Plato's pigs and other ruminations : ancient guides to living with nature / M.D. Usher, University of Vermont.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Usher, M. D. (Mark David), 1966- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Plato.

Philosophy, Ancient.

Philosophy of nature.

Environmental ethics.

Genre:

Informational works.

Physical Description:

xv, 265 pages : illustrations (chiefly color), color maps ; 24 cm

Other Title:

Ancient guides to living with nature

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, United Kingdom ; New York, NY : Cambridge University Press, 2020.

Summary:

"The Greeks and Romans have been charged with destroying the ecosystems within which they lived. In this book, however, M. D. Usher argues rather that we can find in their lives and thought the origin of modern ideas about systems and sustainability, important topics for humans today and in the future. With chapters running the gamut of Greek and Roman experience - from the Presocratics and Plato to Roman agronomy and the Benedictine Rule - Plato's Pigs brings together unlikely bedfellows, both ancient and modern, to reveal surprising connections. Lively prose and liberal use of anecdotal detail, including an afterword about the author's own experiments with sustainable living on his sheep farm in Vermont, add a strong authorial voice. In short, this is a unique, first-of-its-kind book that is sure to be of interest to anyone working in Classics, environmental studies, philosophy, ecology, or the history of ideas."-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Introduction. Environmental philology

1. Debts to nature

2. Anaximander for the anthropocene

3. Heraclitus and the quantum

4. A city for pigs

5. Mutual coercion, mutually agreed upon

6. Cynics and stoics

7. Roman revolutions

8. Community rule

Afterword. Works & Days and then some.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 217-257) and index.

Other Format:

ebook version :

ISBN:

9781108839587

1108839584

OCLC:

1197765423