Can moral philosophy alter our moral beliefs or our emotions? Does moral scepticism mean making up our own values, or does it leave us without moral commitments at all? Is it possible to find a basis for ethics in human nature? These are some of the main questions explored in this volume, which is devoted to the ethics of the Hellenistic schools of philosophy. Some of the leading scholars in the field have here taken a look at the bases of the Stoics' and Epicureans' thinking about what the Greeks took to be the central questions of philosophy. Their essays, which originated in a conference held at Bad Homburg in 1983, the third in a series of conferences on Hellenistic philosophy, propose important interpretations of the texts, and pose some fascinating problems about the different roles of argument and reason in ancient and modern moral philosophy. This book will be of interest to moral philosophers and to scholars of Greek philosophy too.

Product Description: Justice and Generosity presents a collection of original essays by leading scholars on the social and political philosophies of the Hellenistic period, covering the work of both Greek and Roman thinkers such as Cicero, Seneca, Epicurus, and the Cynics...read more

Product Description: Plato is the best known and most widely studied of all the ancient Greek philosophers. Malcolm Schofield, a leading scholar of ancient philosophy, offers a lucid and accessible guide to Plato's political thought, enormously influential and much discussed in the modern world as well as the ancient...read more

Beginning with Homer and ending in late antiquity with Christian and pagan reflections on divine and human order, this volume is the first general and comprehensive treatment of Rome ever to be published in English. Its international team of distinguished scholars includes historians of law, politics, culture and religion, as well as philosophers. The volume will long remain an accessible and authoritative guide to Greek and Roman thinking about government and community.

The early Stoics initiated the long natural law tradition of Western political thought. Yet Zeno, founder of the school, wrote a notorious Republic prescribing a community of the good and wise in the classical ideal state mould. Malcolm Schofield's book begins with a study of the ancient controversies which surround the Republic and supply us with much of our evidence about its contents, and goes on to explore the Platonised concept of love treated by Zeno as a key principle of political unity. In Chrysippus, Zeno's most influential successor, the idea of a city of sages is transformed into the theory of a cosmic city of gods and men. Dr Schofield examines the arguments for the theory and reconstructs its original intellectual context. In his concluding chapter, he shows how its emergence constitutes, in effect, the transition from republicanism to natural law. The scattered and hitherto underused textual evidence is translated in the course of the book, which will serve as a unique collection of source material. The Stoic Idea of the City will interest classicists, theologians and historians of political thought as well as those primarily concerned with ancient philosophy.

Product Description: A recent revival of interest has taken place in the Epicureans, Stoics and Sceptics, their theories and problems, and the lively debates that went on between them in ancient Greece. This study provides a philosophical introduction to the epistemological and metaphysical debates in which these Hellenistic thinkers marked out for philosophy some of its central concerns...read more