Download or read book Philosophy and Community in Seneca s Prose written by Carey Seal and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2021 with total page 229 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Today philosophy's promises to enhance the lives of those who study it are couched, like justifications for the humanistic disciplines more generally, in circumspect terms. In the ancient world, however, philosophy commonly claimed for itself the status of an exclusive guide to happiness. Through philosophy's characteristic practices of argument and rational inquiry, its advocates believed, human beings could learn what was really good for themselves and free themselves from illusion. In the process, they would necessarily come to lead happier lives. This link between learning and action meant that philosophy was often regarded as an entire way of life, in which intellectual activity and practice were closely associated and mutually interdependent. Nowhere else in ancient literature is this ideal given such full and nuanced exposition as in the prose writings of Seneca, in which we can see a philosopher and literary artist of the first rank exploring in detail the dilemmas posed by the confrontation of the idea of the philosophical life with the historical and cultural specificity of the first-century CE Rome in which he wrote. His vast prose oeuvre defends, elaborates, and aims to make appealing this ideal of a life guided by disciplined thought. He is unequivocal about the necessary centrality of philosophy to any attempt at living a good life: philosophy, he writes, "shapes and forges the mind, it puts life in order, it directs actions, it points out what is to be done and what is not to be done, it sits at the helm and steers a course through the hazards of the waves" (animum format et fabricat, vitam disponit, actiones regit, agenda et omittenda demonstrat, sedet ad gubernaculum et per ancipitia fluctuantium derigit cursum, Ep. 16.3). A successful life, for Seneca as for many other ancient philosophers, is governed by, indeed constituted by, the practice of philosophy. His rich and varied corpus, I argue, presents us with a unique opportunity to learn how one reflective and well-informed ancient philosopher reconciled this ideal of philosophical living, and all the aspirations to independence and universality that come with it, to the fact that he and his readers were living in a sociopolitical setting with its own set of norms and customs. These customs, and the claims of community more generally, stand in potential contradiction with the practical guidance philosophy aims to supply. For Seneca, as we will see, this tension was a prodigiously fruitful one. Recent work has rehabilitated Seneca's standing as a major philosopher"--
Download or read book Philosophy and Community in Seneca s Prose written by Carey Seal and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2021-04-09 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Roman philosopher Seneca addressed himself to the question of how we ought to live in letters and treatises that have engaged the attention of readers from his own day to the present. A committed, if critical and eccentric, adherent of Stoicism, he gives us a set of reflections on the good life that are rich both in philosophical subtlety and in vivid engagement with day-to-day life in ancient Rome. Philosophy and Community in Seneca's Prose proposes a new understanding of the relationship between these two facets of Seneca's achievement, examining how he balances the Socratic imperative to subject one's life to rational scrutiny, on the one hand, with the claims of Roman moral tradition on the other. Carey Seal argues that we should think of Seneca neither as a spokesman for Stoicism who seizes opportunistically upon the data of Roman social life to make his case, nor as an expositor of the inherited values of the Roman elite in the language of Stoic philosophy. Rather, Seneca should be understood as someone intensely interested in the question of philosophy's social entanglements and presuppositions. Seneca's use of Roman politics and of the institution of slavery in elaborating his ideal of a life guided by reason is carefully examined in the book.
Download or read book Philosophy and Community in Seneca s Prose written by Carey Seal and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2021 with total page 229 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Today philosophy's promises to enhance the lives of those who study it are couched, like justifications for the humanistic disciplines more generally, in circumspect terms. In the ancient world, however, philosophy commonly claimed for itself the status of an exclusive guide to happiness. Through philosophy's characteristic practices of argument and rational inquiry, its advocates believed, human beings could learn what was really good for themselves and free themselves from illusion. In the process, they would necessarily come to lead happier lives. This link between learning and action meant that philosophy was often regarded as an entire way of life, in which intellectual activity and practice were closely associated and mutually interdependent. Nowhere else in ancient literature is this ideal given such full and nuanced exposition as in the prose writings of Seneca, in which we can see a philosopher and literary artist of the first rank exploring in detail the dilemmas posed by the confrontation of the idea of the philosophical life with the historical and cultural specificity of the first-century CE Rome in which he wrote. His vast prose oeuvre defends, elaborates, and aims to make appealing this ideal of a life guided by disciplined thought. He is unequivocal about the necessary centrality of philosophy to any attempt at living a good life: philosophy, he writes, "shapes and forges the mind, it puts life in order, it directs actions, it points out what is to be done and what is not to be done, it sits at the helm and steers a course through the hazards of the waves" (animum format et fabricat, vitam disponit, actiones regit, agenda et omittenda demonstrat, sedet ad gubernaculum et per ancipitia fluctuantium derigit cursum, Ep. 16.3). A successful life, for Seneca as for many other ancient philosophers, is governed by, indeed constituted by, the practice of philosophy. His rich and varied corpus, I argue, presents us with a unique opportunity to learn how one reflective and well-informed ancient philosopher reconciled this ideal of philosophical living, and all the aspirations to independence and universality that come with it, to the fact that he and his readers were living in a sociopolitical setting with its own set of norms and customs. These customs, and the claims of community more generally, stand in potential contradiction with the practical guidance philosophy aims to supply. For Seneca, as we will see, this tension was a prodigiously fruitful one. Recent work has rehabilitated Seneca's standing as a major philosopher"--
Download or read book Oxford Handbook of Epicurus and Epicureanism written by Phillip Mitsis and published by Oxford Handbooks. This book was released on 2020 with total page 848 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume offers authoritative discussions of all aspects of the philosophy of Epicurus (340-271 BCE) and then traces Epicurean influences throughout the Western tradition. It is an unmatched resource for those wishing to deepen their knowledge of Epicureanism's powerful arguments about death, happiness, and the nature of the material world.
