Although wisdom might be considered a quaint concept in a post-industrialised, instrumental and secular world, it deserves serious consideration. This is done primarily from a philosophical perspective and is intended to encourage the reintroduction of wisdom into educational and developmental programmes, especially for managers and leaders. Mindful of the potential naïvete of transplanting systems of thinking from one epoch to another, we nonetheless examine the relevance of pre-modern thought to the post-modern condition. This is done by radically reinterpreting classical Greek (...) texts as Pierre Hadot has done to derive a meaning of "philosophy" and the place of wisdom in the ancient world. The concepts of wisdom, virtue and enacted ethics derived from this re-interpretation are then applied to an ethnographic case study involving a senior executive. This study suggests that a Stoical "wisdom of the moment" philosophy may characterize contemporary leadership practice. (shrink)
Weakness of the Will gives an excellent historical survey of philosophers' puzzles about the possibility of deliberately taking the worse course. Plato, Aristotle, the Stoics, a selection of medieval philosophers, and more contemporary philosophers are explored to illustrate why and how they avoid discussing the problem.
Provides a critical and analytical history of ancient Greek theories on the nature of pleasure, and of its value and rolein human lfie, from the ealriest times down to the period of Epicurus and the early Stoics.
FIRST A CRITIQUE OF G E L OWEN'S VERSION OF THE CONTRAST BETWEEN BOOKS VII AND X OF THE NICOMACHEAN ETHICS. IT IS ARGUED THAT BOTH BOOKS ARE OFFERING SIMILAR ACCOUNTS OF THE NATURE OF PLEASURE, WHICH OFFER GENERAL CONDITIONS FOR THE OCCURRENCE OF PLEASURE. HOWEVER, ARISTOTLE IS INTERESTED IN 'REAL' PLEASURE, WHICH IS RELATED TO THE NATURE OF THE RELEVANT BEING. ONLY BY IMPLICATION DOES HE GIVE A GENERAL ACCOUNT OF PLEASURE. THE BOOK X VERSION ENABLES HIM TO HAVE (...) A VIEW OF PLEASURE THAT PRESERVES THE TRUTH IN BOTH HEDONISM AND PLATONIC CRITICISMS OF IT. (shrink)
