a companion to ancient philosophy Series Editor John Russon REREADING ANCIENT PHILOSOPHY A COMPANION TO ANCIENT PHILOSOPHY Edited and with an introduction by Sean D. Kirkland and Eric Sanday northwestern university press • evanston, illinois Northwestern University Press www.nupress.northwestern.edu Copyright © 2018 by Northwestern University Press. Published 2018. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data Names: Kirkland, Sean D., editor. | Sanday, Eric, editor. Title: A companion to ancient philosophy / edited and with an introduction by Sean D. Kirkland and Eric Sanday. Other titles: Rereading ancient philosophy. Description: Evanston, Illinois : Northwestern University Press, 2018. | Series: Rereading ancient philosophy Identifiers: LCCN 2018024921 | ISBN 9780810137868 (pbk. : alk. paper) | ISBN 9780810137875 (cloth : alk. paper) | ISBN 9780810137882 (ebook) Subjects: LCSH: Philosophy, Ancient. Classification: LCC B171 .C67 2018 | DDC 180—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/201802492 contents Introduction ix Sean D. Kirkland and Eric Sanday Time Line xx Abbreviations xxiii Early Greek Thinking: The Emergence of Philosophy Physis in Pre- Socratic Thought: Seeking with Xenophanes 5 Robert Metcalf Going with the Flow: Soul and Truth in Heraclitus 21 Drew A. Hyland Justice, Change, and Knowledge: Aristotle, Parmenides, and Melissus on Genesis and Natural Science 37 Rose Cherubin “As He Says in His Poetical Way”: Anaximander and Empedocles on the Motive Forces of Kosmos 53 Phil Hopkins The Human as (W)hole: Aristophanes’s Contest with Socrates in Clouds 67 Damian Stocking Classical Greek Philosophy: Plato and Aristotle Erōs and Eris: Love and Strife in Ancient Greek Thought and Culture 83 John Russon Plato and Aristotle: More Than a Question of ‘Separate Forms’ 97 Francisco J. Gonzalez Measure, Excess, and the All: To Agathon in Plato 109 Claudia Baracchi In the Wake of Socrates: Impossible Memory 123 Walter Brogan The Origins of Political Life in Plato’s Republic and Laws 135 George Harvey Being in Late Plato 147 Eric Sanday Aristotle on Physis: Analyzing the Inner Ambiguities and Transgression of Nature 161 Marjolein Oele Human Logos in Aristotle 177 Ömer Aygün Developing Emotions: Aristotle’s Rhetoric II.2– 11 191 Greg Recco Hontina tropon gignetai philos: Genesis versus Alteration in the Forming of Friendships 203 John McCumber The Political Context for Virtue: Aristotle’s Politics 215 Eve Rabinoff Mimēsis: Plato and Aristotle on the Political Power of Tragedy 229 Patricia Fagan The Hellenistic Schools Ataraxia: Tranquility at the End 245 Pascal Massie A Well- Ordered World: The Developing Idea of Kosmos in Later Greek Philosophy 263 Gina Zavota Searching for the ‘Why’: Plotinus on Being and the One beyond Being 275 Michael Wiitala Contributors 287 Index 293 introduction Sean D. Kirkland and Eric Sanday The essays collected in this volume are intended to grant the reader a certain entrée into ancient Greek and Roman philosophy, from the Pre-S ocratics (sixth and fifth centuries b.c.e.) through Plato (429–3 47 b.c.e.) and Aristo- tle (384– 322 b.c.e.) up to and including the Hellenistic period (322 b.c.e. to third century c.e.).1 This broad coverage and this introductory function are precisely what one expects from a ‘companion’ volume. However, the specific approach taken here to the performance of this function departs in sig- nificant and self-c onscious ways from that of ostensibly similar collections. Indeed, we editors see the volume’s unorthodox character as a radicalization of the notion of companionship itself. Companionship as Hermeneutic From the very earliest stages of planning this collection, it seemed to us that any ‘companion’ to ancient philosophy worthy of its name would have to, in a sense, situate itself between its historically distant subject matter and its audience, having as its organizing aim that of bringing together reader and text. In this, its hermeneutic task seemed to us twofold. On the one hand, and first and foremost, such a volume must accompany its readers back toward the ancients, bringing the reader face to face with the concerns, con- cepts, terminology, and arguments at work in these highly complex ancient philosophical texts, as well as allowing the reader to appreciate the ways in which each of these texts reflects its specific historical context. On the other hand, this volume must in a sense accompany ancient works into the present, insofar as it should allow the text, to the extent that the texts’ own form and content permit, to speak meaningfully to us today, addressing and relating to living philosophical questions and issues. The task represented by such a double companionship entails, then, that the authors of these essays maintain what we think of as a rigorous openness, in two senses. First, in approaching the ancient texts our authors read them closely and comprehensively. This task sounds easy enough, but it requires remaining open and attentive especially to the unexpected and ix