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Books > Philosophy > Western philosophy
This is the sixteenth volume in the Oratory of Classical Greece.
This series presents all of the surviving speeches from the late
fifth and fourth centuries BC in new translations prepared by
classical scholars who are at the forefront of the discipline.
These translations are especially designed for the needs and
interests of today's undergraduates, Greekless scholars in other
disciplines, and the general public.
Classical oratory is an invaluable resource for the study of
ancient Greek life and culture. The speeches offer evidence on
Greek moral views, social and economic conditions, political and
social ideology, law and legal procedure, and other aspects of
Athenian culture that have recently been attracting particular
interest: women and family life, slavery, and religion, to name
just a few.
This volume assembles twenty-two speeches previously published
in the Oratory series. The speeches are taken from a wide range of
different kinds of cases--homicide, assault, commercial law, civic
status, sexual offenses, and others--and include many of the
best-known speeches in these areas. They are Antiphon, Speeches 1,
2, 5, and 6; Lysias 1, 3, 23, 24, and 32; Isocrates 17, 20; Isaeus
1, 7, 8; Hyperides 3; Demosthenes 27, 35, 54, 55, 57, and 59; and
Aeschines 1. The volume is intended primarily for use in teaching
courses in Greek law or related areas such as Greek history. It
also provides the introductions and notes that originally
accompanied the individual speeches, revised slightly to shift the
focus onto law.
Following his opposition to the establishment of a theatre in
Geneva, Jean-Jacques Rousseau is often considered an enemy of the
stage. Yet he was fascinated by drama: he was a keen theatre-goer,
his earliest writings were operas and comedies, his admiration for
Italian lyric theatre ran through his career, he wrote one of the
most successful operas of the day, Le Devin du village, and with
his Pygmalion, he invented a new theatrical genre, the Scene
lyrique ('melodrama'). Through multi-faceted analyses of Rousseau's
theatrical and musical works, authors re-evaluate his practical and
theoretical involvement with and influence on the dramatic arts, as
well as his presence in modern theatre histories. New readings of
the Lettre a d'Alembert highlight its political underpinnings,
positioning it as an act of resistance to external bourgeois
domination of Geneva's cultural sphere, and demonstrate the work's
influence on theatrical reform after Rousseau's death. Fresh
analyses of his theory of voice, developed in the Essai sur
l'origine des langues, highlight the unique prestige of Italian
opera for Rousseau. His ambition to rethink the nature and function
of stage works, seen in Le Devin du village and then, more
radically, in Pygmalion, give rise to several different discussions
in the volume, as do his complex relations with Gluck. Together,
contributors shed new light on the writer's relationship to the
stage, and argue for a more nuanced approach to his theatrical and
operatic works, theories and legacy.
Over the past sixty years the writings of Jean-Paul Sartre have
probably been more influential in the West than those of any other
philosopher and literary figure. In his theoretical writings,
Sartre laid the foundation for an original doctrine of
Existentialism. His concern, however, was to relate his theory to
human response and the practical demands of living. To achieve
this, he carried his philosophical concepts into his novels and
plays, and there subjected them to the test of imagined experience.
His uniqueness lies in the success with which he demonstrated the
utility of Existentialist doctrine while creating, at the same
time, works of the highest literary merit. Thus Sartre became the
populariser of his own literary thought. Originally delivered as a
lecture in Paris in 1945, "Existentialism and Humanism" is
Jean-Paul Sartre's seminal defence of Existentialism as a doctrine
true to Humanism, as opposed to a purely nihilistic creed, and a
plan for its practical application to everyday human life. This
exploration of one of the central tenets of his philosophical
thought has become the essential introduction to his work, and a
fundamental text for all students of philosophy.
Stoicism has had a diverse reception in German philosophy. This is
the first interpretive study of shared themes and dialogues between
late nineteenth-century and twentieth-century experts on classical
antiquity and philosophers. Assessing how modern philosophers have
incorporated ancient resources with the context of German
philosophy, chapters in this volume are devoted to philosophical
giants such as Friedrich Nietzsche, Wilhelm Dilthey, Walter
Benjamin, Martin Heidegger, Hannah Arendt, Hans Jonas, Hans
Blumenberg, and Peter Sloterdijk. Among the ancient Stoics, the
focus is on Seneca, Epictetus, and doxography, but reference will
also be made to texts that have so far been neglected by
non-specialists. Often references to Stoic texts are playful,
making it hard for non-specialists to reconstruct their
understanding of the sources; by illuminating and enhancing the
philosophical significance of these receptions, this book argues
that they can change our understanding of Greek and Roman Stoic
doctrines and authors, twentieth-century continental philosophy,
and the themes which coordinate their ongoing dialogues. Some of
these themes are surprising for Stoicism, such as the poetics of
tragic drama and the anthropological foundations of hermeneutics.
Others are already central to Stoic reception, such as the
constitution of the subject in relation to various ethical,
ecological, and metaphysical powers and processes; among these are
contemplation and knowledge; identity and plurality; temporality,
facticity, and fate; and personal, social, and planetary forms of
self-cultivation and self-appropriation. Addressing the need for a
synoptic vision of related continental readings of Stoicism, this
book brings ancient texts into new dialogues with up-to-date
scholarship, facilitating increased understanding, critical
evaluation, and creative innovation within the continental response
to Stoicism.
The Essential Berkeley and Neo-Berkeley is an introduction to the
life and work of one of the most significant thinkers in the
history of philosophy and a penetrating philosophical assessment of
his lasting legacy. Written in clear and user-friendly style,
Berman provides: * A concise summary of George Berkeley
(1685-1753)'s life and writings * An accessible introduction to the
structure of Berkeley's most authoritative work, The Principles of
Human Knowledge * An overview of common misunderstandings of
Berkeley's philosophy, and how to avoid them Beyond solely an
introduction, Berman also gives us a broader and deeper
appreciation of Berkeley as a philosopher. He argues for Berkeley's
work as a philosophical system with coherence and important key
themes hitherto unexplored and provides an analysis of why he
thinks Berkeley's work has had such lasting significance. With a
particular focus on Berkeley's dualist thinking and theories of
'mental types', Berman provides students and scholars with a key to
unlocking the significance of this work. This introductory text
will provide an insight into Berkeley's full body of work, the
distinctiveness of his thinking and how deeply relevant this key
thinker is to contemporary philosophy.
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