Death and Immortality in Ancient Philosophy

A concise and accessible new account of the variety and subtlety of Greek and Roman philosophy of death and immortality, from Homer to Marcus Aurelius. Explores key figures, ideas and debates in Epicurean, Stoic, Presocratic and Platonic philosophy, and relates them to contemporary debates on the philosophy of death.

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Death and immortality played a central role in Greek and Roman thought, from Homer and early Greek philosophy to Marcus Aurelius. In this book A. G. Long explains the significance of death and immortality in ancient ethics, particularly Plato's dialogues, Stoicism and Epicureanism; he also shows how philosophical cosmology and theology caused immortality to be re-imagined. Ancient arguments and theories are related both to the original literary and theological contexts and to contemporary debates on the philosophy of death. The book will be of major interest to scholars and students working on Greek and Roman philosophy, and to those wishing to explore ancient precursors of contemporary debates about death and its outcomes.