Beastly Virtues: Animal Exempla in Seneca and Epictetus
| Abstract | It is curious that the imperial Stoics, following a precedent of Diogenes the Cynic, employ so many wide-ranging examples of animal behavior. For example, what are we to make of the rigid dichotomy Seneca and Epictetus draw between rational and nonrational beings in relation to the diverse comparisons they make between human virtues and vices on the one hand and animal excellences and "bestial'behaviors on the other? Why are the most potent, diverse, and philosophically significant animal exempla found in Seneca and Epictetus? I argue that it is because such exempla serve a variety of protreptic purposes. While appeals to the over-arching rationality of the cosmos may provide some theoretical understanding for the place of human beings in nature, from a pedagogical and rhetorical standpoint animal exempla provide particularly effective guidance for human conduct.Cleverly deployed animal exempla help cultivate aretaic affective dispositions | |||||||||
| Keywords | No keywords specified (fix it) | |||||||||
| Categories | ||||||||||
| Options |
|
|||||||||
Download options| PhilPapers Archive |
Upload a copy of this paper Check publisher's policy on self-archival Papers currently archived: 5,705 |
| External links |
  Try with proxy. |
| Through your library | Only published papers are available at libraries |
Similar books and articlesPeter Singer (2009). Animal Liberation: The Definitive Classic of the Animal Movement. Ecco Book/Harper Perennial.
Arnold Arluke (2006). Just a Dog: Understanding Animal Cruelty and Ourselves. Temple University Press.
Mark Rowlands (2009). Animal Rights: Moral Theory and Practice. Palgrave Macmillan.
Francine L. Dolins (ed.) (1999). Attitudes to Animals: Views in Animal Welfare. Cambridge University Press.
Claire Molloy (2011). Popular Media and Animals. Palgrave Macmillan.
C. R. W. Spedding (2000). Animal Welfare. Earthscan Publications.
Ian G. Tompkins (1997). Exempla in Gregory K. Demoen: Pagan and Biblical Exempla in Gregory Nazianzen: A Study in Rhetoric and Hermeneutics. (Corpus Christianorum, Lingua Patrum, 2.) Pp. 498. Turnhout: Brepols, 1996. Cased, Paper. ISBN: 2-503-50481-7 (250350482-5 Pbk). [REVIEW] The Classical Review 47 (02):289-290.
Kirsten Schmidt (2011). Concepts of Animal Welfare in Relation to Positions in Animal Ethics. Acta Biotheoretica 59 (2):153-171.
David J. Mellor (2009). The Sciences of Animal Welfare. Wiley-Blackwell.
Analytics
Monthly downloads |
Added to index2010-07-27Total downloads17 ( #71,160 of 549,130 )Recent downloads (6 months)2 ( #37,418 of 549,130 )How can I increase my downloads? |
My notes
Discussion
