Happiness And Greek Ethical Thought

by Holowchak, M. Andrew

• ISBN13: 9780826474728
• ISBN10: 0826474721
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2004-10-31
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic

Summary

Yet Happiness and Greek Ethical Thought is much more than just a casual stroll through ancient thinking. It attempts to show how certain common themes in Greek thought (the role of reason as a guide for all actions, regard for virtue as a type of internal stability of character, recognition that ethics is not just a public but also a personal affair, etc.) are essential for living a happy life in any age. He argues that, in many respects, the Greek integrative ideal, contrary to the hedonistic individualism that many pluralistic societies today at least implicity advocate, is a much richer alternative that warrants honest reconsideration today.

Author Biography

M. Andrew Holowchak teaches philosophy at Kutztown University.

Table of Contents

Preface	ix
Acknowledgements	xiv
List of Figures	xv
List of Abbreviations	xvi
Map	xviii
Introduction	xix
Part I Four Views of Happiness	1	(132)
Happiness and Beauty: Platonic Eroticism in Symposium	3	(61)
Meeting the symposiasts	6	(1)
The first four eulogies	7	(4)
Sophistry versus Socratic dialectic	11	(3)
Socrates' initiation	14	(4)
Alcibiades' eulogy of Socrates	18	(4)
Relevance for today	22	(7)
Happiness as a Mean State: Aristotle's
Nicomachean Ethics	29	(2)
Breakdown of Aristotelian science	31	(5)
The aim of human actions	36	(1)
Excellence of character	37	(5)
Excellence of thought	42	(2)
Is Aristotle's ethics relativistic?	44	(2)
Education	46	(3)
Culpability	49	(6)
Relevance for today	55	(9)
Happiness and Pleasure: Epicurean Hedonism	64	(35)
Overview of Epicurean hedonism	66	(1)
The Epicurean cosmos	67	(5)
Reason and human agency	72	(3)
Pleasure	75	(5)
Justice	80	(6)
Friendship	86	(2)
Wisdom	88	(1)
Relevance for today	89	(10)
Happiness and Doubt: Greek Skepticism	99	(34)
Brief historical sketch	101	(2)
Sextus on skepticism and dogmatism	103	(13)
Skepticism and dogmatism in Greek medicine	116	(5)
Sextus on Skepiticism and medicine	121	(1)
Relevance for today	122	(11)
Part II Three Levels of Integration	133	(80)
Happiness and Self-Integration	135	(30)
Platonic justice	137	(2)
Aristotle on the pleasure of being alone	139	(2)
The trial of Socrates	141	(6)
The conquests of Alexander	147	(5)
Diogenes the dog	152	(2)
Relevance for today	154	(11)
Happiness and `Political' Integration	165	(22)
People and poleis	166	(2)
Plato on persons and poleis	168	(2)
Socrates' love of Athens	170	(5)
Friendship in Classical Greece	175	(4)
Relevance for today	179	(8)
Happiness and Cosmic Integration	187	(26)
Plato's crafted cosmos	188	(3)
Aristotle's proper-place cosmos	191	(4)
Stoic cosmology and ethics	195	(5)
Epictetus' Handbook	200	(4)
Relevance for today	204	(9)
Postscript	213	(3)
Appendix A: Important Names	216	(4)
Appendix B: Important Terms	220	(11)
Further Reading	231	(9)
Index	240