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. (shrink)

The reader of Catullus' fiftieth poem can hardly fail to be struck by the poet's use of erotic language to his friend Calvus. Sleeplessness and lack of appetiteare symptoms of love, and the threat of Nemesis is commonly used againsta haughty beloved; miserum, incensus, and indomitus furore are words to describe a lover, and ocelle, as Kroll observes, is naturally addressed to a beloved. Even ut tecum loquerer simulque ut essem suggests a lover's yearning, if we recall how Plato in (...) erotic contexts stresses the desire to have company and conversation with the beloved. It is strange then that Kroll should comment onpreces in line 18 that their content is not clear. (shrink)

The reader of Catullus' fiftieth poem can hardly fail to be struck by the poet's use of erotic language to his friend Calvus. Sleeplessness and lack of appetiteare symptoms of love, and the threat of Nemesis is commonly used againsta haughty beloved; miserum , incensus , and indomitus furore are words to describe a lover, and ocelle , as Kroll observes, is naturally addressed to a beloved. Even ut tecum loquerer simulque ut essem suggests a lover's yearning, if we recall (...) how Plato in erotic contexts stresses the desire to have company and conversation with the beloved . It is strange then that Kroll should comment onpreces in line 18 that their content is not clear. (shrink)