517 p., 156 x 234 mm, 2018, ISBN: 978-2-503-56855-3, € 100 excl. tax
Series: Monothéismes et Philosophie, vol. 24

Philosophy has never been an obvious life choice, especially in the absence of apparent practical usefulness. The intellectual effort and moral discipline it exacts appeared uninviting “from the outside.” However, the philosophical ideals of theoretical precision and living virtuously are what has shaped the cultural landscape of the West since Antiquity. This paradox arose because the ancients never confined their philosophy to the systematic exposition of doctrine. Orations, treatises, dialogues and letters aimed at persuading people to become lovers of wisdom, not metaphorically, but truly and passionately. Rhetorical feats, logical intricacies, or mystical experience served to recruit adherents, to promote and defend philosophy, to support adherents and guide them towards their goal. Protreptic (from the Greek, “to exhort,” “to convert”) was the literary form that served all these functions. Content and mode of expression varied considerably when targeting classical Greek aristocracy, Hellenistic schoolrooms or members of the early Church where the tradition of protreptic was soon appropriated. This volume seeks to illuminate both the diversity and the continuity of protreptic in the work of a wide range of authors, from Parmenides to Augustine. The persistence of the literary form bears witness to a continued fascination with the call of wisdom.

Table of contents
Protreptic: A Protean Genre — Olga Alieva
Classical and Hellenistic World
Protreptic and Poetry: Hesiod, Parmenides, Empedocles — Miguel Herrero de Jáuregui
Protreptic and Pythagorean Sayings: Iamblichus’s Protrepticus — Johan C. Thom
Protreptic and Epideixis: Corpus Platonicum — Yuri Shichalin, Olga Alieva
Protreptic and Apotreptic: Aristotle’s dialogue Protrepticus — Douglas Stanley Hutchinson and Monte Ransome Johnson
Protreptic and Epistolography: Epicurus — Jan Erik Heßler
Protreptique et exégèse : l’exhortation chez Philon d’Alexandrie — G. Hertz
Protreptic and Philosophical Dialogue: Cicero — G. Tsouni
Imperial Rome
Protreptique et auto-exhortation : les Lettres à Lucilius de Sénèque — Jordi Pià Comella
Protreptic and Paraenesis: The Second Epistle of Clement — James Starr
Protreptique et apologétique : Justin Martyr — Sophie Van der Meeren
Protreptic and Medicine: Galen — Vincenzo Damiani
Protreptic and Satire: Lucian — Markus Hafner
Protreptic and Rhetoric: Clement of Alexandria — Marco Rizzi
Protreptic and Mystagogy: Augustine’s Early Works — Paul van Geest
Protreptic and Autobiography: Dio’s Thirteenth Oration, Justin Martyr’s Dialogue with Trypho and Cyprian’s To Donatus — Annemaré Kotzé
Protreptic and Biography: The Case of Marinus’s Vita Procli — Constantin Ionuț Mihai
Protreptique et isagogique : Les vestibules de la philosophie — Sophie Van der Meeren