The Epicureans, Skeptics, and Stoics practiced philosophy not as a detached intellectual discipline but as a worldly art of grappling with issues of daily and urgent human significance. In this classic work, Martha Nussbaum maintains that these Hellenistic schools have been unjustly neglected in recent philosophic accounts of what the classical "tradition" has to offer. By examining texts of philosophers such as Epicurus, Lucretius, and Seneca, she recovers a valuable source for current moral and political thought and encourages us to reconsider philosophical argument as a technique through which to improve lives. Written for general readers and specialists, The Therapy of Desire addresses compelling issues ranging from the psychology of human passion through rhetoric to the role of philosophy in public and private life.
Biografie
Martha C. Nussbaum (geb. 1947) ist Ernst Freud Professor of Law and Ethics an der University of Chicago. An derselben Universität lehrt sie außerdem in den Fächern Rechtswissenschaft, Theologie und Klassische Philologie. Neben zahlreichen Schriften zur Philosophie der Antike hat sie vor allem Arbeiten über moralphilosophische Themen veröffentlicht. Dabei behandelt sie oft Fragen am Schnittpunkt zwischen Ethik, öffentlicher Moral, Literatur und Problemen des Feminismus. 1993 hielt sie die renommierten Gifford Lectures über Themen der Moralphilosophie und der Philosophie der Psychologie.§
