Death And Immortality In Ancient Philosophy

Death and immortality played a central role in Greek and Roman thought, from Homer and early Greek philosophy to Marcus Aurelius. In this book A. G. Long explains the significance of death and immortality in ancient ethics, particularly Plato’s dialogues, Stoicism and Epicureanism; he also shows how philosophical cosmology and theology caused immortality to be reimagined. Ancient arguments and theories are related both to the original literary and theological contexts and to contemporary debates on the philosophy of death. The book will be of major interest to scholars and students working on Greek and Roman philosophy, and to those wishing to explore ancient precursors of contemporary debates about death and its outcomes.
• Explores the varied and often subtle conceptions of immortality in Greek and Roman philosophy, from Homer to Stoicism
• Provides an original account of death in Epicureanism and of immortality in the thought of Plato
• The book is accessible and of great interest to upper-level students of ancient philosophy as well as those interested in contemporary debates on death