Bloomsbury Publishing | Health And Hedonism In Plato And Epicurus (2019 EN)

Author: Kelly Arenson
Full Title: Health And Hedonism In Plato And Epicurus
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing;‎ Bloomsbury Academic; 1st edition (April 18, 2019)
Year: 2019
ISBN-13: 9781350080263 (978-1-350-08026-3), 9781350080256 (978-1-350-08025-6), 9781350212312 (978-1-350-21231-2), 9781350080270 (978-1-350-08027-0)
ISBN-10: 1350080268, 135008025X, 1350212318, 1350080276
Pages: 232
Language: English
Genre: Philosophy: Ancient Philosophy
File type: PDF (True)
Quality: 10/10
Price: £90.00


This book links Plato and Epicurus, two of the most prominent ethicists in the history of philosophy, exploring how Platonic material lays the conceptual groundwork for Epicurean hedonism. It argues that, despite their significant philosophical differences, Plato and Epicurus both conceptualise pleasure in terms of the health and harmony of the human body and soul. It turns to two crucial but underexplored sources for understanding Epicurean pleasure: Plato's treatment of psychological health and pleasure in the Republic, and his physiological account of bodily harmony, pleasure, and pain in the Philebus.

Kelly Arenson shows first that, by means of his mildly hedonistic and sometimes overtly anti-hedonist approaches, Plato sets the agenda for future discussions in antiquity of the nature of pleasure and its role in the good life. She then sets Epicurus' hedonism against the backdrop of Plato's ontological and ethical assessments of pleasure, revealing a trend in antiquity to understand pleasure and pain in terms of the replenishment and maintenance of an organism's healthy functioning.

Health and Hedonism in Plato and Epicurus will be of interest to anyone interested in the relationship between these two philosophers, ancient philosophy, and ethics.

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