The Stoic Idea of the City

by Malcolm Schofield

Overview

The Stoic Idea of the City offers the first systematic analysis of the Stoic school, concentrating on Zeno's Republic. Renowned classical scholar Malcolm Schofield brings together scattered and underused textual evidence, examining the Stoic ideals that initiated the natural law tradition of Western political thought. A new foreword by Martha Nussbaum and a new epilogue written by the author further secure this text as the standard work on the Stoics.

"The account emerges from a jigsaw-puzzle of items from a wide range of authorities, painstakingly pieced together and then annotated in a series of appendixes, the whole executed with fine scholarship, clarity, and good humor."—Times Literary Supplement

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780226740065
Publisher:	University of Chicago Press
Publication date:	07/01/1999
Edition description:	1
Pages:	196
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.70(d)

Table of Contents

Foreword by Martha C. Nussbaum
Preface
List of Abbreviations
Introduction
1. Cassius the Sceptic
2. City of love
3. The cosmic city
4. From republicanism to natural law
Appendixes
A. Zeno and Alexander
B. Problems with the Stoic definitions of love
C. Ethical attractiveness
D. Descending to marriage
E. Plato and the Stoics on concord
F. Cleanthes' syllogism
G. []
H. Diogenes' cosmopolitanism
Epilogue: 'Impossible hypotheses'
Bibliography
Index of passages
Index and glossary of Greek terms
General index

Editorial Reviews

Drawing from scattered and underused texts, Schofield (ancient philosophy, U. of Cambridge) explores the Stoics' notions of natural law and world citizenship. He finds a key principle of political unity in Zeno's treatment of the Platonized conception of erotic love. The 1991 edition was published by Cambridge University Press; the second includes a new forward and epilogue. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Booknews

The account emerges from a jigsaw-puzzle of items from a wide range of authorities, painstakingly pieced together and then annotated in a series of appendixes, the whole executed with fine scholarship, clarity, and good humor.
—

Times Literary Supplement