This book is the first collection of essays in English devoted solely to the relationship between Aristotle's ethics and politics. Are ethics and politics two separate spheres of action or are they unified? Those who support the unity-thesis emphasize the centrality for Aristotle of questions about the good life and the common good as the purpose of politics. Those who defend the separation-thesis stress Aristotle's sense of realism in understanding the need for political solutions to human shortcomings. But is this all there is to it? The contributors to this volume explore and develop different arguments and interpretative frameworks that help to make sense of the relationship between Aristotle's Ethics and Politics. The chapters loosely follow the order of the Nicomachean Ethics in examining topics such as political science, statesmanship and magnanimity, justice, practical wisdom, friendship, and the relationship between the active and the contemplative life. They have in common an appreciation of the relevance of Aristotle's writings, which offer the modern reader distinct philosophical perspectives on the relationship between ethics and politics.

This book is the first collection of essays in English devoted solely to the relationship between Aristotle's ethics and politics. Are ethics and politics two separate spheres of action or are they unified? Those who support the unity-thesis emphasize the centrality for Aristotle of questions about the good life and the common good as the purpose of politics. Those who defend the separation-thesis stress Aristotle's sense of realism in understanding the need for political solutions to human shortcomings. But is this all there is to it? The contributors to this volume explore and develop different arguments and interpretative frameworks that help to make sense of the relationship between Aristotle's Ethics and Politics. The chapters loosely follow the order of the Nicomachean Ethics in examining topics such as political science, statesmanship and magnanimity, justice, practical wisdom, friendship, and the relationship between the active and the contemplative life. They have in common an appreciation of the relevance of Aristotle's writings, which offer the modern reader distinct philosophical perspectives on the relationship between ethics and politics.

After Plato and Aristotle, the Stoics, from the 3rd century BCE onwards, developed the third great classical conception of wisdom. This book offers a reconstruction of this pivotal notion in Stoicism, starting out from the two extant Stoic definitions, 'knowledge of human and divine matters' and 'fitting expertise'. It focuses not only on the question of what they understood by wisdom, but also on how wisdom can be achieved, how difficult it is to become a sage, and how this difficulty can be explained. The answers to these questions are based on a fresh investigation of the evidence, with all central texts offered in the original Greek or Latin, as well as in translation. The Stoic Sage can thus also serve as a source book on Stoic wisdom, which should be invaluable to specialists and to anyone interested in one of the cornerstones of the Graeco-Roman classical tradition.

The middle of the second until the middle of the first century BCE is one of the most creative periods in the history of human thought, and an important part of this was the interaction between Roman jurists and Hellenistic philosophers. In this highly original book, Rene Brouwer shows how jurists transformed the study of law into a science with the help of philosophical methods and concepts, such as division, rules and persons, and also how philosophers came to share the jurists' preoccupations with cases and private property. The relevance of this cross-fertilization for present-day law and philosophy cannot be overestimated: in law, its legacy includes the academic study of law and the Western models of dispute resolution, while in philosophy, the method of casuistry and the concept of just property.

After Plato and Aristotle, the Stoics, from the 3rd century BCE onwards, developed the third great classical conception of wisdom. This book offers a reconstruction of this pivotal notion in Stoicism, starting out from the two extant Stoic definitions, 'knowledge of human and divine matters' and 'fitting expertise'. It focuses not only on the question of what they understood by wisdom, but also on how wisdom can be achieved, how difficult it is to become a sage, and how this difficulty can be explained. The answers to these questions are based on a fresh investigation of the evidence, with all central texts offered in the original Greek or Latin, as well as in translation. The Stoic Sage can thus also serve as a source book on Stoic wisdom, which should be invaluable to specialists and to anyone interested in one of the cornerstones of the Graeco-Roman classical tradition.