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Hellenistic Philosophy: Introductory Readings
This new edition of Hellenistic Philosophy --including nearly 100 pages of additional materia--offers the first English translation of the account of Stoic ethics by Arius Didymus, substantial new sources on Epicureanism, Stoicism, and Scepticism, expanded representation of Plutarch and Cicero, and a fuller presentation of papyrological evidence. Inwood and Gerson maintain the standard of consistency and accuracy that distinguished their translations in the first edition, while regrouping some material into larger, more thematically connected passages. This edition is further enhanced by a new, more spacious page design.
464 pages, Paperback
First published July 1, 1988
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461 people want to read
About the author
Brad Inwood
52 books24 followersBrad Inwood is a specialist in ancient philosophy with particular emphasis on Stoicism and the Presocratics. He received his BA in Classics from Brock University in St. Catharines, Ontario. After an MA in Classics at the University of Toronto and a year of post-graduate research at Cambridge, he completed his doctorate in Classics at Toronto with a focus on ancient philosophy.
His career began with a Mellon postdoctoral fellowship at Stanford and he then took up a teaching post at the University of Toronto. While at Toronto he had two terms as DGS in Classics and served as chair of the Classics department and as acting chair of Philosophy, and founded Toronto’s Collaborative Program in Ancient and Medieval Philosophy (with two terms as director). He has enjoyed fellowships at the National Humanities Centre and the Centre for Advanced Study in the Behavioural Sciences and held the Canada Research Chair in Ancient Philosophy.
His research has always focused on ancient philosophy, especially in the Hellenistic and Presocratic periods. Major works include Ethics and Human Action in Early Stoicism, The Poem of Empedocles, Reading Seneca: Stoic Philosophy at Rome, Seneca: Selected Philosophical Letters, and Ethics After Aristotle. From 2007 to 2015 he was the editor of Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy and he is currently working on Later Stoicism 155 BC to AD 200: An Introduction and Collection of Sources in Translation for Cambridge University Press.
Primary appointments in both Philosophy and Classics. Ancient philosophy special interests include the Presocratics, Stoicism, moral psychology and ethics.
His career began with a Mellon postdoctoral fellowship at Stanford and he then took up a teaching post at the University of Toronto. While at Toronto he had two terms as DGS in Classics and served as chair of the Classics department and as acting chair of Philosophy, and founded Toronto’s Collaborative Program in Ancient and Medieval Philosophy (with two terms as director). He has enjoyed fellowships at the National Humanities Centre and the Centre for Advanced Study in the Behavioural Sciences and held the Canada Research Chair in Ancient Philosophy.
His research has always focused on ancient philosophy, especially in the Hellenistic and Presocratic periods. Major works include Ethics and Human Action in Early Stoicism, The Poem of Empedocles, Reading Seneca: Stoic Philosophy at Rome, Seneca: Selected Philosophical Letters, and Ethics After Aristotle. From 2007 to 2015 he was the editor of Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy and he is currently working on Later Stoicism 155 BC to AD 200: An Introduction and Collection of Sources in Translation for Cambridge University Press.
Primary appointments in both Philosophy and Classics. Ancient philosophy special interests include the Presocratics, Stoicism, moral psychology and ethics.
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
October 4, 2024
A well edited collection of source material. My rank order: Epicureanism, Skepticism, Stoicism.
May 23, 2024
This is a superb collection of primary and secondary sources. I had no clue how thoroughgoing Pyrrhonian skepticism was until I read Sextus Empiricus' later account. It appears that later Pyrrhonians treated logic, rules of discourse, dialectical arguments and the entire game of giving and asking for reasons as certain conditions and/or what they call "criteria for action" imposed upon the skeptic by society in general to which one cannot help but 'assent' (analogous to how in their view one cannot help but assent to appearances). Unlike Epicureans and Stoics, however, Pyrrhonian skeptics maintained that appearances/presentations cannot even be said to be 'true' or oriented towards 'truth'. Stoics bored me, but Seneca and Cicero sounded very sharp. One characteristic of Epicurean theory of the good that stood out to me was the emphasis on the study of certain parts of physics as contributing to the practice of living a life of blessedness, even if merely negatively (e.g. understanding the true causes of mereological phenomena helps eliminate one's fear of divine punishment)
favorite group: Cyrenaics
favorite group: Cyrenaics
December 3, 2025
I actually have a really hard time with ancient skeptics, epicureans and stoics. Not to say those schools of thought are much healthier in modernity, but anciently… it was extreme. I just kept shaking my head and asking myself “how did they get anything done if the main goal for the stoics was indifference, skeptics non-commitment, and epicureans pleasure”?
I haven’t answered my question. If anyone has any ideas I’m all ears.
Needless to say, it’s an important read and this was a good comprehensive collection of Hellenistic thought.
I haven’t answered my question. If anyone has any ideas I’m all ears.
Needless to say, it’s an important read and this was a good comprehensive collection of Hellenistic thought.
November 29, 2019
again didn’t read it all, some extracts for each of the hellenistic philosophies for my lectures
November 5, 2023
Acceptionally intelligent.
