Cooper, J: Pursuits of Wisdom - Six Ways of Life in Ancient

Preface ix Chapter 1 Introduction: On Philosophy as a Way of Life 1 1. Philosophy Ancient, Modern, and Contemporary 1 Chapter 2. What It Means to Live a Philosophy 17 2 The Socratic Way of Life 24 1. Ancient Philosophy as Intellectual Pursuit vs. as Way of Life 24 2. Socrates in Plato's Apology 32 3. Socratic Dialectic, Socratic Knowledge, and Human Wisdom 42 4. Socratic Philosophy as a Way of Life 48 5. Socrates and the Subsequent Tradition 60 Chapter 3 Aristotle: Philosophy as Two Ways of Life 70 1. Introduction 70 2. Practical vs. Theoretical Knowledge 74 3. The Highest Good, Happiness, and Virtue 79 4. Two Happy Lives, Two Happinesses: The Contemplative and the Practically Active Lives 91 5. Theoretical vs. Practical Virtue as Highest Good 96 6. The Practical Virtues: General Account 99 7. The Specific Practical Virtues 105 8. Practical Knowledge and Ethical "Theory" 117 9. Political Community and the Highest Good 123 10. Conclusion: Philosophy as Two Ways of Life 137 Chapter 4 Stoicism as a Way of Life 144 1. Introduction: The Three Hellenistic Philosophies 144 2. Stoicism: Tradition and Texts 147 3. Stoic Eudaimonism 150 4. Stoic Moral Psychology and the Human Virtues 158 5. Virtue: Agreement with the World-Mind's Plans 166 6. What Is Good vs. What Is Merely of Some Value 184 7. Consequences of the Stoic Theory of Value 190 8. Stoic vs. Aristotelian Conceptions of Emotions or Passions 203 9. The Stoic Way of Life 214 Chapter 5 The Epicurean and Skeptic Ways of Life 226 1. Introduction 226 2. Epicurus's Theory of the Human Good: "Kinetic" and "Katastematic" Pleasure 229 3. The Epicurean Way of Life: Virtue, Irreligion, Friendship 246 4. The Epicurean Life: Concluding Summary 271 5. Ancient Skepticism: Living without Believing Anything 276 6. The Pyrrhonian Skepticism of Sextus Empiricus 282 7. The Skeptic Way of Life 291 Chapter 6 Platonism as a Way of Life 305 1. Introduction: Pythagoras, Plato, and Ancient Greek Wisdom 305 2. Plotinus's Platonist

John M. Cooper is the Henry Putnam University Professor of Philosophy at Princeton University. He is the general editor of the authoritative English-language edition of Plato's complete writings, and the author of Reason and Emotion and Knowledge, Nature, and the Good (both Princeton), among other books.

Honorable Mention for the 2012 Award for Best Professional/Scholarly Book in Philosophy, Association of American Publishers "[E]legant... Mr. Cooper's book proves to be an antidote to the rosy nostalgia that poisons stories about what philosophy was and what it has become... Unlike in the natural sciences, the central questions in philosophy are pretty much the same as they ever were: What should I believe in? How should I live? Mr. Cooper's book lucidly presents six appealing answers to those questions."--Brendan Boyle, Wall Street Journal "In this insightful and well-written survey, Cooper presents the ancient Greek and Roman philosophical tradition as one that is unified around philosophy as a way of life... Cooper offers an excellent survey that deserves a wide readership."--Choice "Cooper's book is comprehensive, accessible, and well-written, and his claim that we could follow the ancients in allowing philosophy to steer our lives in order to understand what they were up to makes his book a provocative and worthwhile read."--Angela Schwenkler, American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly "Cooper's attempt to write a book for a wide readership is successful. Readers interested in the subject of ancient philosophy as a way of life will find the book provocative, and those who seek a sophisticated introduction to ancient moral theory will learn a great deal from it."--Christopher Edelman, Journal of the History of Philosophy