Body and Soul in Hellenistic Philosophy

Explores Greek and Roman theories about the relationship of soul and body in the centuries after Aristotle.

The relationship of soul to body was one of the earliest and most persistent questions in ancient thought. The essays cover connected issues from the period immediately after Aristotle to the second century CE. Doctors from Herophilus to Galen are covered, as are the Peripatetic, Epicurean, Stoic and Platonist traditions.Philosophers and doctors from the period immediately after Aristotle down to the second century CE were particularly focussed on the close relationships of soul and body; such relationships are particularly intimate when the soul is understood to be a material entity, as it was by Epicureans and Stoics; but even Aristotelians and Platonists shared the conviction that body and soul interact in ways that affect the well-being of the living human being. These philosophers were interested in the nature of the soul, its structure, and its powers. They were also interested in the place of the soul within a general account of the world. This leads to important questions about the proper methods by which we should investigate the nature of the soul and the appropriate relationships among natural philosophy, medicine, and psychology. This volume, part of the Symposium Hellenisticum series, features ten scholars addressing different aspects of this topic.