Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-745bb68f8f-lrblm Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-01-14T13:53:44.640Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Chapter 5 - The Immortal and the Imperishable in Aristotle, Early Stoicism, and Epicureanism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 May 2021

By
A. G. Long
Edited by
A. G. Long
A. G. Long
Affiliation:
University of St Andrews, Scotland
Get access

Summary

This chapter is about the achievement of immortality in contexts where an everlasting future for the subject is not envisaged. I start with Aristotle’s advice in the Nicomachean Ethics to ‘act as an immortal’ and argue that the talk of immortality does not derive from Aristotle’s own theories about the soul and intellect but rather should be understood with reference to the immediate dialectical context. I then relate Epicurean and Stoic discussions of immortality and ‘imperishability’ to the relevant parts of their theology. The early Epicurean tradition mentions ‘immortal goods’ that can be attained by human beings and are enough to make human beings, in the relevant ethical respect, godlike. Epicureanism contains more than one conception of these ‘goods’, although they should never be identified with either immortality or imperishability. In Stoicism the attribution of mortality and immortality is controlled by strict adherence to a Platonic definition of death (the separation of soul from body) – stricter adherence than we find in the Phaedo itself.

Keywords

immortalimperishableAristotleStoicismChrysippusEpicurusEpicureansPlutarchethics
Type
Chapter
Information
Immortality in Ancient Philosophy , pp. 118 - 142
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Algra, K. 2004. ‘Eternity and the concept of God in early Stoicism’, in Van Riel and Macé (eds.): 173–90.Google Scholar
Algra, K., Barnes, J., Mansfeld, J., and Schofield, M. (eds.) 1999. The Cambridge History of Hellenistic Philosophy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Annas, J. and Betegh, G. (eds.) 2016. Cicero’s De Finibus: Philosophical Approaches. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
von Arnim, H. 1903–5. Stoicorum Veterum Fragmenta (Fragments of the Early Stoics), Leipzig; Teubner, with vol. 4, indexes, by M. Adler, 1924.Google Scholar
Bos, A. P. 2003. The Soul and its Instrumental Body: A Reinterpretation of Aristotle’s Philosophy of Living Nature. Leiden and Boston: Brill.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Broadie, S. 2007. Aristotle and Beyond: Essays on Metaphysics and Ethics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Broadie, S. and Rowe, C. J. 2002. Aristotle: Nicomachean Ethics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Bryan, J., Wardy, R., and Warren, J. (eds.) 2018 . Authors and Authorities in Ancient Philosophy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Crisp, R. 2000. Aristotle: Nicomachean Ethics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Destrée, P. and Giannopoulou, Z. (eds.) 2017. Plato’s Symposium: A Critical Guide. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Destrée, P. and Zingano, M. (eds.) 2014. Theoria: Studies on the Status and Meaning of Contemplation in Aristotle’s Ethics. Louvain-la-Neuve: Peeters.Google Scholar
Erler, M. and Schofield, M. 1999. ‘Epicurean ethics’, in Algra et al. (eds.): 642–74.Google Scholar
Fine, G. (ed.) 1999. Plato 2: Ethics, Politics, Religion and the Soul. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Fink, J. and Gregorić, P. (eds.) forthcoming. Essays on Aristotle’s Philosophy of Mind. Routledge.Google Scholar
Fish, J. and Sanders, K. R. (eds.) 2011. Epicurus and the Epicurean Tradition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Frede, D. 2016. ‘Epicurus on the importance of friendship in the good life (De Finibus 1.65–70; 2.78–85)’, in Annas and Betegh (eds.): 96–117.Google Scholar
Gerson, L. P. 2013. From Plato to Platonism. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Irwin, T. 1999. Aristotle: Nicomachean Ethics, 2nd edn. Indianapolis: Hackett.Google Scholar
Kidd, I. G. 1988. Posidonius: Volume II, the Commentary. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Konstan, D. 2011. ‘Epicurus on the gods’, in Fish and Sanders (eds.): 53–71.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Long, A. A. 2006. From Epicurus to Epictetus: Studies in Hellenistic and Roman Philosophy. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Long, A. A. and Sedley, D. N. 1987. The Hellenistic Philosophers, 2 vols. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Long, A. G. 2017. ‘Immortality in Empedocles’, Apeiron 50(1): 1–20.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Long, A. G. 2019. Death and Immortality in Ancient Philosophy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Mansfeld, J. 1993. ‘Aspects of Epicurean theology’, Mnemosye 46: 172–210.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Obbink, D. 1996. Philodemus: On Piety. Part 1. Critical Text with Commentary. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Reeve, C. D. C. 2014. ‘Aristotelian immortality’, in Destrée and Zingano (eds.): 289–97.Google Scholar
Roreitner, R. forthcoming. ‘The νοῦς–body relationship in Aristotle’s De Anima’, in Fink and Gregorić (eds.).Google Scholar
Salles, R. 2009a. ‘Chrysippus on conflagration and the indestructibility of the cosmos’, in Salles (ed.): 118–34.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Salles, R. (ed.) 2009b. God and Cosmos in Stoicism. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Santoro, M. 2000. La forma del Dio: PHerc. 1055. Naples: Bibliopolis.Google Scholar
Sedley, D. N. 1999. ‘The ideal of godlikeness’, in Fine (ed.): 309–28.Google Scholar
Sedley, D. N. 2011. ‘Epicurus’ theological innatism’, in Fish and Sanders (eds.): 29–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sedley, D. N. 2017. ‘Divinization’, in Destrée and Giannopoulou (eds.): 88–107.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tanaka, I. 2016. ‘Divine immortality and mortal immortality in Plato’s Symposium’, in Tulli and Erler (eds.): 309–14.Google Scholar
Tulli, M. and Erler, M. (eds.) 2016. Plato in Symposium: Selected Papers from the 10th Symposium Platonicum. Sankt Augustin: Academia Verlag.Google Scholar
Van Riel, G. and Macé, C. (eds.) 2004. Platonic Ideas and Concept Formation in Ancient and Medieval Thought. Leuven: Leuven University Press.Google Scholar
Wardle, D. 2006. Cicero on Divination: De Divinatione Book 1. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Warren, J. 2000. ‘Epicurean immortality’, Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy 18: 231–61.Google Scholar
Warren, J. 2004. Facing Death: Epicurus and his Critics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Warren, J. 2018. ‘Demetrius of Laconia on Epicurus On the Telos (Us. 68)’, in Bryan et al. (eds.): 202–21.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×