Lexington Books
Pages: 238
Trim: 6¼ x 9
978-1-7936-1823-8 • Hardback • July 2020 • $100.00 • (£77.00)
978-1-7936-1824-5 • eBook • July 2020 • $95.00 • (£73.00)
Erlend D. MacGillivray received his PhD from the University of Aberdeen, Scotland, in 2018.
AcknowledgmentsIntroductionChapter One: Establishing a Philosophical Identity in Antiquity
Chapter Two: Limitations on Moral Advancement
Chapter Three: The Selective Engagement of Laypeople
Chapter Four: Non-Scholastic Instruction and Primitive HumanityChapter Five: Preconceptions
Chapter Six: Civic Religion and LawChapter Seven: Exempla
Conclusion
References
About the Author
"Epictetus is an excellent choice for studying an ancient philosopher’s attitudes toward non-philosophers. In this learned, wide-ranging, and well-conceived monograph, MacGillivray provides a probing account of this Stoic’s frustrations with laypersons, his advice to students to be cautious around them, his various pedagogical appeals to paragons, and his hopes for ethical progress despite the ineradicable flaws we all share. This work fills a real gap in scholarship on Epictetus."— William O. Stephens, Creighton University
"MacGillivray captures Epictetus’s double-mindedness about non-philosophers with scholarly discipline and principled clarity. This book is rich with detail and is a useful lesson in how philosophers must manage the broader non-(and even anti-) philosophical culture in which they must live. "— Scott Aikin, Vanderbilt University
"This new study on Epictetus is a must read for anyone intrigued by the influential practical philosophy of this ancient Roman sage."
— Massimo Pigliucci PhD, author of How to Be Stoic: Using Ancient Philosophy to Live a Modern Life