Full of original ideas and challenging associations, this work will offer new ways of thinking about the philosophers Nehamas discusses and about the discipline of philosophy itself. This highly readable, erudite study argues for the importance of the tradition within Western philosophy that is best described as 'the art of living' and casts Montaigne, Nietzsche, and Foucault as the three major modern representatives of this tradition. Alexander Nehamas presented Episteme and Logos in Platos Later Thought at the meeting of the Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy with the Eastern. 48 Reviews Alison Assiter, Don Slater, Margaret Atack, Graham McCann, Howard Feather, Alex Callinicos, Kathleen Lennon. This, Nehamas shows, is what allowed Montaigne, Nietzsche, and Foucault to return to Socrates as a model without thereby compelling them to imitate him. Beauty therefore serves as a catalyst to motivate people to cultivate themselves for the greater good of the community.
Socrates remains a silent and ambiguous character, forcing readers to come to their own conclusions about the art of life. Nehamas also imparts to his readers that the quest to secure immortality is a basic human trait that is driven by the desire to give birth to beauty. Before coming to Princeton, he taught at the University of Pittsburgh and the University of Pennsylvania. Socratic irony creates a mask that prevents a view of what lies behind.How Socrates led the life he did, what enabled or inspired him, is never made evident. Alexander Nehamas was born in Athens, graduated from Athens College, and attended Swarthmore College and Princeton University, where he is currently Professor in the Humanities, Philosophy, and Comparative Literature.
Why does each of these philosophers - each fundamentally concerned with his own originality - return to Socrates as a model? The answer lies in the irony that characterizes the Socrates we know from the Platonic dialogues. In this wide-ranging, brilliantly written account, Alexander Nehamas provides an incisive reevaluation of Socrates' place in the Western philosophical tradition and shows the importance of Socrates for Montaigne, Nietzsche, and Foucault. Each of these writers has used philosophical discussion as a means of establishing what a person is and how a worthwhile life is to be lived. The idea of philosophy as an art of living has survived in the works of such major modern authors as Montaigne, Nietzsche, and Foucault. This practical aspect of philosophy has been much less dominant in modernity than it was in ancient Greece and Rome, when philosophers of all stripes kept returning to Socrates as a model for living. His interests include Greek philosophy, philosophy of art, European philosophy and literary theory. He was born in Athens and speaks Greek, English, French, German and Italian, and reads ancient Greek and Latin. He is also Professor of the Humanities and of Comparative Literature. Carpenter II Class of 1943 Professor of Humanities and a professor of philosophy and comparative literature, has taught at Princeton since 1990. For much of its history, philosophy was not merely a theoretical discipline but a way of life, an 'art of living'. Alexander Nehamas Alexander Nehamas Curriculum Vitae Ph.D., Princeton,1971.
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