Ancient Philosophy of the Self - The New Synthese Historical Library 2008 edition

Marc Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 243-254) and index. Table of Contents: Approaches to Self and Person in Antiquity.- Graeco-Roman Varieties of Self.- The Ancient Self: Issues and Approaches.- Assumptions of Normativity: Two Ancient Approaches to Agency.- From Plato to Plotinus.- Socratic Authority.- Protean Socrates: Mythical Figures in the Euthydemus.- Aristotle on the Individuality of Self.- What Kind of Self Can a Greek Sceptic Have?.- Inwardness and Infinity of Selfhood: From Plotinus to Augustine.- Christian and Islamic Themes.- Philosophy of the Self in the Apostle Paul.- Two Kinds of Subjectivity in Augustine s Confessions: Memory and Identity, and the Integrated Self.- The Self as Enemy, the Self as Divine: A Crossroads in the Development of Islamic Anthropology.- Locating the Self Within the Soul Thirteenth-Century Discussions."Biographical Note: Pauliina Remes is a lecturer in theoretical philosophy, Uppsala University, Sweden (2007-), and a docent in theoretical philosophy, University of Helsinki. She is the author of Plotinus on Self: The Philosophy of the]'We' (Cambridge University Press, 2007) as well as the co-editor of Heinamaa & Lahteenmaki & Remes: Consciousness: From Perception to Reflection in the History of Philosophy (Springer 2007). Remes had her PhD in King s College, London, and was a visiting scholar in Wolfson College, Oxford (2003). She has worked as a post-doctoral researcher in Helsinki and been a member of several high-profile research groups and centers of excellence in Scandinavia. Currently, she is a member of the project Understanding Agency (Uppsala University, Riksbankens Jubileumsfond, Sweden), and invited to a status of a visiting scholar by the Center of Advanced Study in Oslo, Norway (2009-2010). Juha Sihvola is the director of the Helsinki Collegium of Advanced Studies since August 2004 and Professor of History at the University of Jyvaskyla, Finland, since 2000. He has pursued postdoctoral studies at Brown University (1991-92) and was a Junior Fellow at the Center for Hellenic Studies, Washington D. C. (1994-95). He is adjunct professor of the history of philosophy at the Department of Philosophy at the University of Helsinki. Sihvola has worked on various topics in ancient philosophy and the later classical tradition, especially Aristotle and Hellenistic Philosophy. He has also written books and articles on ethical and political issues. Sihvola is a member of the Research Council for Culture and Society at the Academy of Finland, and a member of the committee for Finnish translation of Aristotle's works."Publisher Marketing: This collection studies the various ways and conceptual frameworks with which the ancients approached selfhood. What am I, fundamentally, as a reasoning, acting and affected subject, interpreting the world around me, being distinct from others like and unlike me? The volume starts from the question whether and with which qualifications something like the concept 'self' may be attributed to ancient philosophers. Another methodological challenge is whether there is one single question of the self, and if not, what the questions into which it breaks are, and how they might be connected. The contributions combine systematic and historical approaches to ancient sources, and range from Socrates to Plotinus and to the Christian thinkers Paul and Augustine. The volume also explores the influence of ancient philosophy on Western and Islamic philosophy of the medieval era. In antiquity, selfhood may be traced in the junctures of metaphysics, philosophical psychology and ethics. Self is primarily understood as constituent part of an objective world rather than its outside spectator. Discussions on selfhood are located within the overall teleological framework typical of ancient philosophy. This gives rise to the prominence of the idea of ideal selfhood. Another background assumption is the natural sociability of human beings. Some of the authors of the collection emphasise ethical underpinnings, other study themes that are, rather, ontological, epistemological or psychological in nature.

Contributor Bio:  Remes, Pauliina Pauliina Remes, Docent of Theoretical Philosophy at the University of Helsinki, Finland, is the author of "Plotinus on Self: The Philosophy of "We." "Contributor Bio:  Sihvola, Juha Juha Sihvola is a professor of history at the University of Jyvaskyla, Finland. He is the author of "Decay, Progress, and the Good Life"? and" Hesiod and Protagoras on the Development of Culture", and the editor of "Ancient Scepticism and the Scepticist Tradition".