December 4, 2023
Really good arrangement of primary sources, though I would have preferred some commentary instead of just a glossary of terms
December 10, 2023
I enjoyed the Hellenistic schools of thought a lot, especially when getting the chance to compare them to Platonic and Aristotelian thinking. Really interesting ideas about ethics and death.
December 22, 2025
Read Stoicism and Epicureanism.
October 17, 2014
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Read this and reviews of other classics in Western Philosophy on the History page of www.BestPhilosophyBooks.org (a thinkPhilosophy Production).
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This is the standard collection of philosophy in the Hellenistic age, the historical period between Aristotle’s death and the rise of Neoplatonism. The volume represents the major schools of philosophy of this time — Skepticism, Stoicism, and Epicurianism — in a new edition that has been expanded, reorganized, and made more readable.
Pyrrhonism was the main school of Skepticism at the time, and they taught the suspension of judgement (“attraxia”) in the face of the unattainability of certainty or true knowledge, laying the grounds for modern skepticism and Descartes’ reduction (see Descartes’ Meditations on First Philosophy).
Epicurianism taught that the world is ruled by blind chance (as opposed to balanced by a cosmic justice or some omniscient being like God), and taught the cultivation of a simple life with the avoidance of pain as the primary goal.
Finally, the most successful school of Hellenistic Philosophy was Stoicism, which developed tactics for the cultivation of the self and advocated self-discipline as way to overcome destructive emotions.
Although these schools flourished as quickly as they died out, an interests in stoicism is rekindled in the 20th Century by French philosopher Michael Foucault - see Discipline and Punish.
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Read this and reviews of other classics in Western Philosophy on the History page of www.BestPhilosophyBooks.org (a thinkPhilosophy Production).
---
Read this and reviews of other classics in Western Philosophy on the History page of www.BestPhilosophyBooks.org (a thinkPhilosophy Production).
---
This is the standard collection of philosophy in the Hellenistic age, the historical period between Aristotle’s death and the rise of Neoplatonism. The volume represents the major schools of philosophy of this time — Skepticism, Stoicism, and Epicurianism — in a new edition that has been expanded, reorganized, and made more readable.
Pyrrhonism was the main school of Skepticism at the time, and they taught the suspension of judgement (“attraxia”) in the face of the unattainability of certainty or true knowledge, laying the grounds for modern skepticism and Descartes’ reduction (see Descartes’ Meditations on First Philosophy).
Epicurianism taught that the world is ruled by blind chance (as opposed to balanced by a cosmic justice or some omniscient being like God), and taught the cultivation of a simple life with the avoidance of pain as the primary goal.
Finally, the most successful school of Hellenistic Philosophy was Stoicism, which developed tactics for the cultivation of the self and advocated self-discipline as way to overcome destructive emotions.
Although these schools flourished as quickly as they died out, an interests in stoicism is rekindled in the 20th Century by French philosopher Michael Foucault - see Discipline and Punish.
---
Read this and reviews of other classics in Western Philosophy on the History page of www.BestPhilosophyBooks.org (a thinkPhilosophy Production).
---
July 23, 2016
snippets and longer writings about Epicureanism, Stoicism, and Scepticism (some by the actual philosophers).
The book is a good reference, but kind of boring as a read-it-all-the-way-through book. There are just SO many pieces that all say the same thing. It's like there's Philosopher 1 who says A, Philosopher 2 from the same school who says A, Philosopher 3 who was a student of Philosopher 1's and who says that Philosopher 1 and 2 said A, and Historian 1 who says that Philosophers 1, 2, and 3 (and others of that school of thought) said A. ... And then Historian 2 who says that Philosophers 1, etc., said A. I mean, really?!? Do we need 5 different people saying that one school said A? So it got really boring. But if you're just using it as a philosophy reference, or looking for a ton of examples for each of the three schools of thought, then it's a good reference book.
The book is a good reference, but kind of boring as a read-it-all-the-way-through book. There are just SO many pieces that all say the same thing. It's like there's Philosopher 1 who says A, Philosopher 2 from the same school who says A, Philosopher 3 who was a student of Philosopher 1's and who says that Philosopher 1 and 2 said A, and Historian 1 who says that Philosophers 1, 2, and 3 (and others of that school of thought) said A. ... And then Historian 2 who says that Philosophers 1, etc., said A. I mean, really?!? Do we need 5 different people saying that one school said A? So it got really boring. But if you're just using it as a philosophy reference, or looking for a ton of examples for each of the three schools of thought, then it's a good reference book.
Want to read
February 26, 2021I needed to read this while I was in University. We went over this book in class, read several passages, although I never explicitly read this work in its full entirety from start to finish, but bounced around a lot. I did get a scope of many ideas though. I mean, the work is a bunch of excerpts from various greek philosophers during the Hellenistic era obviously, although I have never been the craziest for the greek phisophers, so this wasn't my cup of tea, although I certainly recognize the influence that this period had on later philosophies and thinkers
January 19, 2025
Void. It is all atoms and void.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews