The Life Worth Living in Ancient Greek and Roman Philosophy

The Life Worth Living in Ancient Greek and Roman Philosophy PDF Author: David Machek
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1009257897
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 273

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Book Description
The account of the best life for humans – i.e. a happy or flourishing life – and what it might consist of was the central theme of ancient ethics. But what does it take to have a life that, if not happy, is at least worth living, compared with being dead or never having come into life? This question was also much discussed in antiquity, and David Machek's book reconstructs, for the first time, philosophical engagements with the question from Socrates to Plotinus. Machek's comprehensive book explores ancient views on a life worth living against a background of the pessimistic outlook on the human condition which was adopted by the Greek poets, and also shows the continuities and contrasts between the ancient perspective and modern philosophical debates about biomedical ethics and the ethics of procreation. His rich study of this relatively neglected theme offers a fresh and compelling narrative of ancient ethics.

The Life Worth Living in Ancient Greek and Roman Philosophy

The Life Worth Living in Ancient Greek and Roman Philosophy PDF Author: David Machek
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1009257897
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 273

Get Book

Book Description
The account of the best life for humans – i.e. a happy or flourishing life – and what it might consist of was the central theme of ancient ethics. But what does it take to have a life that, if not happy, is at least worth living, compared with being dead or never having come into life? This question was also much discussed in antiquity, and David Machek's book reconstructs, for the first time, philosophical engagements with the question from Socrates to Plotinus. Machek's comprehensive book explores ancient views on a life worth living against a background of the pessimistic outlook on the human condition which was adopted by the Greek poets, and also shows the continuities and contrasts between the ancient perspective and modern philosophical debates about biomedical ethics and the ethics of procreation. His rich study of this relatively neglected theme offers a fresh and compelling narrative of ancient ethics.

What is Ancient Philosophy?

What is Ancient Philosophy? PDF Author: Pierre Hadot
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 9780674013735
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 390

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Book Description
Hadot shows how the schools, trends, and ideas of ancient Greek and Roman philosophy strove to transform the individual's mode of perceiving and being in the world. For the ancients, philosophical theory and the philosophical way of life were inseparably linked. Hadot asks us to consider whether and how this connection might be reestablished today.

How to Live a Good Life

How to Live a Good Life PDF Author: Massimo Pigliucci
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 0525566155
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 322

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Book Description
A collection of essays by fifteen philosophers presenting a thoughtful, introductory guide to choosing a philosophy for living an examined and meaningful life. Socrates famously said "the unexamined life is not worth living," but what does it mean to truly live philosophically? This thought-provoking, wide-ranging collection brings together essays by fifteen leading philosophers reflecting on what it means to live according to a philosophy of life. From Eastern philosophies (Daoism, Confucianism, and Buddhism) and classical Western philosophies (such as Aristotelianism and Stoicism), to the four major religions, as well as contemporary philosophies (such as existentialism and effective altruism), each contributor offers a lively, personal account of how they find meaning in the practice of their chosen philosophical tradition. Together, the pieces in How to Live a Good Life provide not only a beginner's guide to choosing a life philosophy but also a timely portrait of what it means to live an examined life in the twenty-first century. A VINTAGE ORIGINAL

A Life Worth Living

A Life Worth Living PDF Author: William Ferraiolo
Publisher: John Hunt Publishing
ISBN: 1789043050
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 190

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Book Description
Stoicism offers rationally grounded, proven psychological techniques for the gradual development of consistent self-mastery, and emotional detachment from those elements of the human condition that tend to cause the most pervasive and unsettling forms of fear, anxiety, and avoidable disquiet. In the essays in A Life Worth Living, William Ferraiolo examines what it means to incorporate Stoicism into 21st century life, adapting classical Stoic philosophy for the modern day. 'William Ferraiolo’s new book represents an essential contribution to all who struggle with living a meaningful life.' Eldon Taylor, Ph.D, New York Times bestselling author of Choices and Illusions

The Quest for the Good Life

The Quest for the Good Life PDF Author: Øyvind Rabbås
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0191064025
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 308

