of modern leadership studies – such as ethics, purpose, meaning and legacy. It will include probing questions and theoretical as well practical exercises aimed at reinforcing the points discussed in each chapter, as well as examples from history, literature, films and music. This book will be invaluable reading for scholars on undergraduate and postgraduate leadership courses, as well as those studying philosophy, leadership ethics and business ethics, and responsible leadership.
The Heirs of Plato is the first full study of the various directions in philosophy taken by Plato's followers in the first seventy years after his death in 347 BC - the period generally known as 'The Old Academy', unjustly neglected by historians of philosophy. Lucid and accessible, John Dillon's book provides an introductory chapter on the school itself, and a summary of Plato's philosophical heritage, before looking at each of the school heads and other chief characters, exploring both what holds them together and what sets them apart. |
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