The Therapy of Desire: Theory and Practice in Hellenistic EthicsThe Epicureans, Skeptics, and Stoics practiced philosophy not as a detached intellectual discipline, but as a worldly art of grappling with issues of daily and urgent human significance: the fear of death, love and sexuality, anger and aggression. Like medicine, philosophy to them was a rigorous science aimed both at understanding and at producing the flourishing of human life. In this engaging book, Martha Nussbaum examines texts of philosophers committed to a therapeutic paradigm--including Epicurus, Lucretius, Sextus Empiricus, Chrysippus, and Seneca--and recovers a valuable source for our moral and political thought of today. |
What people are saying - Write a review
LibraryThing Review
User Review - Fledgist - LibraryThingWe don't normally include the Hellenistic schools of thought -- Epicureanism, Skepticism, Stoicism -- in political theory. Nussbaum takes them on and defines them as therapeutic paradigms that provide a powerful basis for us to engage in both moral and political thought.. Read full review
THE THERAPY OF DESIRE: Theory and Practice in Hellenistic Ethics
User Review - KirkusA scholarly and beautifully written account of late Greek and Roman thought in which Nussbaum (Philosophy, Classics, and Comparative Literature/Brown Univ.) analyzes the use of philosophical argument ... Read full review