Thinking Through Letters: Studies on Epistolary Collections by Greek Philosophers

This volume offers a renewed examination of the letter collections attributed to Greek philosophers from the Archaic to the early Hellenistic periods. Long dismissed as largely inauthentic since Bentley, these texts are reconsidered here not for their authorship, but for what they reveal about the reception, interpretation, and fictionalization of philosophical figures and traditions. The contributors explore the role of these letters in constructing images of philosophers, blending biography and literary invention, shaping school identities, and circulating doctrines. Taken together, the chapters demonstrate that these often neglected texts are essential evidence for understanding how philosophical ideas and ways of life were transmitted and reshaped in antiquity.

Ce volume jette un nouveau regard sur les corpus de lettres attribuées aux philosophes grecs entre l’époque archaïque et le début de l’époque hellénistique, corpus longtemps négligé à partir de la condamnation d’inauthenticité de Bentley. Loin de se limiter à la question de leur authenticité, le volume montre comment ces écrits participent à la construction de l’image des philosophes, à la formation des identités des écoles philosophiques, et à la diffusion de leurs doctrines. Les contributions mettent en évidence la dimension littéraire, pédagogique et parfois fictionnelle de ces lettres, qui témoignent ainsi des modes de transmission des idées philosophiques dans l’Antiquité.

Marco Donato is Research Fellow (RTT) in Ancient Greek Literature at the University of Pisa. He studies the literary forms of philosophical transmission throughout Antiquity, mainly in the context of the Platonic tradition.

Francesca Scrofani currently teaches at Aix-Marseille University. Her researches focus on Platonic political thought and its reception in the ancient tradition.

Tiziano Dorandi is Director of Research Emeritus at the French National Center of Scientific Research (CNRS). His interests include papyrology, textual criticism and ancient philosophy. He is currently working on a new edition of the Anthology of John of Stobi.