Selfhood And Rationality In Ancient Greek Philosophy

Author : Anthony A. Long
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 282 pages
File Size : 43,7 Mb
Release : 2022-10-27
Category : Electronic
ISBN : 9780198803393

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Selfhood and Rationality in Ancient Greek Philosophy by Anthony A. Long Pdf

Anthony A. Long presents fourteen essays on the themes of selfhood and rationality in ancient Greek philosophy. The discussion ranges over seven centuries of innovative thought, starting with Heraclitus' injunction to listen to the cosmic logos, and concluding with Plotinus' criticism of those who make embodiment essential to human identity. For the Greek philosophers the notion of a rational self was bound up with questions about divinity and happiness called eudaimonia, meaning a god-favoured life or a life of likeness to the divine. While these questions are remote from current thought, Long also situates the book's themes in modern discussions of the self and the self's normative relation to other people and the world at large. Ideas and behaviour attributed to Socrates and developed by Plato are at the book's centre. They are preceded by essays that explore general facets of the soul's rationality. Later chapters bring in salient contributions made by Aristotle and Stoic philosophers. All but one of these pieces has been previously published in periodicals or conference volumes, but the author has revised and updated everything. The book is written in a style that makes it accessible to many kinds of reader, not only professors and graduate students but also anyone interested in the history of our identity as rational animals.

Author : A. A. Long
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 282 pages
File Size : 51,8 Mb
Release : 2022-10-27
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9780192525086

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Selfhood and Rationality in Ancient Greek Philosophy by A. A. Long Pdf

A. A. Long presents fourteen essays on the themes of selfhood and rationality in ancient Greek philosophy. The discussion ranges over seven centuries of innovative thought, starting with Heraclitus' injunction to listen to the cosmic logos, and concluding with Plotinus' criticism of those who make embodiment essential to human identity. For the Greek philosophers the notion of a rational self was bound up with questions about divinity and happiness called eudaimonia, meaning a god-favoured life or a life of likeness to the divine. While these questions are remote from current thought, Long also situates the book's themes in modern discussions of the self and the self's normative relation to other people and the world at large. Ideas and behaviour attributed to Socrates and developed by Plato are at the book's centre. They are preceded by essays that explore general facets of the soul's rationality. Later chapters bring in salient contributions made by Aristotle and Stoic philosophers. All but one of these pieces has been previously published in periodicals or conference volumes, but the author has revised and updated everything. The book is written in a style that makes it accessible to many kinds of reader, not only professors and graduate students but also anyone interested in the history of our identity as rational animals.

Author : Pauliina Remes,Juha Sihvola
Publisher : Springer Science & Business Media
Page : 271 pages
File Size : 44,9 Mb
Release : 2008-08-26
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9781402085963

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Ancient Philosophy of the Self by Pauliina Remes,Juha Sihvola Pdf

Pauliina Remes and Juha Sihvola In the course of history, philosophers have given an impressive variety of answers to the question, “What is self?” Some of them have even argued that there is no such thing at all. This volume explores the various ways in which selfhood was approached and conceptualised in antiquity. How did the ancients understand what it is that I am, fundamentally, as an acting and affected subject, interpreting the world around me, being distinct from others like and unlike me? The authors hi- light the attempts in ancient philosophical sources to grasp the evasive character of the specifically human presence in the world. They also describe how the ancient philosophers understood human agents as capable of causing changes and being affected in and by the world. Attention will be paid to the various ways in which the ancients conceived of human beings as subjects of reasoning and action, as well as responsible individuals in the moral sphere and in their relations to other people. The themes of persistence, identity, self-examination and self-improvement recur in many of these essays. The articles of the collection combine systematic and historical approaches to ancient sources that range from Socrates to Plotinus and Augustine.

