In one of the most charming works to survive from classical antiquity, Xenophon's Symposium depicts an amiable evening of wine, entertainment, and conversation shared by Socrates, and a few of his associates, with certain Athenian gentlemen who are gathered to honor a young man for his recent victory in the Panathenaic games. The subtle playfulness which characterizes the animated discussions conceals a light-hearted, yet surprisingly philosophical inquiry regarding the rival claims of virtue, articulated and defended by the Socratics and gentlemen to establish the praiseworthiness and excellence of their competing ways of life. Gentlemanliness, taken as an admired political virtue, and philosophy, as pursuit of wisdom and self-sufficiency, emerge as contested ideas about what constitutes the path to human happiness, especially in response to the beautiful and its compelling arousal of erotic desire in the body and soul. Offering a comprehensive account and interpretation of the Symposium, this book follows the speeches and action of the dialogue through its many twists and turns, from beginning to end, with particular attention to the place of rhetoric in the argument of the work as a whole. Thus, Xenophon's Socratic Rhetoric examines foundational aspects of the philosophic life manifest in the words as well as deeds of Socrates in this dialogue--starting from an original reading of the opening scene as a harbinger of the competition in wisdom that occurs over the course of the symposium, and concluding with a provocative consideration of conjugal erotics as the continuation and completion of the Socratic logos about the role of love in guiding human beings toward virtue and happiness.

Dialogue and the New Cosmopolitanism: Conversations with Edward Demenchonok stands in opposition to the doctrine that might makes right and that the purpose of politics is to establish domination over others rather than justice and the good life for all. In the pursuit of the latter goal, the book stresses the importance of dialogue with participants who take seriously the views and interests of others and who seek to reach a fair solution. In this sense, the book supports the idea of cosmopolitanism, which-by contrast to empire-involves multi-lateral cooperation and thus the quest for a just cosmopolis. The international contributors to this volume, with their varied perspectives, are all committed to this same quest. Edited by Fred Dallmayr, the chapters take the form of conversations with Edward Demenchonok, a well-known practitioner of international and cross-cultural philosophy. The conversations are structured in parts that stress the philosophical, anthropological, cultural, and ethical dimensions of global dialogue. In our conflicted world, it is inspiring to find so many authors from different places agreeing on a shared vision.

Ethology, or how animals relate to their environments, is currently enjoying increased academic attention. A prominent figure in this scholarship is Gilles Deleuze and yet, the significance of his relational metaphysics to ethology has still not been scrutinised. Jason Cullen's book is the first text to analyse Deleuze's philosophical ethology and he prioritises the theorist's examination of how beings relate to each other. For Cullen, Deleuze's Cinema books are integral to this investigation and he highlights how they expose a key Deleuzian theme: that beings are fundamentally continuous with each other. In light of this continuity then, Cullen reveals that how beings understand each other shapes them and allows them to transform their shared worlds.