Abstract

This work is a critical history of ancient Greek accounts of pleasure from the pre-Socratics down to Epicurus and the early Stoics. Four natural divisions may be distinguished: The pre-Platonic background containing the didactic tradition, the physiological tradition, and the evaluative accounts of Democritus, Socrates, and Aristippus; Plato's theory and its development; Aristotle's theory, including a discussion of the views of Speusippus and Eudoxus; and, the post-Aristotelian accounts of Epicurus and the early Stoics.