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The Greeks and Us

Essays in Honor of Arthur W. H. Adkins

Arthur W. H. Adkins’s writings have sparked debates among a wide range of scholars over the nature of ancient Greek ethics and its relevance to modern times. Demonstrating the breadth of his influence, the essays in this volume reveal how leading classicists, philosophers, legal theorists, and scholars of religion have incorporated Adkins’s thought into their own diverse research.

The timely subjects addressed by the contributors include the relation between literature and moral understanding, moral and nonmoral values, and the contemporary meaning of ancient Greek ethics. The volume also includes an essay from the late Adkins himself illustrating his methodology in an analysis of the "Speech of Lysias" in Plato’s Phaedrus.

The Greeks and Us will interest all those concerned with how ancient moral values do or do not differ from our own.

Contributors include Arthur W. H. Adkins, Stephanie Nelson, Martha C. Nussbaum, Paul Schollmeier, James Boyd White, Bernard Williams, and Lee Yearley.

Commentaries by Wendy Doniger, Charles M. Gray, David Grene, Robert B. Louden, Richard Posner, and Candace Vogler.

274 pages | 1 halftone | 6 x 9 | © 1996

Ancient Studies

Philosophy: Ethics, History and Classic Works

Table of Contents

Memorial Note
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Robert B. Louden
1: Justice and Farming in the Works and Days
Stephanie Nelson
Response
David Grene
2: The Women of Trachis: Fictions, Pessimism, Ethics
Bernard Williams
Response
Robert B. Louden
3: Heroic Virtue in America: Aristotle, Aquinas, and Melville’s Billy Budd
Lee H. Yearley
Response
Wendy Doniger
4: Plato’s Crito: The Authority of Law and Philosophy
James Boyd White
Response
Charles M. Gray
5: Kantian Imperatives and Greek Values
Paul Schollmeier
Response
Candace Vogler
6: Platonic Love and Colorado Love: The Relevance of Ancient Greek Norms to Modern Sexual Controversies
Martha C. Nussbaum
Response
Richard Posner
7: The "Speech of Lysias" in Plato’s Phaedrus
Arthur W. H. Adkins
A Toast to Arthur Adkins
David Grene
The Published Works of Arthur W. H. Adkins
Notes on Contributors
Index

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