Birth of Hedonism : The Cyrenaic Philosophers and Pleasure as a Way of Life, ...

Description: Birth of Hedonism : The Cyrenaic Philosophers and Pleasure as a Way of Life, Paperback by Lampe, Kurt, ISBN 0691176388, ISBN-13 9780691176383, Brand New, Free shipping in the US

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 wasnt 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. Th examines not only Aristippus and the mainstream Cyrenaics, but also Hegesias, Anniceris, and Theodorus. Contrary to recent scholarship, th 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. Th also offers the first in-depth effort to understand Theodoruss atheism and Hegesiass pessimism, both of which are extremely unusual in ancient Greek philosophy and which raise the interesting question of hedonisms relationship to pessimism and atheism. Finally, th 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.

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End Time: 2024-09-02T05:07:54.000Z

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