Death And Immortality In Ancient Philosophy

240 Pages·2019·0.89 MB·english

by  A. G. Long

DEATH AND IMMORTALITY IN ANCIENT
PHILOSOPHY
Death and immortality played a central role in Greek and Roman
thought, from Homer and early Greek philosophy to Marcus
Aurelius.InthisbookA.G.Longexplainsthesignificanceofdeath
and immortality in ancient ethics, particularly Plato’s dialogues,
StoicismandEpicureanism;healsoshowshowphilosophicalcosmo-
logy and theology caused immortality to be reimagined. Ancient
arguments and theories are related both to the original literary and
theologicalcontextsandtocontemporarydebatesonthephilosophy
ofdeath.Thebookwillbeofmajorinteresttoscholarsandstudents
workingonGreekandRomanphilosophy,and tothosewishingto
exploreancientprecursorsofcontemporarydebatesaboutdeathand
itsoutcomes.
a. g. long is Senior Lecturer in Classics at the University of St
Andrews. He has translated (with David Sedley) Plato’s Meno and
Phaedo(Cambridge,2010)andistheauthorofConversationandSelf-
SufficiencyinPlato(2013)aswellastheeditorofPlatoandtheStoics
(Cambridge,2013).
KEY THEMES IN ANCIENT PHILOSOPHY
series editors
CatherineOsborne
ReaderinPhilosophy,UniversityofEastAnglia
G.R.F.Ferrari
ProfessorofClassics,UniversityofCalifornia,Berkeley
Eachbookinthisseriesoffersaconciseandaccessibletreatmentbyasingleauthor
of a topic of major philosophical importance in the ancient Greek and Roman
world. The emphasis is on a discussion of those debates of real philosophical
interest,placedwithintheirhistoricalcontext.Futurevolumeswillconsidertopics
suchasloveandfriendship,theology,space,legislationandtheconceptofnature.
Thebooksaredesignedforuseinateachingcontext,wheretheywillbridgeagap
betweengeneralintroductionstoindividualphilosophersorperiodsandspecialist
monographs.Theywillalsoappealtoanyoneinterestedintheenduringinfluence
andsignificanceofancientphilosophy.
DEATH AND IMMORTALITY
IN ANCIENT PHILOSOPHY
A. G. LONG
UniversityofStAndrews
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www.cambridge.org
Informationonthistitle:www.cambridge.org/9781107086593
doi:10.1017/9781316091562
©A.G.Long2019
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andtotheprovisionsofrelevantcollectivelicensingagreements,
noreproductionofanypartmaytakeplacewithoutthewritten
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Firstpublished2019
PrintedandboundinGreatBritainbyClaysLtd,ElcografS.p.A.
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names:Long,Alex,author.
title:Deathandimmortalityinancientphilosophy/A.G.Long,Universityof StAndrews.
description:NewYork:CambridgeUniversityPress,2019.|Series:Key themesinancient
philosophy|Includesbibliographicalreferencesand index.
identifiers:lccn2019008215|isbn9781107086593(alk.paper)
subjects:lcsh:Immortality(Philosophy)|Death.|Philosophy,Ancient.
classification:lccb187.i45l662019|ddc129.0938–dc23
LCrecordavailableathttps://lccn.loc.gov/2019008215
isbn978-1-107-08659-3Hardback
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Contents
Acknowledgements pagevi
ListofAbbreviations vii
Introduction 1
part i immortality 5
1 ImmortalityinEarlyGreekPoetryandPhilosophy 7
2 PlatonicImmortalities 29
3 ImmortalityandtheEthicsofaFiniteLifespan:Aristotle,
EarlyStoicsandEpicureanism 63
part ii death 87
4 Death,DoubtsandScepticism 89
5 EpicureanEvaluationsofDeath 115
6 StoicAgnosticismandSymmetryArguments 152
7 Suicide,ReligionandtheCity 174
Conclusion 205
Bibliography 208
IndexofPassages 220
GeneralIndex 230
v
Acknowledgements
IstartedwritingthisbookattheUniversityofTorontoduringaResearch
Fellowship provided by the Leverhulme Trust. My thanks to the
Leverhulme Trust and to the scholars and students in Toronto with
whomIstartedtoexploreimmortalityinPlatoandEmpedocles,especially
LloydGerson,BradInwoodandMartinPickavé.DuringthevisittoNorth
AmericaDavidEbreyandSuzanneObdrzalekgavemeveryhelpfulcom-
mentsonmyinterpretationofPlatonicimmortality.BackintheUKSarah
Broadie and Anthony Hooper kindly commented on parts of the book,
andIhavebeenhelpedbyotherscholarsvisitingorworkinginStAndrews,
particularly Mehmet Erginel, Stephen Halliwell and Peter Woodward.
I have also benefited from discussing immortality in early Greek philoso-
phy with Phil Horky and Simon Trépanier, and Stoic eschatology with
GeorgeBoys-Stones.InthefinalstagesoftheprojectLiFan,YunZou,Siyi
Chen, Kaicheng Fang and Rui Xu organized seminars in Beijing and
Shanghai on immortality and the philosophy of death, and I received
excellentsuggestionsandobjectionsfromthemandtheotherparticipants.
My thanks to the organizers and participants at all the other events (in
Cambridge, Durham, Edinburgh, Northwestern, St Andrews and
Toronto) where parts of the book were presented and discussed, and to
theeditorsofthisseriesfortheirexpertguidance.ThanksasevertoJessfor
her love and encouragement – and now to Ben for imposing a non-
negotiabledeadline.
Parts of my discussion of Plato in chapter 4 have been taken from my
contribution to Authors and Authorities in Ancient Philosophy (edited by
Jenny Bryan, Robert Wardy and James Warren), also published by
CambridgeUniversityPress.
vi
Abbreviations
LSJ H.G.Liddell,R.Scott,H.StuartJonesandR.McKenzie(1996)
AGreek-EnglishLexicon.Oxford,ClarendonPress.
SVF H. von Arnim (1903–24) Stoicorum Veterum Fragmenta, 4 vols,
Leipzig,Teubner.
vii