Download or read book Flavian Poetry and its Greek Past written by Antonios Augoustakis and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2014-01-16 with total page 475 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Flavian Poetry and its Greek Past breaks new ground by investigating the close interaction between Flavian poetry and Greek literary tradition and by evaluating the meaning of this affiliation in the socio-political and cultural context of the late first century CE. Authors examined include Martial, Silius Italicus, Statius, and Valerius Flaccus. Their interaction with Greek literature is not just thematic or geographical: the Greek literary past is conceived as the poetic influence of a variety of authors, periods, and genres, such as Homer, the Cyclic tradition, Greek lyric poetry, Greek tragedy, Hellenistic poetry and aesthetics, and Greek historiography.
Download or read book Examined Lives written by James Miller and published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. This book was released on 2011-01-04 with total page 433 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A New York Times Notable Book for 2011 We all want to know how to live. But before the good life was reduced to ten easy steps or a prescription from the doctor, philosophers offered arresting answers to the most fundamental questions about who we are and what makes for a life worth living. In Examined Lives, James Miller returns to this vibrant tradition with short, lively biographies of twelve famous philosophers. Socrates spent his life examining himself and the assumptions of others. His most famous student, Plato, risked his reputation to tutor a tyrant. Diogenes carried a bright lamp in broad daylight and announced he was "looking for a man." Aristotle's alliance with Alexander the Great presaged Seneca's complex role in the court of the Roman Emperor Nero. Augustine discovered God within himself. Montaigne and Descartes struggled to explore their deepest convictions in eras of murderous religious warfare. Rousseau aspired to a life of perfect virtue. Kant elaborated a new ideal of autonomy. Emerson successfully preached a gospel of self-reliance for the new American nation. And Nietzsche tried "to compose into one and bring together what is fragment and riddle and dreadful chance in man," before he lapsed into catatonic madness. With a flair for paradox and rich anecdote, Examined Lives is a book that confirms the continuing relevance of philosophy today—and explores the most urgent questions about what it means to live a good life.
Download or read book Seneca written by Margaret Graver and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2023-03-31 with total page 319 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In-depth studies of Seneca's relation to Greek philosophy, his analysis of the emotions, and his project as a literary author.
Download or read book Paul and Seneca within the Ancient Consolation Tradition written by Alex Muir and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2024-06-28 with total page 296 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this monograph, Alex W. Muir shows how Paul and Seneca were significant contributors to an ancient philosophical and rhetorical tradition of consolation. Each writer's consolatory career is surveyed in turn through close readings of key primary texts: chiefly Seneca's three literary consolations and 'Epistles'; and Paul's letters, 1 Thessalonians, 2 Corinthians, and Philippians. A final comparative dialogue highlights the pair's adaptations and innovations within this tradition.
Download or read book Fallibility and Fallibilism in Ancient Philosophy and Literature written by Therese Fuhrer and published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. This book was released on 2023-12-18 with total page 395 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Mankind’s constant struggle with physical as well as mental weaknesses is omnipresent in ancient literature: misconduct, wrongdoing, failure and experiences of contingency are anthropological phenomena. Ancient ethics, epistemology, and natural philosophy have developed different theoretical approaches and guidelines on how to act and how to overcome all kinds of problems. Christian theology, on the other hand, has explained moral failure as a symptom of original sin, comparing decline and destruction to a burden from which mankind is relieved only at the end. The contributions explore how ancient philosophical texts, both pagan and Christian, explain, conceptualize and integrate the myriad manifestations of human fallibility into the different philosophical schools. The focus is on anthropological, ontological and theological concepts that analyse and reflect human fallibility, as well as on the textual and linguistic representation of the phenomenon in ancient literature. Several contributions in the volume explore literary texts that discuss or illustrate the philosophical dimension of fallibility, such as satire’s or tragedy’s (often exaggerated) depiction of human weakness.
