Overview

Early Greek Ethics is devoted to Greek philosophical ethics in its formative period, from the last decades of the sixth century BCE to the beginning of the fourth century BCE. It begins with the inception of Greek philosophical ethics and ends immediately before the composition of Plato's and Aristotle's mature ethical works Republic and Nicomachean Ethics. The ancient contributors include Presocratics such as Heraclitus, Democritus, and figures of the early Pythagorean tradition such as Empedocles and Archytas of Tarentum, who have previously been studied principally for their metaphysical, cosmological, and natural philosophical ideas. Socrates and his lesser known associates such as Antisthenes of Athens and Aristippus of Cyrene also feature, as well as sophists such as Gorgias of Leontini, Antiphon of Athens, and Prodicus of Ceos, and anonymous texts such as the Pythagorean Acusmata, Dissoi Logoi, Anonymus Iamblichi, and On Law and Justice. In addition to chapters on these individuals and texts, the volume explores select fields and topics especially influential to ethical philosophical thought in the formative period and later, such as early Greek medicine, music, friendship, justice and the afterlife, and early Greek ethnography. Consisting of thirty chapters composed by an international team of leading philosophers and classicists, Early Greek Ethics is the first volume in any language devoted to philosophical ethics in the formative period.

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9780198758679

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Reviews

David Conan Wolfsdorf has done a great service in putting together the thirty chapters ... that make up the new collection Early Greek Ethics ... Many of the chapters provide useful introductions and thus fill a notable gap in the literature ... One notable and welcome feature of the volume is the variety of approaches to early Greek ethics that it offers, from close study of individual texts to broad summary. It is to be hoped that this book serves to stimulate more interest in this area and, indeed, more awareness of its existence. * Jenny Bryan, Greece & Rome * Early Greek Ethics provides a comprehensive account of Greek philosophical ethics, focusing on both notable and less-known thinkers ... Each entry is substantial, and the contributors ground their scholarship firmly in primary texts and the secondary literature. Wolfsdorf has delivered a splendid resource: broad in scope yet inclusive and impeccably researched. Those specializing in Greek ethical thought will find it an indispensable reference text. * F. A. Grabowski, CHOICE * In summary, everyone who works in early Greek philosophy cannot but welcome this volume. It is a well structured, carefully organized, scholarly, informative, and original work on the early history and philosophy of ethics ... The volume inspires us to reconsider early Greek philosophers not merely as pre-Socratics, pre-Platonists, or even pre-Aristotelians, but as individual thinkers in their own right who contributed in the development, the formation, and the continuation of the Greek philosophical tradition. * Giannis Stamatellos, Bryn Mawr Classical Review *

In summary, everyone who works in early Greek philosophy cannot but welcome this volume. It is a well structured, carefully organized, scholarly, informative, and original work on the early history and philosophy of ethics ... The volume inspires us to reconsider early Greek philosophers not merely as pre-Socratics, pre-Platonists, or even pre-Aristotelians, but as individual thinkers in their own right who contributed in the development, the formation, and the continuation of the Greek philosophical tradition. * Giannis Stamatellos, Bryn Mawr Classical Review *

Author Information

David Conan Wolfsdorf is Professor of Philosophy at Temple University in Philadelphia. Previously he taught at Fairfield University in Connecticut. He is the author of On Goodness (Oxford, 2019), Pleasure in Ancient Greek Philosophy (Cambridge, 2012), and Trials of Reason (Oxford, 2008).

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