Utopias in Ancient Thought

Pierre Destrée, Jan Opsomer, Geert Roskam, Pierre Destrée, Jan Opsomer, Geert Roskam

• Publisher: De Gruyter
• Year: 2021
• Topic: Literature
• eBook ISBN:
  9783110733419
• Subtopic: Ancient & Classical Philosophy
• Index: Literature

This collection deals with utopias in the Greek and Roman worlds. Plato is the first and foremost name that comes to mind and, accordingly, 3 chapters (J. Annas; D. El Murr; A. Hazistavrou) are devoted to his various approaches to utopia in the Republic, Timaeus and Laws. But this volume's central vocation and originality comes from our taking on that theme in many other philosophical authors and literary genres. The philosophers include Aristotle (Ch. Horn) but also Cynics (S. Husson), Stoics (G. Reydams-Schils) and Cicero (S. McConnell). Other literary genres include comedic works from Aristophanes up to Lucian (G. Sissa; S. Kidd; N.I. Kuin) and history from Herodotus up to Diodorus Siculus (T. Lockwood; C. Atack; I. Sulimani). A last comparative chapter is devoted to utopias in Ancient China (D. Engels).

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• The quest for the best. Praise, blame, utopia
• What will we do when we get there? Utopia and Dicing in Greek Comedy
• What Thomas More learned from Herodotus about Utopia
• Temporality and utopia in Xenophon and Isocrates
• Plato’s ideal society and Utopia
• Plato and Utopia: Philosophy, Power, and Practicability in Plato’s Republic
• Plato and the utopia within us
• Aristotle's ‘City of our Prayers’ within the History of Political Utopianism
• Utopia and the quest for autarkeia
• Were the later Stoics anti-utopians?
• Cicero and the Golden Age Tradition
• All Over the World: The Utopian Idea in Diodorus Siculus
• Laughter in Lucian’s Utopias of the Dead
• Tao Yuanming’s ‘Peach Blossom Source’ and the Ideal of the ‘Golden Age’ in Classical Antiquity: Utopias in Ancient China and Classical Antiquity
• Index locorum