Contemporary Encounters with Ancient Practice - by Abraham Jacob Greenstine & Ryan J Johnson & Dave Mesing (Hardcover)

About the Book

Continental philosophers and contemporary artists transform the classics into living practices.

Book Synopsis

This volume collects written and visual works that engage with opportunities of ancient practice from within the continental tradition. More than surveying ancient ethical or political ideas, the chapters develop divergent yet resonant approaches to concrete ways of living, acting, reflecting, and being with others found in antiquity and its reception. The practices involve the habits, exercises, activities, philosophies, and lives of today's readers; and so most chapters encourage the reader to do something, to put the ideas into practice. Withstanding a temptation to simply theorize practice, it insists on the embodied and shared materiality of living in singular times and places. The practical encounters between this book and its readers range across antiquity and the contemporary world, from political theatre, casuistry, and slavery to book production, friendship, and our own mortality. Through thinker-practitioner collaborations, occasional pieces, exhortations to readers, and recipes for action, this work strives to articulate and cultivate old and new practices for our lives.

Review Quotes

Ancient Greek philosophy is not merely doctrine. It prods and provokes. It aims to change its adherents in their thoughts, habits, and souls. Contemporary Encounters with Ancient Practice, a broad, learned collection from distinguished hands, takes this observation seriously in the best possible way--itself practicing and performing philosophical and artistic thought.--Wilson H. Shearin, University of Miami

The idea that guides this magnificent collection is to establish a virtuous circle between ancient and contemporary philosophy. To this end, it succeeds in providing a selective reading of ancient authors guided by a choice of contemporary lenses which bring into focus the profound link between philosophy and its historical-social conditions. These texts make visible, here and now, the very essence of philosophy as an intervention in a conjuncture whose enjeu is always ethical-political.--Vittorio Morfino, Università di Milano-Bicocca