Myles F. Burnyeat

Arbeitsvorhaben

Freiheit, Zorn, Seelenruhe: eine Archäologie der Gefühle

A book of four substantial chapters, for an audience with general intellectual and philosophical interests but without specialist knowledge of ancient philosophy. Each chapter tells the story of ancient philosophy's contribution to some concept that is important to us today, giving a fairly detailed account of the relevant area of ancient thought with glances forward to some more modern developments. Thus chapter 1 explains how the metaphysical concept of freedom arose out of the political concept; chapter 2 argues that the concept (and indeed the feeling) of anger has changed since antiquity; chapter 3 traces some of the stages by which happiness became the predominantly psychological concept we operate with today. The last chapter deals with the Other Minds problem in ancient and modern thought. Most of the ancient philosophy considered is Hellenistic, so that a by-product of the book will be to provide a stimulating introduction to the ethical ideas of the Epicureans, Stoics, and Sceptics.
The subtitle alludes lightly to Foucault, because I wish to emphasise the historical contingency of the content of the concepts considered, and the great variety of factors (philosophical, religious, political, social, etc.) which have contributed to the formation of the way we now think. This goes against the grain of much analytic philosophising, which largely follows Frege in the view that the phrase "history of concepts" is a misnomer: "What is known as the history of concepts is really a history either of our knowledge of concepts or of the meaning of words" (Die Grundlagen der Arithmetik, vii). Thus, coming as I do from the Anglophone analytic tradition in philosophy, my historicising project has a polemical edge it might not have elsewhere.

Recommended Reading
Burnyeat, Myles, ed. The Skeptical Tradition. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1983.
-. The Theaetetus of Plato. Indianapolis, IN: Hackett Publishing, 1990.
-. A Map of Metaphysics Zeta. Pittsburgh, PA: Mathesis Publ., 2001.

Kolloquium, 31.05.2005

Zorn und Rache. Selbstbeherrschung in der antiken Philosophie

Wenn man einen antiken Bücherstand besuchen könnte, würde man keine Bücher über das Thema finden, wie man sich fit halten oder das Geschlechtsleben verbessern kann, sondern Bücher über Zorn und Selbstbeherrschung. In der Antike haben die Philosophen viel diskutiert, ob eine Welt ohne Zorn besser wäre als die Welt, die wir kennen, und natürlich auch, ob eine solche Welt möglich wäre. Diese Debatte spiegelt bestimmte soziale Umstände der Zeit wider, aber auch - dies ist meine These - eine enge Beziehung zwischen Zorn und Rache, die für uns nicht mehr ein untrennbarer Bestandteil von Zorn ist. Das Gefühl des Zorns hat sich seit der Antike verändert.

Publikationen aus der Fellowbibliothek

Burnyeat, Myles F. (Pittsburgh, PA, 2001)

A map of Metaphysics zeta

Burnyeat, Myles F. (Indianapolis [u.a.], 1992)

The Theaetetus of Plato Theaetetus <engl.>

Burnyeat, Myles F. (Cambridge; New York, 1982)

Science and speculation : studies in hellenistic theory and practice