French and Italian Stoicisms

Description

The importance of Stoicism for Gilles Deleuze’s Logic of Sense and Michel Foucault’s Hermeneutics of the Subject and The Care of the Self is well known. However, few students of either classics or philosophy are aware of the breadth of French and Italian receptions of Stoicism. This book firstly presents this broad field to readers, and secondly advances it by renewing dialogues with ancient Stoic texts. The authors in this volume, who combine expertise in continental and Hellenistic philosophy, challenge our understanding of both modern and ancient concepts, arguments, exercises, and therapies. It conceives of Stoicism as a vital strand of philosophy which contributes to the life of contemporary thought. Flowing through the sustained, varied engagement with Stoicism by continental thinkers, this volume covers Jean-Paul Sartre, Gilles Deleuze, Michel Foucault, Julia Kristeva, Alain Badiou, Émile Bréhier, Barbara Cassin, Giorgia Agamben, and Pierre Hadot. Stoic sources addressed range from doxography and well-known authors like Epictetus and Seneca to more obscure authorites like Musonius Rufus and Cornutus. Title Page Copyright Page Contents Figure Table A Note on Translation Acknowledgment Abbreviations Chapter 1: Introduction: Stoicism, Language, and Freedom 1 The Meaning(s) of the Stoic Tradition 2 Language 3 Freedom 4 Conclusion Notes Bibliography Chapter 2: Sartre, Stoicism, and the Problem of Moral Responsibility (from 1939 to 1948) 1 Sartre’s Complex Relationship with Stoicism 2 Acceptance and Realization in War Diaries: Notebooks from a Phoney War 3 Being and Nothingness and the Stoic Conception of Freedom 4 The Final Critique of Stoicism in the Notebooks for an Ethics Notes Bibliography Chapter 3: Sartrean Ontology and the Stoic Theory of Incorporeals 1 Sartre’s Ontological Project and Stoic Ontology 2 Sartre’s Readings of Stoicism before Being and Nothingness 3 Stoic Incorporeals in Being and Nothingness 4 From Nihilation to Totality: Toward the Question of the pan and the holon 5 Being and Nothingness between God and the World: Perspectives and Convergences 6 Conclusion: Ontology and Ethics Notes Bibliography Chapter 4: Deleuzian Exercises and the Inversion of Stoicism 1 Actualization, Counteractualization, and the Intensive Field 2 Stoic and Deleuzian Conceptions of Self—Inverting Oikeiōsis 3 From Spiritual Exercises to Experimentation Notes Bibliography Chapter 5: How and Why Did Badiou Beat Deleuze with a Stoic Stick 1 The One-All and the Stoic Sticker 2 More Stoicism: Asceticism and Monotony 3 Spinoza as the Foot-in-the-Monist-Door 4 Deleuze as a Platonist malgré lui 5 Overturning Stoicism as a Failed Platonism 6 Conclusion Notes Bibliography Chapter 6: Julia Kristeva, Stoicism, and the “True Life of Interpretations” 1 Kristeva on the Stoic “Life of Interpretations” 2 Response to Kristeva 3 Conclusions Notes Bibliography Chapter 7: Indifference versus Affirmation: Michel Foucault on the Stoic Idea of Life as a Test 1 Indifference versus Affirmation 2 Life as a Test 3 Athenian versus Roman Stoics 4 Conceptions of the Self 5 Life as if a Test 6 Conclusions Notes Bibliography Chapter 8: Veridiction and Parrhesia: The Complex Case of Stoicism and Its Reading by M. Foucault I II III Notes Bibliography Chapter 9: Stoicism: Political Resistance or Retreat? Foucault and Arendt 1. Foucault Return to the Subject 2. Arendt: Stoicism as Political Retreat 3. Foucault: Stoicism as Political Resistance 4. Stoicism as Civic Virtue Notes Bibliography Chapter 10: Stoicism, Ambiguity, and the Decision of Sense 1 Introduction B. Excerpt from Barbara Cassin’s L’Effet sophistique: Stoicism, Ambiguity, and the Decision of Sense Notes Bibliography Chapter 11: Ontology and Language, between Chrysippus and Agamben 1 Philosophy and Language 2 The Task of Philosophy: An “Unsayable” Passion 3 Factum Linguae 4 The “Sayable” alongside Thought, Language, and Things 5 The Platonic Idea as Sayability 6 Discussion Conclusion: Philology and Critique Notes Bibliography Chapter 12: Making Use of Agamben’s “Stoic Providence-Fate Apparatus”: A Reading of Seneca’s Consolation to Polybius 1 Introduction 2 The Stoic Providence-Fate Apparatus in “The Providential Machine” 3 The Stoic Providence-Fate Apparatus in Seneca’s Consolation to Polybius 4 Conclusion Notes Bibliography Chapter 13: Pierre Hadot: Stoicism as a Way of Life 1 Hadot’s Way of Reading the Ancients: Sources and Contexts 2 From the Three Parts of Philosophy to the Three Disciplines: Hadot’s Epictetus 3 Hadot’s Marcus Aurelius 4 Concluding Remarks Notes Bibliography Contributors Index