Download or read book Letters and Communities written by Paola Ceccarelli and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2018-08-16 with total page 335 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The writing of letters often evokes associations of a single author and a single addressee, who share in the exchange of intimate thoughts across distances of space and time. This model underwrites such iconic notions as the letter representing an 'image of the soul of the author' or constituting 'one half of a dialogue'. However justified this conception of letter-writing may be in particular instances, it tends to marginalize a range of issues that were central to epistolary communication in the ancient world and have yet to receive sustained and systematic investigation. In particular, it overlooks the fact that letters frequently presuppose and were designed to reinforce communities-or, indeed, to constitute them in the first place. This volume explores the interrelation of letters and communities in the ancient world, examining how epistolary communication aided in the construction and cultivation of group-identities and communities, whether social, political, religious, ethnic, or philosophical. A theoretically informed Introduction establishes the interface of epistolary discourse and group formation as a vital but hitherto neglected area of research, and is followed by thirteen case studies offering multi-disciplinary perspectives from four key cultural configurations: Greece, Rome, Judaism, and Christianity. The first part opens the volume with two chapters on the theory and practice of epistolary communication that focus on ancient epistolary theory and the unavoidable presence of a letter-carrier who introduces a communal aspect into any correspondence, while the second comprises five chapters that explore configurations of power and epistolary communication in the Greek and Roman worlds, from the archaic period to the end of the Hellenistic age. Five chapters on letters and communities in Ancient Judaism and Early Christianity follow in the third, part before the volume concludes with an envoi examining the trans-historical, or indeed timeless, philosophical community Seneca the Younger construes in his Letters to Lucilius.
Download or read book Seneca and the Idea of Tragedy written by Gregory A. Staley and published by OUP USA. This book was released on 2010-01-14 with total page 200 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The question of why Seneca wrote tragedy has been debated since at least the 13th century. Since Seneca was a Stoic, critics assumed he wrote with the standard Stoic theory of literature as education in philosophy in mind. This book argues that Seneca was influenced by Aristotle's famous defense of tragedy against Plato's critique.
Download or read book Dialogues and Essays written by Lucius Annaeus Seneca and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2008-09-11 with total page 298 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Stoic philosopher and tutor to the young emperor Nero, Seneca wrote moral essays - exercises in practical philosophy - on how to live in a troubled world. Strikingly applicable today, his thoughts on happiness and other subjects are here combined in a clear, modern translation with an introduction on Seneca's life and philosophy.
Download or read book Solitude written by Philip Koch and published by Open Court Publishing. This book was released on 1994 with total page 400 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: About the philosophical aspects of solitude.
Download or read book Dialogues and Letters written by Seneca and published by Penguin UK. This book was released on 2005-02-24 with total page 168 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A major writer and a leading figure in the public life of Rome, Seneca (c. 4BC-AD 65) ranks among the most eloquent and influential masters of Latin prose. This selection explores his thoughts on philosophy and the trials of life. In the Consolation to Helvia he strives to offer solace to his mother, following his exile in AD 41, while On the Shortness of Life and On Tranquillity of Mind are lucid and compelling explorations of Stoic thought. Witty and self-critical, the Letters - written to his young friend Lucilius - explore Seneca's struggle to acquire philosophical wisdom. A fascinating insight into one of the greatest minds of Ancient Rome, these works inspired writers and thinkers including Montaigne, Rousseau, and Bacon, and continue to intrigue and enlighten.
Download or read book Philosophy and Community in Seneca s Prose written by Carey Blackshear Seal and published by . This book was released on 2009 with total page 384 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Seneca Epistulae Morales Book 2 written by Janja Soldo and published by . This book was released on 2021-08 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is the first modern commentary on the second book of Seneca's Epistulae Morales. It contains a substantial introduction and a text and translation of the nine letters that constitute the second book of the Epistulae Morales.
Download or read book Roman Luxuria written by Francesca Romana Berno and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2023-03-17 with total page 297 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In classical Latin, luxuria means 'desire for luxury'; it is linked with the ideas of excess and deviation from a standard. It is in most cases labelled as a vice which contrasts with the innate frugal nature of the Romans. Latin authors do not see it as endemic but as an import from the East in the aftermath of military conquests—and as a cause of fatal decline. Following these etymological and semantic origins, Roman Luxuria: A Literary and Cultural History discusses the influence of Greek culture on the Roman concept and the peculiar characteristics of Roman luxuria. It analyses Roman views on luxuria through close readings in historical order from Cato the Elder, who regards luxuria as the opposite of the ideal Roman way of life, to the Christian poet Prudentius, who represents it in an allegorical fight with Sobriety. The book attends both to key authors and to wider literary genres, such as historiography and satire. Particular consideration is given to the rhetorical device of personification, which can be traced from the first appearances of luxuria in Latin literature to those of late antiquity. Berno devotes detailed attention to Seneca the Younger, whose work is often preoccupied with this passion. Seneca both defends himself from the charge of luxuria and violently attacks it in others, describing it as the archenemy of a philosophical life. Along the centuries, the focus on luxuria shifts from the economic sphere (and the waste of money) to the erotic, to the extent that in the Christian world it becomes one of the Seven Capital Sins representing the vice of lust.
