Plutarch's Practical Ethics: The Social Dynamics of Philosophy

ISBN-13: 9780199583263 / Angielski / Twarda / 2010 / 360 str.

Lieve Van Hoof

Opis

The Second Sophistic (c.AD 60-250) was a time of intense competition for honour and status. Like today, this often caused mental as well as physical stress for the elite of the Roman Empire. This book, which transcends the boundaries between literature, social history, and philosophy, studies Plutarch's practical ethics, a group of twenty-odd texts within the Moralia designed to help powerful Greeks and Romans manage their ambitions and society's expectations successfully. Lieve Van Hoof combines a systematic analysis of the general principles underlying Plutarch's practical ethics, including the author's target readership, therapeutical practices, and self-presentation, with five innovative case studies. A picture emerges of philosophy under the Roman Empire not as a set of abstract, theoretical doctrines, but as a kind of symbolic capital engendering power and prestige for author and reader alike.

Recenzje

Il volume di L. Van Hoof è sicuramente un buono studio, che porta avanti una ricerca più che meritevole da diversi punti di vista Tale analisi - proprio perché considera la sofisticata operazione filosofica di Plutarco all'interno del contesto socio-culturale in cui si è sviluppata - ha il grande merito di far emergere una differente immagine di Plutarco.

O autorze

Dr Lieve Van Hoof obtained her Ph.D. in Classics from Leuven University (Belgium) in 2006. Since then, she has held a Lectureship in Greek and Latin Literature at the University of Exeter (U.K.), a Postdoctoral Research Fellowship of the Flemish Research Foundation (Belgium), and a Humboldt-Stipendium für erfahrene Wissenschaftler based in Bonn. Currently, she is a Fellow in Residence at the Lichtenberg Kolleg zu Göttingen.