Thinking through Letters: Studies on Epistolary Collections by Greek Philosophers (Hardcover)

Hardcover. 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 attribuees aux philosophes grecs entre lepoque archaique et le debut de lepoque hellenistique, corpus longtemps neglige a partir de la condamnation dinauthenticite de Bentley. Loin de se limiter a la question de leur authenticite, le volume montre comment ces ecrits participent a la construction de limage des philosophes, a la formation des identites des ecoles philosophiques, et a la diffusion de leurs doctrines. Les contributions mettent en evidence la dimension litteraire, pedagogique et parfois fictionnelle de ces lettres, qui temoignent ainsi des modes de transmission des idees philosophiques dans lAntiquite. This item is printed on demand. Shipping may be from our UK warehouse or from our Australian or US warehouses, depending on stock availability.…