Galen: Psychological Writings: Avoiding Distress, Character Traits, The Diagnosis and Treatment of the Affections and Errors Pec

Description

All Galen's surviving shorter works on psychology and ethics - including the recently discovered Avoiding Distress, and the neglected Character Traits, extant only in Arabic - are here presented in one volume in a new English translation, with substantial introductions and notes and extensive glossaries. Original and penetrating analyses are provided of the psychological and philosophical thought, both of the above and of two absolutely central works of Galenic philosophy, Affections and Errors and The Capacities of the Soul, by some of the foremost experts in the field. Each treatise has also been subjected to fresh textual study, taking account of the latest scholarly developments, and is presented with accompanying textual discussions, adding greatly to the value and accuracy of the work without detracting from its accessibility to a wider readership. The volume thus makes a major contribution to the understanding of the ancient world's most prominent doctor-philosopher in his intellectual context.

P. N. Singer is a Research Associate in the School of Historical Studies at the University of Newcastle. He wrote his doctoral thesis at the University of Cambridge on Galen's psychological works and researches and publishes on a range of areas in ancient Greek thought, in particular the interaction of medical and philosophical theories, concepts of the mind, works of practical ethics and ancient textual commentary. Further interests include ancient Greek drama, drama practice and classical Indian philosophy. His Galen: Selected Works (1997), in the Oxford World's Classics series, represented the first ever translation into English of a number of central works of the medical-philosophical author.

'Exemplary ... The Cambridge Galen Translations will do much to restore him to his rightful place among the most multifaceted, talented and influential of all Greek authors.' The Times Literary Supplement