The art of living : the Stoics on the nature and function of philosophy
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
The art of living : the Stoics on the nature and function of philosophy
（Ashgate new critical thinking in philosophy）
Ashgate, 2004, c2003
- : alk. paper
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Note
Based on the author's thesis (doctoral)--University of Warwick, 2001
Includes bibliographical references (p. [188]-209) and indexes
Description and Table of Contents
Description
Presenting philosophy as an art concerned with one's way of life, Sellars draws on Socratic and Stoic philosophical resources and argues for the ancient claim that philosophy is primarily expressed in one's behaviour. The book considers the relationship between philosophy and biography, and the bearing that this relationship has on debates concerning the nature and function of philosophy. Questioning the premise that philosophy can only be conceived as a rational discourse, Sellars presents it instead as an art (techne) that combines both "logos" (rational discourse) and "askesis" (training), and suggests that this will make it possible to understand better the relationship between philosophy and biography. The first part of this book outlines the Socratic conception of philosophy as an art and the Stoic development of this idea into an art of living, as well as considering some of the ancient objections to the Stoic conception. The second part goes on to examine the relationship between philosophical discourse and exercises in Stoic philosophy.
Taking the literary form of such exercises as central, the author analyses two texts devoted to philosophical exercises by Epictetus and Marcus Aurelius.
Table of Contents
- Introduction - The topic
- The structure
- Part I: Philosophy and biography
- The Socratic origins of the art of living
- The Stoic conception of the art of living
- Sceptical objections
- Part II: Philosophical exercises
- Exercises in the Handbook of Epictetus
- Exercises in the Meditations of Marcus Aurelius
- Conclusion
- Glossary of Greek words and phrases
- Guide to ancient philosophers and authors.
by "Nielsen BookData"
