Passions and Perceptions

The philosophers of the Hellenistic schools in ancient Greece and Rome (Epicureans, Stoics, Sceptics, Academics, Cyrenaics) made important contributions to the philosophy of mind and the philosophy of psychology. This volume, which contains the proceedings of the Fifth Symposium Hellenisticum, describes and analyses their contributions on issues such as: the nature of perception, imagination and belief; the nature of the passions and their role in action; the relationship between mind and body; freedom and determinism; the role of pleasure as a goal; the effects of poetry on belief and passion. Written with a high level of historical and philosophical scholarship, the essays are intended both for classicists and for specialists interested in the philosophy of mind.

• Essays on the ancient psychology of the passions

Preface; Avant-propos; Part I. Ethics and Psychology of Hedonism: 1. Epicurean hedonism Gisela Striker; 2. Annicéris et les plaisirs psychiques: quelques préalables doxographiques André Laks; Part II. Atomism and Epicurean Psychology: 3. Epicurus on agency Julia Annas; 4. Democritus and Epicurus on sensible qualities David Furley; Part III. The Passions: 5. Poetry and the passions: two Stoic views Martha C. Nussbaum; 6. Seneca and psychological dualism Brad Inwood; 7. Actions and passions: affection, emotion and moral self-management in Galen’s philosophical psychology James Hankinson; Part IV. Stoic Psychological Concepts: 8. De la ‘nature phantastique’ des animaux chez les Stoïciens Jean-Louis Labarrière; 9. Le concept de doxa des Stoïciens à Philon d’Alexandrie: essai d’étude diachronique Carlos Lévy; 10. Seneca on reason, rules and moral development Phillip Mitsis; 11. Chrysippus on psychophysical causality David Sedley; Bibliography; Subject index; Name index; Index