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Happiness was a central focus of ancient philosophy: this volume traces conceptions of happiness through nearly a millennium, from the Presocratics through Plato, Aristotle, and Hellenistic philosophy to the Neo-Platonists and Augustine in late antiquity. The contributors address questions raised by ancient thinkers that are still of deep concern.

Happiness was a central focus of ancient philosophy: this volume traces conceptions of happiness through nearly a millennium, from the Presocratics through Plato, Aristotle, and Hellenistic philosophy to the Neo-Platonists and Augustine in late antiquity. The contributors address questions raised by ancient thinkers that are still of deep concern.

Preliminary Material /Vesa Hirvonen , Toivo J. Holopainen and Miira Tuominen -- The "Morality of Pity": Sophocles' Philoctetes and the European Stoics /Martha C. Nussbaum -- Aristotle's Desire /David Charles -- Ta Meta Ta Metaphysika: The Argumentative Structure of Aristotle's Metaphysics. /Jaakko Hintikka -- Aristotle and Alexander of Aphrodisias on the Active Intellect /Miira Tuominen -- Plotinus on Thinking Oneself and the First-Person /Eyjólfur Kjalar Emilsson -- The Autonomy of Religion in Ancient Philosophy /Juha Sihvola -- Future Contingents in the Eleventh Century /Toivo J. Holopainen -- Mind and Modal Judgement: Al-Ghazālī and Ibn Rushd on Conceivability and Possibility /Taneli Kukkonen -- By Necessity /Sten Ebbesen -- Types of Self-Awareness in Medieval Thought /Mikko Yrjönsuuri -- Mental Disorders in Late Medieval Philosophy and Theology /Vesa Hirvonen -- Wisdom as Intellectual Virtue: Aquinas, Odonis and Buridan /Risto Saarinen -- John Buridan and the Mathematical Demonstration /Joël Biard -- What is Singular Thought? Ockham and Buridan on Singular Terms in the Language of Thought /Henrik Lagerlund -- Fact, Fiction, and Fantasy: Luther and the Medieval De Anima Tradition of Imagination /Reijo Työrinoja -- Necessity, Immutability, and Descartes /C.G. Normore -- Spinoza and Hume on Pride and Self-Knowledge /Lilli Alanen -- The Community of Minds as a Problem of Modern Philosophy: Descartes, Leibniz, Kant /Marco M. Olivetti -- Varieties of Philosophical Theology Before and After Kant /Ingolf U. Dalferth -- Symbol Meaning and Logical Form: A Study in the Semantics of Religious Language /Heikki Kirjavainen -- Cognition and Emotion /Ilkka Niiniluoto -- Index of Names /Vesa Hirvonen , Toivo J. Holopainen and Miira Tuominen.

Suicide is a puzzling phenomenon. Not only is its demarcation problematic but it also eludes simple explanation. The cultures in which suicide mortality is high do not necessarily have much else in common, and neither is a single mental illness such as depression sufficient to lead a person to suicide. In a word, despite its statistical regularity, suicide is unpredictable on the individual level. The main argument emerging from this collection is that suicide should not be understood as a separate realm of pathological behavior but as a form of human action. As such it is always dependent on the decision that the individual makes in a cultural, ethical and socio-economic context, but the context never completely determines the decision. This book also argues that cultural narratives concerning suicide have a problematic double function: in addition to enabling the community to make sense of self-inflicted death, they also constitute a blueprint depicting suicide as a solution to common human problems

Die antike Philosophie bietet eine differenzierte Diskussion zu akteurs- und handlungstheoretischen Fragen. Die deutschen und englischen Beiträge des Bandes geben einen Einblick in die Reichhaltigkeit dieser Diskussion vom 5. Jahrhundert vor unserer Zeit bis zur Spätantike mit einem Schwerpunkt auf Aristoteles. Diskutiert werden zum einen Fragen zu den rationalen und arationalen seelischen Faktoren, die antiken Philosophen zufolge dem Handeln zugrunde liegen. Diskutiert werden zum anderen Fragen zum Verhältnis von Handelnden, Handlungen und Handlungszielen. Zwei antike Überlegungen werden hier besonders in den Blick genommen: Handlungen sind Ausdruck dessen, was sich den Handelnden in ihrer seelischen Verfasstheit als zu erstrebendes Gut darstellt. Zugleich gibt es objektive Maßstäbe für das Gut-Sein des Ziels und die Angemessenheit der Mittel, die es für ethisch richtiges Handeln auch angesichts von Unwägbarkeiten der Handlungsumstände richtig zu erfassen gilt. Diskutiert werden schließlich Fragen zur handlungsrelevanten Rationalität und zum Handeln in der Gemeinschaft. Die Band leistet einen Beitrag zur anhaltenden Forschungsdiskussion zu handlungs- und akteurstheoretischen Fragen in der antiken Philosophie.