Soul and Life: Psyche in Seminal Ancient Greek Thinkers

Soul and Life brings together essays on Greek ontology, psychology, politics, and theories of soul in Socratic thought, Plato, Aristotle, and Herodotus. Among the included perspectives, there is the recognition in common that the soul (psyche) is not a mere hypostatization or reification of the object of cognitive studies. Instead, these essays attempt to understand the soul as distinguished by life itself and as setting out ways of being in the world. The essays in Part I focus on political psychology, pursue feminist themes, and engage with issues in ethics and education. Contributions in Part II argue that the soul situates the fundamental structures in ontology and the study of Being as such. The authors in Part II further approach ancient psychology in terms of new ways of understanding the capacities of living beings for nutrition and generation and articulate the soul as a central concept in the constitution of the world as knowable. Contributors include Deborah Achtenberg, Cinzia Arruzza, Ronna Burger, Shane Montgomery Ewegen, I-Kai Jeng, Daniel P. Maher, Kevin Marren, Michael M. Shaw, Charlotte C.S. Thomas, and Stuart D. Warner. See more