Author : Patrick Lee Miller
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 190 pages
File Size : 54,9 Mb
Release : 2010
Category : Electronic books
ISBN : 1472597915

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Becoming God by Patrick Lee Miller Pdf

Becoming god was an ideal of many ancient Greek philosophers, as was the life of reason, which they equated with divinity. This book argues that their rival accounts of this equation depended on their divergent attitudes toward time. Affirming it, Heraclitus developed a paradoxical style of reasoningGÇö chiasmus GÇöthat was the activity of his becoming god. Denying it as contradictory, Parmenides sought to purify thinking of all contradiction, offering eternity to those who would follow him. Plato did, fusing this pure style of reasoningGÇöconsistencyGÇöwith a Pythagorean program of purificati.

Author : Jiyuan Yu,Jorge J. E. Gracia
Publisher : Boydell & Brewer
Page : 274 pages
File Size : 44,9 Mb
Release : 2003
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 1580461301

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Rationality and Happiness by Jiyuan Yu,Jorge J. E. Gracia Pdf

This volume explores the relationship between rationality and happiness from ancient Greek philosophy to early Latin medieval philosophy. What connection is there between human rationality and happiness? This issue was uppermost in the minds of the Ancient Greek philosophers and continued to be of importance during the entire early medieval period. Starting with theSocrates of Plato's early dialogues, who is regarded as having initiated the eudaimonistic ethical tradition, the present volume looks at Plato, Aristotle, the Skeptics, Seneca [Stoicism], Epicurus, Plotinus [neo-Platonism], Augustine, Boethius, Anselm, and ends with Abelard, the final major figure in early medieval philosophy. Special efforts are made to reveal and trace the continuity and development of the views on rationality and happiness among these major thinkers within this period. The book's approach is historical, but the topics it treats are relevant to many discussions pursued in contemporary philosophical circles. Specifically, the book aims to make two major contributions to the ongoing development of virtue ethics. First, contemporary virtue ethics often draws distinctions between ancient Greek ethics and modern moral philosophy [mainly utilitarianism and Kantianism], and seeks to model ethics on ancient ethics. In doing so, however, contemporary virtue ethics often ignores the transition from Greek ethics to the early Latin medieval tradition. Second, contemporary virtue-based ethics, in its efforts to seek insights from ancient ethics, centers on virtue. In contrast, in ancient and medieval ethics, virtue is pursued for the sake of happiness [eudaimonia], and virtue is conceived as excellence of rationality. Hence, the relationship between rationality and happiness provides the framework for ethical inquiry within which the discussion of virtue takes place. Contributors: JULIA ANNAS, RICHARD BETT, JORGE J.E. GRACIA, BRAD INWOOD, WILLIAM MANN, JOHN MARENBON, GARETH B. MATTHEWS, MARK L. McPHERRAN, DONALD MORRISON, C.C.W. TAYLOR, JONATHAN SANFORD, JIYUAN YU. Jiyuan Yu is Assistant Professor of Ancient Philosophy at the State University of New York at Buffalo. Jorge J. E. Gracia is Samuel P. Capen Chair and SUNY Distinguised Professor in the Departments of Philosophy and Comparative Literature at the State University of New York at Buffalo.

Author : Richard Seaford,John Wilkins,Matthew Wright,Christopher Gill
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 342 pages
File Size : 40,8 Mb
Release : 2017
Category : Literary Collections
ISBN : 9780198777250

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Selfhood and the Soul by Richard Seaford,John Wilkins,Matthew Wright,Christopher Gill Pdf

Selfhood and the Soul is a collection of new and original essays in honor of Christopher Gill, Emeritus Professor of Ancient Thought at the University of Exeter. All of the essays in the volume contribute to a shared project--the exploration of ancient concepts of self and soul, understood in a broad sense--and, as in the work of the honor and himself, they are distinguished by a diversity of approach and subject matter, ranging widely across disciplinary boundaries to cover ancient philosophy, psychology, medical writing, and literary criticism. They can be read separately or together, taking the reader on a journey through topics and themes as varied as money, love, hope, pleasure, rage, free will, metempsychosis, Roman imperialism, cookery, and the Underworld, yet all committed to examining central issues about the experience of being a person and the question of how best to live. The international line-up of contributors includes many established figures in the disciplines of classical literature, ancient philosophy, and ancient medicine, as well as several younger scholars. All have been inspired by Christopher Gill's contributions to scholarly research in these fields and their collective work aspires to honor through imitation his remarkable combination of range with focus.

