Selfhood and Rationality in Ancient Greek Philosophy

From Heraclitus to Plotinus

Bibliographic Data

ID2713726
AuthorsA A Long (0000-0002-7447-7237, Emeritus Professor of Classics, University of California Berkeley, corresponding author)
Year2022
Pages288
Publication date2022-10-27
Open AccessNo
TypeBOOK
VenueSelfhood and Rationality in Ancient Greek Philosophy (SOURCE_BOOK)
PublisherOxford University Press (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1093/oso/9780198803393.001.0001
OpenAlexW4309168857
Open LibraryOL39280496M
ISBN9780198803393
GOOGLE_BOOK_IDut6PEAAAQBAJ
LanguageEN
References cited28

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

Admiration · Aesthetics · Ancient Greece · Ancient Greek · Art · Divinity · Epistemology · Happiness · Identity (music) · Literature · Logos Bible Software · Meaning (existential) · Rationality · Relation (database) · SOCRATES · Soul · Theology · Classical Philosophy and Thought · Classics · Medieval Philosophy and Theology · Philosophical Ethics and Theory · Philosophy · Psychology · Social Psychology

Tools

Open DOILibgen