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Book Description
How should I live? How can I be happy? What is happiness, really? These are perennial questions, which in recent times have become the object of diverse kinds of academic research. Ancient philosophers placed happiness at the centre of their thought, and we can trace the topic through nearly a millennium. While the centrality of the notion of happiness in ancient ethics is well known, this book is unique in that it focuses directly on this notion, as it appears in the ancient texts. Fourteen papers by an international team of scholars map the various approaches and conceptions found from the Pre-Socratics through Plato, Aristotle, Hellenistic Philosophy, to the Neo-Platonists and Augustine in late antiquity. While not promising a formula that can guarantee a greater share in happiness to the reader, the book addresses questions raised by ancient thinkers that are still of deep concern to many people today: Do I have to be a morally good person in order to be happy? Are there purely external criteria for happiness such as success according to received social norms or is happiness merely a matter of an internal state of the person? How is happiness related to the stages of life and generally to time? In this book the reader will find an informed discussion of these and many other questions relating to happiness.

Pursuits of Wisdom

Pursuits of Wisdom PDF Author: John M. Cooper
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 069115970X
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 458

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Book Description
This is a major reinterpretation of ancient philosophy that recovers the long Greek and Roman tradition of philosophy as a complete way of life--and not simply an intellectual discipline. Distinguished philosopher John Cooper traces how, for many ancient thinkers, philosophy was not just to be studied or even used to solve particular practical problems. Rather, philosophy--not just ethics but even logic and physical theory--was literally to be lived. Yet there was great disagreement about how to live philosophically: philosophy was not one but many, mutually opposed, ways of life. Examining this tradition from its establishment by Socrates in the fifth century BCE through Plotinus in the third century CE and the eclipse of pagan philosophy by Christianity, Pursuits of Wisdom examines six central philosophies of living--Socratic, Aristotelian, Stoic, Epicurean, Skeptic, and the Platonist life of late antiquity. The book describes the shared assumptions that allowed these thinkers to conceive of their philosophies as ways of life, as well as the distinctive ideas that led them to widely different conclusions about the best human life. Clearing up many common misperceptions and simplifications, Cooper explains in detail the Socratic devotion to philosophical discussion about human nature, human life, and human good; the Aristotelian focus on the true place of humans within the total system of the natural world; the Stoic commitment to dutifully accepting Zeus's plans; the Epicurean pursuit of pleasure through tranquil activities that exercise perception, thought, and feeling; the Skeptical eschewal of all critical reasoning in forming their beliefs; and, finally, the late Platonist emphasis on spiritual concerns and the eternal realm of Being. Pursuits of Wisdom is essential reading for anyone interested in understanding what the great philosophers of antiquity thought was the true purpose of philosophy--and of life.

Examined Life

Examined Life PDF Author: Robert Nozick
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 0671725017
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 326

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Book Description
An exploration of topics of everyday importance in the Socratic tradition.

Death and Immortality in Ancient Philosophy

Death and Immortality in Ancient Philosophy PDF Author: Alex Long
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107086590
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 241

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Book Description
Provides an accessible account of the variety and subtlety of Greek and Roman philosophy of death, from Homer to Marcus Aurelius.

PHILOSOPHY

PHILOSOPHY PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781789502114
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description


Lives of the Eminent Philosophers

Lives of the Eminent Philosophers PDF Author: Diogenes Laertius
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0197523404
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 448

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Book Description
Everyone wants to live a meaningful life. Long before our own day of self-help books offering twelve-step programs and other guides to attain happiness, the philosophers of ancient Greece explored the riddle of what makes a life worth living, producing a wide variety of ideas and examples to follow. This rich tradition was recast by Diogenes Laertius into an anthology, a miscellany of maxims and anecdotes, that generations of Western readers have consulted for edification as well as entertainment ever since the Lives of the Eminent Philosophers, first compiled in the third century AD, came to prominence in Renaissance Italy. To this day, it remains a crucial source for much of what we know about the origins and practice of philosophy in ancient Greece, covering a longer period of time and a larger number of figures-from Pythagoras and Socrates to Aristotle and Epicurus-than any other ancient source.