Author : Andrea Nightingale,David Sedley
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 261 pages
File Size : 45,5 Mb
Release : 2010-11-11
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9781139489768

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Ancient Models of Mind by Andrea Nightingale,David Sedley Pdf

How does God think? How, ideally, does a human mind function? Must a gap remain between these two paradigms of rationality? Such questions exercised the greatest ancient philosophers, including those featured in this book: Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, the Stoics and Plotinus. This volume encompasses a series of studies by leading scholars, revisiting key moments of ancient philosophy and highlighting the theme of human and divine rationality in both moral and cognitive psychology. It is a tribute to Professor A. A. Long, and reflects multiple themes of his own work.

Author : A. A. Long
Publisher : Harvard University Press
Page : 248 pages
File Size : 45,7 Mb
Release : 2015-01-05
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9780674967342

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Greek Models of Mind and Self by A. A. Long Pdf

This lively book offers a wide-ranging study of Greek notions of mind and human selfhood from Homer through Plotinus. A. A. Long anchors his discussion in questions of recurrent and universal interest. What happens to us when we die? How is the mind or soul related to the body? Are we responsible for our own happiness? Can we achieve autonomy? Long asks when and how these questions emerged in ancient Greece, and shows that Greek thinkers’ modeling of the mind gave us metaphors that we still live by, such as the rule of reason or enslavement to passion. He also interrogates the less familiar Greek notion of the intellect’s divinity, and asks what that might mean for us. Because Plato’s dialogues articulate these themes more sharply and influentially than works by any other Greek thinker, Plato receives the most sustained treatment in this account. But at the same time, Long asks whether Plato’s explanation of the mind and human behavior is more convincing for modern readers than that contained in the older Homeric poems. Turning to later ancient philosophy, especially Stoicism, Long concludes with an exploration of Epictetus’s injunction to live life by making correct use of one’s mental impressions. An authoritative treatment of Greek modes of self-understanding, Greek Models of Mind and Self demonstrates how ancient thinkers grappled with what is closest to us and yet still most mysterious—our own essence as singular human selves—and how the study of Greek thought can enlarge and enrich our experience.

Author : Craig J. N. De Paulo,Catherine Conroy De Paulo,Patrick Messina
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 128 pages
File Size : 51,6 Mb
Release : 2020-08-27
Category : Electronic
ISBN : 1792438346

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The Search for Authenticity Happiness and the Good by Craig J. N. De Paulo,Catherine Conroy De Paulo,Patrick Messina Pdf

Author : Walter T. Schmid
Publisher : SUNY Press
Page : 252 pages
File Size : 42,7 Mb
Release : 1998-04-02
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 0791437647

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Plato's Charmides and the Socratic Ideal of Rationality by Walter T. Schmid Pdf

In this book, W. Thomas Schmid demonstrates that the Charmides -- a platonic dialogue seldom referenced in contemporary studies -- is a microcosm of Socratic philosophy. He explores the treatment of the Socratic dialectic, the relation between it and the Socratic notion of self-knowledge, the Socratic ideal of rationality and self-restraint, the norm of holistic and moral health, the interpretation of the soul as the rational self, the Socratic attitude toward democracy, and the connections between dialectic autonomy and moral community. Schmid argues that the depiction and account of sophrosune -- human moderation -- in the Charmides adumbrates Plato's vision of the life of critical reason, and of its uneasy relation to political life in the ancient city.

