Contemporary Encounters with Ancient Metaphysics

by Abraham Jacob Greenstine (Editor), Ryan J. Johnson (Editor)

Overview

In this volume of 18 essays, leading philosophers address the varied, volatile and novel encounters between contemporary and antique thought. They reconceive and redeploy the problems of ancient metaphysics: one and the many, the potential and the actual, the material and immaterial, the divine and the world itself. Alongside these essays are three original and previously unpublished translations of texts by Gilles Deleuze, Pierre Aubenque and Barbara Cassin.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781474437424
Publisher:	Edinburgh University Press
Publication date:	08/12/2018
Pages:	352
Product dimensions:	6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x (d)

About the Author

Abraham Jacob Greenstine is Adjunct Professor of Philosophy at Duquesne University.

Ryan J. Johnson is Associate Professor and Chair of the Philosophy Department at Elon University, in North Carolina. Ryan’s early books include The Deleuze-Lucretius Encounter (Edinburgh UP 2016) and Deleuze, A Stoic (Edinburgh UP 2020), as well as the co-edited collections Contemporary Encounters with Ancient Metaphysics (Edinburgh UP 2018) and Nietzsche and Epicurus (Bloomsbury 2020). His recent work includes the co-written Phenomenology of Black Spirit (Edinburgh UP 2023) and the monograph Three American Hegels (Rowman & Littlefield 2024). His future work is on the radical abolitionist John Brown, Spinoza, and John Coltrane.

Table of Contents

Notes on Contributors

Introduction1. A Thousand Antiquities – Abraham Jacob Greenstine & Ryan J. Johnson

I. Plato2. The Muses and Philosophy: Elements for a History of the "Pseudos" [1991] – Barbara Cassin, trans. Sam Galson3. Odysseus’ Changed Soul: A contemporary reading of the Myth of Er – Catherine Malabou4. Plato’s Protagoras: The Authority of Beginning an Education – Daniel Price5. Univocity, Duality, and Ideal Genesis: Deleuze and Plato – John Bova & Paul Livingston6. "Adjust your dread": Badiou’s Metaphysical Disposition – A. J. Bartlett

II. Aristotle7. Science Regained [1962] – Pierre Aubenque, trans. Clayton Shoppa8. Aristotle’s Organism, and Ours – Emanuela Bianchi9. Does it Matter? Material Nature and Vital Heat in Aristotle’s Biology – Adriel M. Trott10. The Modern Aristotle: Michael Polanyi's Search for Truth against Nihilism – David Hoinski & Ron Polansky 11. Diverging Ways: The Trajectories of Ontology in Parmenides, Aristotle, and Deleuze – Abraham Jacob Greenstine12. Object and Οὐσία: Harman and Aristotle on the Being of Things – Eric Salem

III. Epicureans, Stoics, Skeptics, and Neo-Platonists13. Lucretius and Naturalism [1961] – Gilles Deleuze, trans. Jared Bly14. On Causality and Law in Lucretius and Contemporary Cosmology – David Webb15. On the Surface: The Deleuze-Stoicism Encounter – Ryan J. Johnson16. Contingency and Skepticism in Agamben’s Thought – Gert-Jan van der Heiden17. Plotinus’ "Reverse" Platonism: A Deleuzian Response to the Problem of Emanation Imagery – Gina Zavota

IV. Postscript 18. From Metaphysics to Ethics (with Bernard Stiegler, Heraclitus, and Aristotle) – Kurt Lampe

What People are Saying About This

This volume is an ambitious experiment in doing the history of ancient philosophy as the practice of thought on the rich terrain of contemporary metaphysics. Bringing together an impressive international roster of rising stars and established scholars, it stakes out Greek philosophy as a vital resource for thinking beyond the parameters of the present. It should quickly become a classic.

Brooke Holmes

This volume is an ambitious experiment in doing the history of ancient philosophy as the practice of thought on the rich terrain of contemporary metaphysics. Bringing together an impressive international roster of rising stars and established scholars, it stakes out Greek philosophy as a vital resource for thinking beyond the parameters of the present. It should quickly become a classic.

Graham Harman

No philosophy can stand the test of time without being measured against the ancient classics of our discipline. In Greenstine and Johnson’s new collection, the giants of Greece take the stage with some of our most prominent contemporary thinkers, with key appearances from figures as early as Parmenides and as late as Agamben, Malabou, Stiegler, and Speculative Realism. I found myself quickly engrossed in these essays, and was sorry to reach the end of the volume.

Editorial Reviews

This volume is an ambitious experiment in doing the history of ancient philosophy as the practice of thought on the rich terrain of contemporary metaphysics. Bringing together an impressive international roster of rising stars and established scholars, it stakes out Greek philosophy as a vital resource for thinking beyond the parameters of the present. It should quickly become a classic.

Brooke Holmes

No philosophy can stand the test of time without being measured against the ancient classics of our discipline. In Greenstine and Johnson’s new collection, the giants of Greece take the stage with some of our most prominent contemporary thinkers, with key appearances from figures as early as Parmenides and as late as Agamben, Malabou, Stiegler, and Speculative Realism. I found myself quickly engrossed in these essays, and was sorry to reach the end of the volume.

Graham Harman