Ethics of Epicurus and its Relation to Contemporary Doctrines
Produktdetaljer
Biografisk notat
Jean-Marie Guyau (1854 –1888) was a French philosopher and poet. His central works include Esquisse d’une morale sans obligation ni sanction (A Sketch of Morality Independent of Obligation or Sanction) and L’Irréligion de l’avenir (The Non-Religion of the Future). His works met an enthusiastic reception by important thinkers of his time, such as Friedrich Nietzsche, Pierre Kropotkin and Henri Bergson.
Federico Testa is an Associate Fellow at the Institute of Advanced Study of the University of Warwick, UK. His current research focuses on Michel Foucault’s politics of life, French contemporary philosophy and the revival of Hellenistic tradition within Modern and Contemporary philosophy.
Keith Ansell Pearson holds a Personal Chair in Philosophy at the University of Warwick, UK. He is the author of acclaimed monographs on Nietzsche and Bergson and has published a number of essays on Guyau’s ethics.
This is a fascinating study of Epicurus, also containing a valuable account of Epicureanism in the early modern period, and it is an important document in the history of Epicureanism in its own right. Guyau is himself an unjustly neglected philosopher, making this volume doubly welcome.
John Sellars, Reader in Philosophy, Royal Holloway University of London, UK
Once compulsory reading for Tolstoy, Nietzsche, and Bergson, Guyau’s study is three books in one: a masterful introduction to Epicureanism, a modern history of the philosophy since Hobbes and Spinoza, and a passionate defense of its utility as a guide to social and ethical conduct today. This translation will reestablish Guyau’s reputation as one of the great intellects — and influencers — of the late nineteenth century.
James I. Porter, Irving Stone Professor of Rhetoric and Classics, University of California, Berkeley, USA
This is a beautiful translation of a game-changing classic in Epicurean scholarship. A work of philosophy in its own right, Guyau exquisitely captures the illusive nature of an ethics of the “whole of life” and reveals its uniquely emancipatory potential. Finally, English readers can discover the magic of Guyau’s prose that influenced many of the greatest thinkers of 19th materialism!
Thomas Nail, Professor of Philosophy, University of Denver, USA
This is the first English translation of a compelling and highly original reading of Epicurus by Jean-Marie Guyau. This book has long been recognized as one of the best and most concerted attempts to explore one of the most important, yet controversial ancient philosophers whose thought, Guyau claims, remains vital to modern and contemporary culture. Throughout the text we are introduced to the origins of the philosophy of pleasure in Ancient Greece, with Guyau clearly demonstrating how this idea persists through the history of philosophy and how it is an essential trait in the Western tradition.
With an introduction by Keith Ansell-Pearson and Federico Testa, which contextualizes the work of Guyau within the canon of French thought, and notes on both further reading and on Epicurean scholarship more generally, this translation also acts as a critical introduction to the philosophy of Guyau and Epicurus.
Note on the Translation
Editors’ Introduction: Jean-Marie Guyau on Epicurus and the Art of Living: A Novel Approach to the History of Philosophy
Foreword: On the Method Used for the Exposition of Systems
Introduction: Epicureanism in Antiquity and Modernity
Book One: The Pleasures of the Flesh
Chapter 1: Pleasure: The End of Life and the Principle of All Ethics
Chapter 2: Fundamental Pleasure: The Stomach
Chapter 3: The Rule of Pleasure: Utility. – Happiness, The Sovereign Good
Chapter 4: Desire. – The Ultimate End of Desire: Rest, Enjoyment of Self
Book Two: The Pleasures of the Soul
Chapter 1: Intellectual and Moral Serenity – Science, Opposed by Epicurus to the Idea of Miracle
Chapter 2: Freedom - Contingency in Nature, the Condition of Human Freedom
Chapter 3: Tranquillity in the Face of Death. – Epicurean Theory of Death, and its Relation to Contemporary Theories
Book Three: Private and Public Virtues
Chapter 1: Courage and Temperance. Love and Friendship. The Genesis of Friendship. The Conduct of the Sage in Human Society.
Chapter 2: Justice and the Social Contract
Chapter 3: Progress in Humanity
Chapter 4: Epicurean Piety. The Struggle against Divinity understood as Efficient Cause
Conclusion: Epicureanism and its Analogies with Modern Positivism. The Success of Epicureanism in Antiquity
Book Four: The Modern Successors of Epicurus
Chapter 1: The Epoch of Transition Between Ancient Epicureanism and Modern Epicureanism – Gassendi and Hobbes
Chapter 2: La Rochefoucauld – The Psychology of Epicureanism
Chapter 3: Spinoza – Synthesis of Epicureanism and Stoicism
Chapter 4: Helvétius
Chapter 5: The Spirit of Epicureanism in Eighteenth-Century France
Conclusion: Contemporary Epicureanism
Bibliography
Index
For the most part academic philosophy is considered a purely theoretical discipline that aims at systematic knowledge; contemporary philosophers do not, as a rule, think that they or their audience will lead better lives by doing philosophy. Recently, however, we have seen a powerful resurgence of interest in the countervailing ancient view that philosophy facilitates human flourishing. Philosophy, Seneca famously stated, teaches us doing, not saying. It aims to transform how we live. This ancient ideal has been continually reinvented from the Renaissance through to late modernity. It is now central to contemporary debates about philosophy’s role and future.
This series is the first synoptic study of the reinventions of the idea of philosophy as an ethical pursuit or ‘way of life’. Collectively and individually the books in this series will answer the following questions:
1. How have philosophers reanimated the ancient model of philosophy? How have they revised ancient assumptions, concepts and practices in the light of wider cultural shifts in the modern world? What new ideas of the good life and new arts, exercises, disciplines and consolations have they formulated?
2. Do these reinventions successfully re-establish the idea that philosophy can transform our lives? What have been the standard criticisms of this philosophical ambition and how have they been addressed?
3. What are the implications of these new versions of philosophy as a way of life for contemporary issues concerning the nature of philosophy, its procedures, limits and ends, and its relationship to wider society?
Produktdetaljer
Biografisk notat
Jean-Marie Guyau (1854 –1888) was a French philosopher and poet. His central works include Esquisse d’une morale sans obligation ni sanction (A Sketch of Morality Independent of Obligation or Sanction) and L’Irréligion de l’avenir (The Non-Religion of the Future). His works met an enthusiastic reception by important thinkers of his time, such as Friedrich Nietzsche, Pierre Kropotkin and Henri Bergson.
Federico Testa is an Associate Fellow at the Institute of Advanced Study of the University of Warwick, UK. His current research focuses on Michel Foucault’s politics of life, French contemporary philosophy and the revival of Hellenistic tradition within Modern and Contemporary philosophy.
Keith Ansell Pearson holds a Personal Chair in Philosophy at the University of Warwick, UK. He is the author of acclaimed monographs on Nietzsche and Bergson and has published a number of essays on Guyau’s ethics.