Contemporary Encounters with Ancient Practice
Will be published approx. on 30. June 2026
Book
Paperback/Softback
392 pages
978-1-3995-0532-1 (ISBN)
Description
This volume collects written and visual works that engage with opportunities of ancient practice from within the continental tradition. More than surveying ancient ethical or political ideas, the chapters develop divergent yet resonant approaches to concrete ways of living, acting, reflecting and being with others found in antiquity and its reception. The practices involve the habits, exercises, activities, philosophies and lives of today's readers; and so most chapters encourage the reader to do something, to put the ideas into practice. Withstanding a temptation to simply theorise practice, it insists on the embodied and shared materiality of living in singular times and places. The practical encounters between this book and its readers range across antiquity and the contemporary world, from political theatre, casuistry and slavery to book production, friendship and our own mortality. Through thinker-practitioner collaborations, occasional pieces, exhortations to readers and recipes for action, this book strives to articulate and cultivate old and new practices for our lives.
Reviews / Votes
Ancient Greek philosophy is not merely doctrine. It prods and provokes. It aims to change its adherents in their thoughts, habits, and souls. Contemporary Encounters with Ancient Practice, a broad, learned collection from distinguished hands, takes this observation seriously in the best possible way-itself practicing and performing philosophical and artistic thought. -- Wilson H. Shearin, University of Miami The idea that guides this magnificent collection is to establish a virtuous circle between ancient and contemporary philosophy. To this end, it succeeds in providing a selective reading of ancient authors guided by a choice of contemporary lenses which bring into focus the profound link between philosophy and its historical-social conditions. These texts make visible, here and now, the very essence of philosophy as an intervention in a conjuncture whose enjeu is always ethical-political. -- Vittorio Morfino, Universita di Milano-BicoccaMore details
Language
English
Place of publication
Edinburgh
United Kingdom
Target group
College/higher education
Illustrations
15 black and white illustrations, 89 colour illustrations
Dimensions
Height: 234 mm
Width: 156 mm
ISBN-13
978-1-3995-0532-1 (9781399505321)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Abraham Jacob Greenstine is Adjunct Professor of Philosophy at Duquesne University. Ryan J. Johnson is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Elon University in North Carolina. He is the author of Deleuze, A Stoic (Edinburgh University Press, 2020) and The Deleuze-Lucretius Encounter (EUP, 2017). He is co-editor of Nietzsche and Epicurus (Bloomsbury, 2020), Contemporary Encounters with Ancient Metaphysics (EUP, 2017) and The Movement of Nothingness (Davies Group Publishers, 2012). Dave Mesing is Adjunct Professor of Philosophy at Villanova University
Content
List of Figures
Acknowledgements
Note on the Text
Notes on Contributors
Introduction: The Use and Abuse of Antiquity for Life
Part I. Encountering Ancient Practice
1. Situations
1. The Cosmology of Prudence/Cosmologie de la prudence
Pierre Aubenque, translated by Cameron F. Coates and Khafiz Kerimov
2. The Pleasures of the Problem: Parmenides, Badiou, and Mathematics
Becky Vartabedian
3. Foucault, Plato, Aristotle, and the Strangeness of Reflexivity
Frederique Ildefonse
4. Stoicism and a Matter of Conscience
Christelle Veillard
2. Conjunctions
5. Plato's Lysis: The Dilemma of Friendship and Love
Pierre Macherey, translated by David Maruzzella
6. Aristotle on the Practice of Life
Sara Brill
7. Theory and Politics in Plato's Republic
Adriana Caverero, translated by Paula Landerreche Cardillo
8. Aristophanic Comedy and Its Democratic Permutations: Fidelity in Spirit? Or in Content and Form?
Michael Weinman
Part II. Practices of Encountering Antiquity
3. Fragments
9. Forms of Memory
Vlad Basarab
10. Sapphic Foucault: Fragments of an Anthropocene Archive
Lynne Huffer
11. Exiles and Deserts
Casey Ford
12. Black Dionysius
Andres Fabian Henao Castro
4. Accumulations
13. Photographing (with) the Muses
Lauren Guilmette and Rob Leib
14. How to Read the Nature of Things
Thomas Nail
15. Eternal Recurrence and Racist Histories
Ryan J. Johnson (in collaboration with Keshia Wall)
16. On Lucretius
Brooke Holmes & Isabel Lewis
Acknowledgements
Note on the Text
Notes on Contributors
Introduction: The Use and Abuse of Antiquity for Life
Part I. Encountering Ancient Practice
1. Situations
1. The Cosmology of Prudence/Cosmologie de la prudence
Pierre Aubenque, translated by Cameron F. Coates and Khafiz Kerimov
2. The Pleasures of the Problem: Parmenides, Badiou, and Mathematics
Becky Vartabedian
3. Foucault, Plato, Aristotle, and the Strangeness of Reflexivity
Frederique Ildefonse
4. Stoicism and a Matter of Conscience
Christelle Veillard
2. Conjunctions
5. Plato's Lysis: The Dilemma of Friendship and Love
Pierre Macherey, translated by David Maruzzella
6. Aristotle on the Practice of Life
Sara Brill
7. Theory and Politics in Plato's Republic
Adriana Caverero, translated by Paula Landerreche Cardillo
8. Aristophanic Comedy and Its Democratic Permutations: Fidelity in Spirit? Or in Content and Form?
Michael Weinman
Part II. Practices of Encountering Antiquity
3. Fragments
9. Forms of Memory
Vlad Basarab
10. Sapphic Foucault: Fragments of an Anthropocene Archive
Lynne Huffer
11. Exiles and Deserts
Casey Ford
12. Black Dionysius
Andres Fabian Henao Castro
4. Accumulations
13. Photographing (with) the Muses
Lauren Guilmette and Rob Leib
14. How to Read the Nature of Things
Thomas Nail
15. Eternal Recurrence and Racist Histories
Ryan J. Johnson (in collaboration with Keshia Wall)
16. On Lucretius
Brooke Holmes & Isabel Lewis