Rereading Ancient Philosophy: Old Chestnuts and Sacred Cows

Description

This book revisits, and sheds fresh light on, some key texts and debates in ancient philosophy. Its twin targets are 'Old Chestnuts' - well-known passages in the works of ancient philosophers about which one might have thought everything there is to say has already been said - and 'Sacred Cows' - views about what ancient philosophers thought, on issues of philosophical importance, that have attained the status of near-unquestioned orthodoxy. Thirteen leading scholars respond to these challenges by offering new perspectives on familiar material and challenging some prevailing orthodoxies. On authors ranging from the Presocratics to Plotinus, the book represents a snapshot of contemporary scholarship in ancient philosophy, and a vigorous and illuminating affirmation of its continuing interest and power. The volume is dedicated to Professor M. M. McCabe, an inspiring scholar and teacher, colleague and friend to both the editors and the contributors.

VERITY HARTE is George A. Saden Professor of Philosophy and Classics at Yale University. She is the author of Plato on Parts and Wholes: the Metaphysics of Structure (2002) and co-editor (with M. M. McCabe, R. W. Sharples, and Anne Sheppard) of Aristotle and the Stoics Reading Plato (2010) and (with Melissa Lane) of Politeia in Greek and Roman Philosophy (Cambridge, 2013). RAPHAEL WOOLF is Professor of Philosophy at King's College London. He is author of Cicero: The Philosophy of a Roman Sceptic (2015), translator of Cicero's De Finibus (On Moral Ends, ed. Julia Annas, Cambridge, 2001) and (with Brad Inwood) translator and editor of Aristotle's Eudemian Ethics (Cambridge, 2012). He has published articles on Plato, Aristotle and Hellenistic philosophy.