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Zusatztext "This fine book is the most comprehensive study of Cyrenaic hedonism in English. It will be the core resource on the Cyrenaics for anyone with a serious interest in ancient ethics. More than that! it ensures that the Cyrenaics (at last) have a place alongside the other great ancient philosophical schools! and it is a model for scholarship to affirm the continuing appeal and relevance of ancient philosophy." ---Sean McConnell! Classical Journal Informationen zum Autor Kurt Lampe is a lecturer in the Department of Classics and Ancient History at the University of Bristol. Klappentext According to Xenophon! Socrates tried to persuade his associate Aristippus to moderate his excessive indulgence in wine! women! and food! arguing that only hard work can bring happiness. Aristippus wasn't convinced. Instead! he and his followers espoused the most radical form of hedonism in ancient Western philosophy. Before the rise of the better known but comparatively ascetic Epicureans! the Cyrenaics pursued a way of life in which moments of pleasure! particularly bodily pleasure! held the highest value. In The Birth of Hedonism! Kurt Lampe provides the most comprehensive account in any language of Cyrenaic ideas and behavior! revolutionizing the understanding of this neglected but important school of philosophy. Zusammenfassung According to Xenophon, Socrates tried to persuade his associate Aristippus to moderate his excessive indulgence in wine, women, and food, arguing that only hard work can bring happiness. Aristippus wasn't convinced. Instead, he and his followers espoused the most radical form of hedonism in ancient Western philosophy. Before the rise of the better known but comparatively ascetic Epicureans, the Cyrenaics pursued a way of life in which moments of pleasure, particularly bodily pleasure, held the highest value. In The Birth of Hedonism , Kurt Lampe provides the most comprehensive account in any language of Cyrenaic ideas and behavior, revolutionizing the understanding of this neglected but important school of philosophy. The Birth of Hedonism thoroughly and sympathetically reconstructs the doctrines and practices of the Cyrenaics, who were active between the fourth and third centuries BCE. The book examines not only Aristippus and the mainstream Cyrenaics, but also Hegesias, Anniceris, and Theodorus. Contrary to recent scholarship, the book shows that the Cyrenaics, despite giving primary value to discrete pleasurable experiences, accepted the dominant Greek philosophical belief that life-long happiness and the virtues that sustain it are the principal concerns of ethics. The book also offers the first in-depth effort to understand Theodorus's atheism and Hegesias's pessimism, both of which are extremely unusual in ancient Greek philosophy and which raise the interesting question of hedonism's relationship to pessimism and atheism. Finally, the book explores the "new Cyrenaicism" of the nineteenth-century writer and classicist Walter Pater, who drew out the enduring philosophical interest of Cyrenaic hedonism more than any other modern thinker. Inhaltsverzeichnis Acknowledgments xi Abbreviations xiii Chapter 1 Introduction 1 1.1. A Cyrenaic Parable: The Choice of Pleasure 1 1.2. Methodology 3 1.3. Overview of the Book 8 1.4. A Note on Conventions 10 Chapter 2 Cyrene and the Cyrenaics: A Historical and Biographical Overview 12 2.1. Introduction 12 2.2. Fourth-Century Greek Philosophy 12 2.3. Cyrene and Cyrenaica 13 2.4. Aristippus 16 2.5. Mainstream Cyrenaicism 18 2.6. Hegesias 20 2.7. Anniceris 21 2.8. Theodorus 23 Chapter 3 Knowledge and Pleasure 26 3.1. Introduction 26 3.2. Aristippean Hedonism 27 3.3. Socrates' Influence on Aristippus's Hedonism 31 3.4. The Cyrenaic Theory of the Experiences 35 3.5. The Experiences as a Basis for Action 45 3.6. Cyrenaic For...
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"Economists, political theorists, and observers of popular culture are keenly interested in happiness, gratification, and well-being. Anglo-American moral philosophy, however, disdains the goodness of pleasure. The Birth of Hedonism reminds us brilliantly of how very good pleasure can be."--Giulia Sissa, University of California, Los Angeles