Author : Michael Frede,Gisela Striker
Publisher : Oxford University Press on Demand
Page : 353 pages
File Size : 52,6 Mb
Release : 1999
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 0198250029

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Rationality in Greek Thought by Michael Frede,Gisela Striker Pdf

Rationality in Greek Thought, a collection of specially written essays by leading international scholars, re-examines ancient ideas of reason and rationality. Conceptions of reason, rationality, and reasonableness have changed considerably over time, and scholars have all too easily projected contemporary ideas of reason onto ancient thought. This tendency has made it impossible for us fully to understand either the central tenets of ancient philosophers like Plato, Aristotle, and the Stoics, or empiricist tendencies in ancient thought. Rationality in Greek Thought examines distinctive aspects of ancient conceptions of reason, sharpening awareness of the considerable conceptual change, and helping to remove a serious obstacle to a full understanding of ancient philosophical texts. At the same time, the essays stimulate a reassessment of our own ideas of reason and rationality, helping us set them in historical context and explore alternatives to them.

Author : Maria Cristina Amoretti,Nicla Vassallo
Publisher : Walter de Gruyter
Page : 254 pages
File Size : 50,6 Mb
Release : 2013-05-02
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9783110325867

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Reason and Rationality by Maria Cristina Amoretti,Nicla Vassallo Pdf

Reason and rationality represent crucial elements of the self-image of human beings and have unquestionably been among the most debated issues in Western philosophy, dating from ancient Greece, through the Middle Ages, and to the present day. Many words and thoughts have already been spent trying to define the nature and standards of reason and rationality, what they could or ought to be, and under what conditions something can be said to be rational. This volume focuses instead on the relationships of reason and rationality to some relevant specific topics, i.e., science, knowledge, gender, politics, ethics, religion, aesthetics, language, logic, and metaphysics, trying to uncover and clarify both the connections and differences in their various characterisations and uses.

Author : Christopher Gill
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 116 pages
File Size : 47,6 Mb
Release : 1995-12-14
Category : History
ISBN : 0199220743

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Greek Thought by Christopher Gill Pdf

Four related themes in Greek thought are examined in this book: (1) personality and self, (2) ethics and values (3) individuals and communities, and (4) the idea of nature as a moral norm. Although the focus is on Greek philosophy (the Presocratics, Plato, Aristotle, and the Hellenistic period), links between philosophy and literature or the wider culture are also explored. The book combines a survey of recent scholarship on these topics with the author's own interpretations. It can be used by students or teachers of classical studies or philosophy as an introduction to key themes and issues in Greek ethics or psychology. One aspect of the subject given special emphasis is the relationship between ancient and modern ideas on the issues treated here. The book closes with a selective bibliography on modern work on Greek philosophy.

Author : Marcelo D. Boeri,Yasuhira Y. Kanayama,Jorge Mittelmann
Publisher : Springer
Page : 252 pages
File Size : 50,7 Mb
Release : 2018-06-06
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9783319785479

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Soul and Mind in Greek Thought. Psychological Issues in Plato and Aristotle by Marcelo D. Boeri,Yasuhira Y. Kanayama,Jorge Mittelmann Pdf

This book offers new insights into the workings of the human soul and the philosophical conception of the mind in Ancient Greece. It collects essays that deal with different but interconnected aspects of that unified picture of our mental life shared by all Ancient philosophers who thought of the soul as an immaterial substance. The papers present theoretical discussions on moral and psychological issues ranging from Socrates to Aristotle, and beyond, in connection with modern psychology. Coverage includes moral learning and the fruitfulness of punishment, human motivation, emotions as psychic phenomena, and more. Some of these topics directly stemmed from the Socratic dialectical experience and its tragic outcome, whereas others found their way through a complex history of refinements, disputes, and internal critique. The contributors present the gradual unfolding of these central themes through a close inspection of the relevant Ancient texts. They deliver a wide-ranging survey of some central and mutually related topics. In the process, readers will learn new approaches to Platonic and Aristotelian psychology and action theory. This book will appeal to graduate students and researchers in Ancient philosophy. Any scholar with a general interest in the history of ideas will also find it a valuable resource.

Author : G. E. R. Lloyd
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 137 pages
File Size : 45,6 Mb
Release : 2018
Category : History
ISBN : 9781108420044

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The Ambivalences of Rationality by G. E. R. Lloyd Pdf

Cross-cultural examination of notions and practices of rationality in ancient and modern societies, drawing on philosophy, ethnography and cognitive science.