Details

Subject(s)

• Philosophy, Ancient [Browse]
• Philosophy [Browse]

Series

• Oxford Academic. [More in this series]
• Oxford scholarship online

Summary note

This book is a collection of 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.

Bibliographic references

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Source of description

Description based on Publisher website; title from home page (viewed on September 27, 2022).

Contents

• Acknowledgements
• Preface
• Citations and Abbreviations
• Introduction
• 1. Finding Oneself in Greek Philosophy
• 2. Ancient Philosophy's Hardest Question: What to Make of Oneself?
• 3. Eudaimonism, Divinity, and Rationality in Greek Ethics
• 4. Heraclitus on Measure and the Explicit Emergence of Rationality
• 5. Parmenides on Thinking Being
• 6. Socratic Idiosyncrasy and Cynic Exhibitionism
• 7. Socrates' Divine Sign
• 8. Politics and Divinity in Plato's Republic: The Form of the Good
• 9. Platonic Souls as Persons
• 10. Cosmic Craftsmanship in Plato and Stoicism
• 11. Aristotle on Eudaimonia, Nous, and Divinity
• 12. Second Selves and Stoic Friends
• 13. The Self in Marcus Aurelius' Meditations
• 14. Plotinus on Self and Happiness
• Epilogue
• Bibliography
• Index of Passages
• Index of Names and Subjects.

Show 19 more Contents items

Other format(s)

Also available in Print and PDF edition.

ISBN

• 9780191841590
• 0191841595
• 9780192525086
• 0192525085

OCLC

1348483020

Doi

• 10.1093/oso/9780198803393.001.0001

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