The Birth of Hedonism : The Cyrenaic Philosophers and Pleasure as a Way of Life / Kurt Lampe.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Lampe, Kurt, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Cyrenaics (Greek philosophy).

Hedonism.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (298 p.)

Edition:

Course Book

Place of Publication:

Princeton, NJ : Princeton University Press, [2014]

Language Note:

English

Summary:

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.

Contents:

Frontmatter

CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

ABBREVIATIONS

CHAPTER 1. Introduction

CHAPTER 2. Cyrene and the Cyrenaics: A Historical and Biographical Overview

CHAPTER 3. Knowledge and Pleasure

CHAPTER 4. Virtue and Living Pleasantly

CHAPTER 5. Eudaimonism and Anti-Eudaimonism

CHAPTER 6. Personal and Political Relationships

CHAPTER 7. Hegesias's Pessimism

CHAPTER 8. Theodorus's Innovations

CHAPTER 9. The "New Cyrenaicism" of Walter Pater

CHAPTER 10. Conclusion: The Birth of Hedonism

APPENDIX 1. The Sources

APPENDIX 2. Annicerean Interpolation in D.L. 2.86-93

NOTES

BIBLIOGRAPHY

INDEX

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 23. Mai 2019)

ISBN:

9780691176383

0691176388

9781400852499

1400852498

OCLC:

891445852