The Therapy of Desire: Theory and Practice in Hellenistic Ethics

by Martha C. Nussbaum, Martha C. Nussbaum (Introduction)

Overview

The Epicureans, Skeptics, and Stoics practiced philosophy not as a detached intellectual discipline, but as a worldly art of grappling with issues of daily and urgent human significance: the fear of death, love and sexuality, anger and aggression. Like medicine, philosophy to them was a rigorous science aimed both at understanding and at producing the flourishing of human life. In this engaging book, Martha Nussbaum examines texts of philosophers committed to a therapeutic paradigm--including Epicurus, Lucretius, Sextus Empiricus, Chrysippus, and Seneca--and recovers a valuable source for our moral and political thought of today.The Epicureans, Skeptics, and Stoics practiced philosophy not as a detached intellectual discipline, but as a worldly art of grappling with issues of daily and urgent human significance: the fear of death, love and sexuality, anger and aggression. Like medicine, philosophy to them was a rigorous science aimed both at understanding and at producing the flourishing of human life. In this engaging book, Martha Nussbaum examines texts of philosophers committed to a therapeutic paradigm--including Epicurus, Lucretius, Sextus Empiricus, Chrysippus, and Seneca--and recovers a valuable source for our moral and political thought of today.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780691181028
Publisher:	Princeton University Press
Publication date:	05/22/2018
Series:	Princeton Classics , #33
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	584
Sales rank:	277,442
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.50(h) x 1.70(d)

About the Author

Martha C. Nussbaum is Professor of Law and Ethics at the University of Chicago. Her writings include Aristotle's "De Motu Animalium" (Princeton), The Fragility of Goodness: Luck and Ethics in Greek Tragedy and Philosophy, and Love's Knowledge: Essays on Philosophy and Literature.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

List of Abbreviations

Introduction

Ch. 1 Therapeutic Arguments

Ch. 2 Medical Dialectic: Aristotle on Theory and Practice

Ch. 3 Aristotle on Emotions and Ethical Health

Ch. 4 Epicurean Surgery: Argument and Empty Desire

Ch. 5 Beyond Obsession and Disgust: Lucretius on the Therapy of Love

Ch. 6 Mortal Immortals: Lucretius on Death and the Voice of Nature

Ch. 7 "By Words, Not Arms": Lucretius on Anger and Aggression

Ch. 8 Skeptic Purgatives: Disturbance and the Life without Belief

Ch. 9 Stoic Tonics: Philosophy and the Self-Government of the Soul

Ch. 10 The Stoics on the Extirpation of the Passions

Ch. 11 Seneca on Anger in Public Life

Ch. 12 Serpents in the Soul: A Reading of Seneca's Medea

Ch. 13 The Therapy of Desire

List of Philosophers and Schools

Bibliography

Index Locorum

General Index

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"Filled with many beautifully written and powerful passages, this book will provoke lively discussion among specialists and show nonspecialists how much there is to be gained from a serious study of this period."—Brad Inwood, University of Toronto

Editorial Reviews

Nussbaum writes as an advocate [of the Hellenistic philosophers], though not an uncritical one, for even while she admires the seriousness and subtlety with which these philosophers analyze the passions, she allows that there is an unresolvable conflict between the detachment and the intense engagement entailed by their philosophies. The sense that these philosophers still matter, that we can wrangle with them and learn from them, is invigorating.—-Richard Jenkyns, New York Times Book Review

Few modern books have done as much as this one promises to do in raising the profile of Hellenistic philosophy. It is constantly gripping and absorbing, written with rare eloquence and containing long stretches of almost lyrical intensity. A literary as well as a philosophical tour de force.—-David Sedley, , Times Literary Supplement

By turns wise and witty, silly and Socratic, critical and compassionate, Nussbaum proves to be an extraordinarily addictive literary companion…. This is a book to live with.—-Peter Green, New Republic

[T]his is a wonderful book, of interest to scholars of ancient philosophy, but also to those interested in medical philosophy and philosophy of mind. It would also be of great interest to those interested in the conception of philosophy as therapy that has grown from studies on Wittgenstein. I can heartily recommend it.—-Michael Gillan Peckitt, Metapsychology Online Reviews

From the Publisher

In recent years, several books have appeared whose central thrust was to demonstrate that the methodology of philosophical thought and analysis has practical application. Here, Nussbaum (philosophy, classics, and comparative literature, Brown) has concentrated on Hellenistic ethics--i.e., those of the Epicureans, Stoics, and Skeptics--arguing that these schools have been ignored in traditional historical accounts, particularly with regard to their treatment of emotion. She analyzes texts by such writers as Aristotle, Epicurus, Sextus Empiricus, and Plutarch to show that their concerns regarding emotion are no different from ours and could be applied to the psychological problems, both private and public, we currently face. Nussbaum's criticisms and analyses of each writer are carefully worked out. Some professional (read ``technical'') philosophers may object to her approach, but it is encouraging to see philosopy viewed as having practical consequences. Recommended for all academic libraries and for public libraries with substantial philosophy collections.-- Terry Skeats, Bishop's Univ. Lib., Lennoxville, Quebec

Library Journal

[T]his is a wonderful book, of interest to scholars of ancient philosophy, but also to those interested in medical philosophy and philosophy of mind. It would also be of great interest to those interested in the conception of philosophy as therapy that has grown from studies on Wittgenstein. I can heartily recommend it.

Metapsychology Online Reviews - Michael Gillan Peckitt

By turns wise and witty, silly and Socratic, critical and compassionate, Nussbaum proves to be an extraordinarily addictive literary companion. . . . This is a book to live with.

New Republic - Peter Green

Nussbaum adventurously straddles boundaries conventionally drawn between philosophy and its own history, between philosophy and literature, and between scholarship and the social sciences. . . . Few modern books have done as much as this one promises to do in raising the profile of Hellenistic philosophy. It is constantly gripping and absorbing, written with rare eloquence and containing long stretches of almost lyrical intensity. A literary as well as a philosophical tour de force.

Times Literary Supplement - David Sedley

[E]ven while she admires the seriousness and subtlety with which these philosophers analyze the passions, [Nussbaum] allows that there is an unresolveable conflict between the detachment and the intense engagement entailed by their philosophies. The sense that these philosophers still matter, that we can wrangle with them and learn from them, is invigorating.

New York Times Book Review - Richard Jenkyns

[T]his is a wonderful book, of interest to scholars of ancient philosophy, but also to those interested in medical philosophy and philosophy of mind. It would also be of great interest to those interested in the conception of philosophy as therapy that has grown from studies on Wittgenstein. I can heartily recommend it.
— Michael Gillan Peckitt

Metapsychology Online Reviews

By turns wise and witty, silly and Socratic, critical and compassionate, Nussbaum proves to be an extraordinarily addictive literary companion. . . . This is a book to live with.
— Peter Green

New Republic

Nussbaum adventurously straddles boundaries conventionally drawn between philosophy and its own history, between philosophy and literature, and between scholarship and the social sciences. . . . Few modern books have done as much as this one promises to do in raising the profile of Hellenistic philosophy. It is constantly gripping and absorbing, written with rare eloquence and containing long stretches of almost lyrical intensity. A literary as well as a philosophical tour de force.
— David Sedley

Times Literary Supplement

[E]ven while she admires the seriousness and subtlety with which these philosophers analyze the passions, [Nussbaum] allows that there is an unresolveable conflict between the detachment and the intense engagement entailed by their philosophies. The sense that these philosophers still matter, that we can wrangle with them and learn from them, is invigorating.
— Richard Jenkyns

New York Times Book Review