This book provides a collection of essays representing the state of the art in the research into argumentation in classical antiquity. It contains essays from leading and up and coming scholars on figures as diverse as Parmenides, Gorgias, Seneca, and Classical Chinese "wandering persuaders." The book includes contributions from specialists in the history of philosophy as well as specialists in contemporary argumentation theory, and stimulates the dialogue between scholars studying issues relating to argumentation theory in ancient philosophy and contemporary argumentation theorists. Furthermore, the book sets the direction for research into argumentation in antiquity by encouraging an engagement with a broader range of historical figures, and closer collaboration between contemporary concerns and the history of philosophy.

This volume features fifteen new papers by an international group of scholars in ancient philosophy, with a particular focus on new work in ancient Greek and Roman ethics, epistemology, logic, and science. The papers are organized around five broad topics: Plato, Aristotle's ethics and practical reasoning, Aristotelian logic, Hellenistic ethics, and Hellenistic epistemology. Specific topics covered include the refutation of the hedonist in Plato's Philebus, the question of whether modern interpreters are right to read Plato's Timaeus as "proto-historical," Aristotle's argument concerning virtue, Aristotle's discussion of practical reasoning in the realm of ethics, Aristotle's logical theory, classification and division of goods in ancient ethical theories, and belief, appearances, and assent in Hellenistic epistemology.

Essays on Homer, Greek historiography, philosophy, Julius Caesar, Roman literature, and other classical subjects.

This book systematically depicts the theory of textual patterns (chengshi) of the eight-part essays and logic in ancient Chinese texts. With the rare materials, it covers all the basic and important aspects of the whole process and values of chengshi, such as the transformation of different parts and the coherent expression of the doctrines, the planning of writing, and the application to the aesthetic and pedagogic fields. It also explores the similarities and disparities of logical patterns between ancient Chinese and Western texts. Though entirely fresh and tentative, the contrastive studies get new insights into the logic and philosophical concepts hidden in the writings for better understanding of the uniqueness and richness implied in Chinese culture.

Appeal to emotion is a key technique of persuasion, ranked by Aristotle alongside logical reasoning and arguments from character. Although ancient philosophical discussions of it have been much researched, exploration of its practical use has focused largely on explicit appeals to a handful of emotions (anger, hatred, envy, pity) in 5th-4th century BCE Athenian courtroom oratory. This volume expands horizons: from an opening section focusing on so-far underexplored emotions and sub-genres of oratory in Classical Athens, its scope moves outwards generically, geographically, and chronologically through the "Greek East" to Rome. Key thematic links are: the role of emotion in the formation of community identity; persuasive strategies in situations of unequal power; and linguistic formulae and genre-specific emotional persuasion. Other recurring themes include performance (rather than arousal) of emotions, the choice between emotional and rational argumentation, the emotions of gods, and a concern with a secondary "audience": the reader.

The present volume is a tribute to Lucia Calboli Montefusco, Professor Emerita of the University of Bologna, internationally recognised specialist in the history of rhetoric and President of the International Society for the History of Rhetoric 2009-11. After a discussion of her career and publications 27 essays follow linked in different ways to rhetorical argumentation, one of the central problems of Lucia Calboli Montefusco's research. Following a flexibly chronological plan, these studies discuss successively Greek theory and practice (Thucydides, Lysias, Isaeus, Isocrates, Aristotle, Chrysippus), and Greco-Roman rhetoric between the Republic and late antiquity (Cicero, Quintilian, Chariton of Aphrodisias, John Chrysostom, Choricius of Gaza, Cassiodorus, Martianus Capella). The volume ends with analyses on medieval Latin epistolography (Thirteenth century) and dialectic in the renaissance (Lorenzo Valla and Rudolph Agricola). These studies devoted to the dialectical aspect of rhetoric are enhanced by studies of the link between rhetorical argumentation and historical circumstances, the parts of the oration, other forms of textual production (the novel, the letter), theatre, torture and the law. This broad view, faithful to the breadth of ' the Realm of Rhetoric ' (Chaim Perelman) is also a tribute to a tradition which Lucia Calboli Montefusco has herself illuminated to a very large extent in working as well on Aristotle and Consultus Fortunatianus as on George Trapezuntius of Crete.

Greek traditions relating to both the arts and sciences of life and health and those regarding the systematic development of theories of measurement and quantification enjoyed an incredibly long reputation and showed a kind of versatility that challenges any simplistic, dogmatic or a priori viewpoint about the meaning and social function of systematic knowledge. In this sense, they allow us to focus on very specific traits of the multiple processes of production, textual arrangement and transmission of the sciences. Greek Science in the Long Run: Essays on the Greek Scientific Tradition (4th c. BCE–17th c. CE) offers a collection of essays in which renowned international experts in ancient, medieval and early modern history and culture and the history of science, together with young researchers in these same fields, reflect upon different aspects of this long-standing prominence of Greek models and traditions in the changing configuration of the sciences. The main aim of the volume is to revisit the different processes by which such doctrinal traditions originated, were transmitted and received within diverse socio-cultural contexts and frameworks. The specialized scholars and academics contributing to the volume embrace advanced standpoints regarding these issues and ensure a successful and substantial contribution to one of the lines of research that has recently attracted the most attention within the field of humanities: the interdisciplinary project of a historical epistemology seriously informed by an advanced history of epistemology or the sciences.

Scholarship on ancient Pyrrhonism has made tremendous advances over the past three decades, thanks especially to the careful reexamination of Sextus Empiricus’ extant corpus. Building on this momentum, the authors of the eight essays collected here examine some of the most vexed and intriguing exegetical and philosophical questions posed by Sextus’ presentation of this form of skepticism. The essays explore in a new light the skeptical interpretation of Plato, the differences between Pyrrhonism and Cyrenaicism, the Pyrrhonist’s stance on ordinary life, religion, language, and ethics, Sextus’ discussion of our access to our own mental states, and the relationship between Pyrrhonism and epistemic internalism and externalism. These new essays represent a substantial contribution to the advancement of scholarship on Pyrrhonian skepticism.

Papers presented to the Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy since its beginnings in the 1950's.

Essays in Ancient Greek Philosophy, Volume Two, reflects the refinements in scholarship and philosophical analysis that have impacted classical philosophy in recent years. It is a selection of the best papers presented at the annual meetings of the Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy during the last decade. The papers presented indicate a shift in accent from a predominant preference for the application of linguistic methods in the study of texts to a more intensified concern for contextual examinations of philosophical concepts. The works of both younger scholars and senior authors show a more liberal, yet controlled, use of historical and cultural elements in interpretation. The papers also reflect advances in scholarship in adjacent fields of Greek studies. From pre-Socratic to post-Aristotelian philosophers, the papers in this volume are intended to stimulate interest in the major accomplishments of classical philosophers. This work augments its companion volume Essays in Ancient Greek Philosophy.