The Cyrenaics
"The Cyrenaics taps into streams of fourth-century philosophical thought that have not received nearly the attention they deserve; it offers challenging new perspectives on the wider context in which Aristotle and the early Academy were working, and a stimulating reminder of just how rich the legacy of Socrates was. It is essential reading for all students of ancient philosophy - and a special provocation to anyone tempted to write as if 'Classical' thought is exhausted by Plato and his school." - George Boys-Stones, Professor of Ancient Philosophy, Durham University"Aristippus was not the philosophically easy-going hedonist he is commonly thought to have been. Critical scrutiny of the ancient testimonia enables Zilioli to piece together a distinctive theory of perception and reality that takes to extremes the relativism inherent in the theory of perception that Plato took over from Democritus. The Cyrenaics will be compulsive reading for anyone who hopes to grasp the wide range of philosophical opinions that vied for attention in the two golden centuries that followed the death of Socrates." - Denis O'BrienThe Cyrenaics aims to locate what used to be labelled dismissively as a 'minor Socratic school' within the development of metaphysical and ethical thinking in the fourth century BCE. The book is an important contribution to the continuing rehabilitation of Hellenistic philosophy, using the sparse but tatalising evidence about the thinking of Aristippus and his successors to show why later generations, including our own, may have been wrong to dismiss them as 'minor' - but right to treat them as 'Socratics - C. J. Rowe"A pleasure to read. A welcome re-evaluation of an interesting group of philosophers often relegated to the sidelines . . . the book becomes especially interesting to Platonists because of the line taken by Zilioli, finding traces of a developed Cyrenaic philosophy in such Platonic works as Theaetetus and Philebus." - Harold Tarrant, International Journal of the Platonic TraditionThe book is written in a lucid, informative style, and well supported by full references to relevant ancient evidence, scholarship and later philosophical theory. It represents a valuable addition to the rather small body of scholarly writings on this interesting group of post-Socratic thinkers.