Death and Immortality in Ancient Philosophy

by A. G. Long

Overview

Death and immortality played a central role in Greek and Roman thought, from Homer and early Greek philosophy to Marcus Aurelius. In this book A. G. Long explains the significance of death and immortality in ancient ethics, particularly Plato's dialogues, Stoicism and Epicureanism; he also shows how philosophical cosmology and theology caused immortality to be re-imagined. Ancient arguments and theories are related both to the original literary and theological contexts and to contemporary debates on the philosophy of death. The book will be of major interest to scholars and students working on Greek and Roman philosophy, and to those wishing to explore ancient precursors of contemporary debates about death and its outcomes.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781107451568
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	04/06/2023
Series:	Key Themes in Ancient Philosophy
Pages:	242
Product dimensions:	5.98(w) x 9.09(h) x 0.59(d)

About the Author

A. G. Long is Senior Lecturer in Classics at the University of St Andrews, Scotland. He has translated (with David Sedley) Plato's Meno and Phaedo (Cambridge, 2010) and is the author of Conversation and Self-Sufficiency in Plato (2013) as well as the editor of Plato and the Stoics (Cambridge, 2013).

Table of Contents

Introduction; Part I. Immortality: 1. Immortality in early Greek poetry and philosophy; 2. Platonic immortalities; 3. Immortality and the ethics of a finite lifespan: Aristotle, early Stoics and Epicureanism; Part II. Death: 4. Death, doubts and scepticism; 5. Epicurean evaluations of death; 6. Stoic agnosticism and symmetry arguments; 7. Suicide, religion and the city; Conclusion.