Ethics of Ancient Greece and Rome (Philosophy and Cultural Studies Revisited / Historisch-genetische Studien zur Philosophie und Kulturgeschichte Book 5)

This book provides an overview of the main moral ideas typical of ancient ethics. The first chapter concerns the ethics of ancient Greece, while the second chapter discusses the views of the ethics of ancient Rome. The third part contains the source texts that have been translated into English. The book can serve as a script for students of humanities and can be useful for studying and teaching ethics. Cover 1 Copyright information 6 Contents 7 1 Ethics in Ancient Greece 11 1 Pre-Socratics 11 1.1 Thales of Miletus 11 1.2 Pythagoras of Samos 12 1.3 Democritus of Abdera 13 1.4 Heraclitus of Ephesus 14 2 Sophists 14 3 Socrates 16 3.1 Question of virtue 16 3.2 Socratic method 19 3.2.1 Elenctic method 19 3.2.2 Maieutic method 21 3.3 Voice of the daimonion 22 4 Plato 23 4.1 The concept of the human soul 23 4.2 The idea of Good 24 5 Aristotle 25 5.1 Eudaimonia 26 5.2 Theory of virtues 28 5.3 The principle of the golden mean 29 5.4 Theory of friendship 30 5.5 Man as zoon politikon 32 6 Aristippus of Cyrene 33 7 Epicurus of Samos 34 7.1 Happiness as the purpose of moral life 34 7.2 Four-part remedy 36 8 Cynics 37 8.1 Antisthenes 37 8.2 Diogenes of Sinope 39 9 Zeno of Citium 39 9.1 The sage’s ideal 40 9.2 The non-gradation of virtue 41 9.3 Social ethics 42 10 Pyrrho of Elis 43 2 Ethics in Ancient Rome 45 1 Neoplatonic Ethics 45 1.1 Philo of Alexandria 45 1.2 Plotinus 46 1.2.1 Reincarnation of individual souls 47 1.2.2 The problem of evil 48 2 Roman Stoicism 49 2.1 Lucius Annaeus Seneca 49 2.1.1 Fatalistic understanding of nature 49 2.1.2 Virtue as submission to nature 50 2.1.3 Social ethics 51 2.1.4 Condemnation of slavery 52 2.2 Epictetus 52 2.2.1 Happiness as a goal in human life 53 2.2.2 Ethics as a moral self-improvement of the individual 55 2.2.3 The postulate of universal brotherhood 55 2.3 Marcus Aurelius 56 2.3.1 Principles of morally just conduct 56 3 Roman Eclecticism 57 3.1 Cicero 57 3.1.1 The theory of good 57 3.1.2 The law of nature, morality and the concept of good governance 58 4 Roman Epicureanism 59 4.1 Titus Lucretius Carus 59 4.1.1 Rational ethics 59 4.1.2 Social agreement 60 5 Ethics of Early Christianity 60 5.1 Quintus Septimius Florens Tertullianus 60 5.2 St. Augustine of Hippo 61 5.2.1 Theocentric eudaimonism 61 5.2.2 The concept of grace 62 5.2.3 Where does evil come from? 63 3 Selection of Source Texts 65 Bibliography 91 Annex 95 The book provides an overview of the main moral ideas typical of ancient ethics. It can serve as a script for students of humanities. The book also offers a selection of source texts useful for studying and teaching ethics.