Preface, James Miller
Introduction, A. A. Long
Translator's Note, Pamela Mensch
Map
Lives of the Eminent Philosophers
Book 1
Book 2
Book 3
Book 4
Book 5
Book 6
Book 7
Book 8
Book 9
Book 10
Essays
Guide to Further Reading, Jay R. Elliott
Glossary of Ancient Sources, Joseph M. Lemelin
Illustration Credits
Index
Diogenes Laertius was a Greek writer who probably lived in the
first half of the third century AD. Nothing is known about his
life, apart from his authorship of the Lives of the Eminent
Philosophers. He also wrote poems, most of them now lost.
Pamela Mensch is a translator of ancient Greek whose works include
The Landmark Arrian: The Campaigns of Alexander, Herodotus'
Histories, and Plutarch's The Age of Caesar: Five Roman Lives.
James Miller is Professor of Liberal Studies and Politics and
Faculty Director of Creative Publishing & Critical Journalism at
the New School for Social Research. He has authored and edited an
array of works, including Examined Lives: From Socrates to
Nietzsche, The Passion of Michel Foucault, and History and Human
Existence: From Marx to Merleau-Ponty.
Consulting Editors:
James Allen
Tiziano Dorandi
Jay R. Elliott
Anthony Grafton
A.A. Long
Glenn Most
James Romm
"Now, readers can consult the Lives in a beautiful English
translation by Pamela Mensch. This translation will undoubtedly
supersede that by Robert Hicks, published in 1925 and until now the
standard English version. [...] Oxford University Press have also
done a wonderful job. The footnotes...are well judged, providing
important background information without overwhelming the text.
Embellishment is provided in the form of many philosophically
inspired
artworks, all handsomely reproduced [...] A set of essays by
leading scholars such as Anthony Grafton, Ingrid Rowland and
Dorandi himself help introduce the Lives and its reception to
general readers. The book
is like no history of philosophy that such readers will be used
to." -- Times Literary Supplement
"Can there be a philosophy book for everyone? Luxurious yet
affordable, this richly illustrated translation of Diogenes
Laertius clearly implies an affirmative answer. Obviously, the
success of this volume does not follow from the irresistible charm
of Diogenes'text (to put it mildly), but from a multifaceted
editorial effort that made the resulting artefact appealing to
different kinds of readers." -- Karel Thein, Eirene
"A handsome new volume of Diogenes Laertius's Lives of the Eminent
Philosophers provides an opportunity to revisit the biographer and
the popular assumptions about him. I am delighted to have acquired
Pamela Mensch's new translation of his major work, an edition you
can't read on the subway but whose large dimensions are redeemed by
the readable translation, glossy color images, and a collection of
new accompanying essays (The New School's James Miller
is the editor) ... Biographies can certainly get far more
scandalous than Lives, but the personal lives of our intellectual
ancestors are always juicy, forbidden fruits." -- Ben Shields,
Paris Review
"The English translation by Pamela Mensch is lively, fresh,
engaging, and eminently readable. Given the number of vagaries,
jokes, technicalities, and such that proliferate in the Greek, this
is a most impressive achievement. The copious notes, helpfully
placed beneath the translation on each page, are superb at giving
required information on names, dates, places, technical terms, and
so forth in a crisp and accurate manner... This book offers a
wealth of
material on Diogenes Laertius: a translation, notes, a companion, a
bibliography, all in one volume. It is a truly first-class
resource, and everyone involved, including Oxford University Press,
should be
heartily congratulated for a brilliant achievement. That a book of
this kind can be made affordable should be a salutary lesson for
other academic publishers. I cannot recommend it highly enough." --
Sean McConnell, Bryn Mawr Classical Review
"This book will be useful to all students studying Greek
philosophy, as both a reference to the past and a look into the
birth of Greek philosophy ... Recommended." --CHOICE
"Diogenes Laertius presented afresh with all the generosity, visual
richness, and breadth of reference he deserves-a wonderful
edition." --Sarah Bakewell, author of At the Existentialist Café
and How to Live
"In this superbly produced and edited volume, the compendious work
of the learned Diogenes Laertius at last receives the prominence
that his unique contribution to our knowledge and understanding of
ancient philosophy requires. The admirable translation by doyenne
Pamela Mensch is accompanied by a full apparatus of the latest
scholarship, including essays by over a dozen of the most eminent
philosophers and historians of philosophy of our own day."
--Paul
Cartledge, author of Democracy: A Life
"Diogenes Laertius is not Nietzsche's 'dim-witted watchman' of the
history of Greek philosophy, but a fascinating and underrated
figure. This is a wonderful edition, brilliantly translated, with a
helpful introduction and accompanying set of essays by first-rate
scholars. Although a precious source for many ancient philosophers,
especially Epicurus, Diogenes Laertius is much more than a dull
compiler. For anyone interested in the relations between
philosophy
and life, this book remains an excellent, accessible, and hugely
entertaining starting point. Highly recommended." --Simon
Critchley, author of The Book of Dead Philosophers
"Diogenes Laertius' Lives provides a uniquely valuable and
entertaining window on early Western philosophy-if it is used
wisely. This welcome edition and translation by Pamela Mensch and
James Miller, together with its substantial accompanying essays,
enables contemporary readers to make the most of it." --Anthony
Gottlieb, author of The Dream of Reason and The Dream of
Enlightenment
"This splendid new translation of Diogenes Laertius' Lives is an
indispensable resource for anyone interested in the therapeutic
legacy of ancient Greek philosophy. Quirky, notoriously unreliable,
relentlessly curious, it is also magnificent bedside reading, still
able after many centuries to instruct and delight." --Stephen
Greenblatt, author of The Swerve: How the World Became Modern
"At last, thanks to Pamela Mensch's elegant and faithful
translation, we can enjoy Diogenes Laertius' history of Greek
philosophy for its own sake, as a wonderful compendium of doctrine
and lore, as well as for the precious information (and sometimes
misinformation) it provides about everything from the Pre-Socratics
to Plato, Aristotle, the Stoics, and Epicurus. The notes are crisp
and clear, illustrations are apt and abundant, and the translation
is based on
the most authoritative edition of the Greek text. It is a wonderful
achievement." --David Konstan, author of Beauty: The Fortunes of an
Ancient Greek Idea
"[A] magnicent new edition packed with illustrations and
notes...One certainly receives good value for the money." -- The
Washington Post
"The book itself is beautifully done. James Miller sets the stage
superbly-'we behold a meticulous codified panorama of the ancient
philosophers'-and the illustrations include not only the usual
Greek and Roman statues but many modern works of art inspired by
ancient Greek philosophy. Besides the sixteen scholarly essays
there are also a guide to further reading and a glossary of ancient
sources." -- The University of Bookman
"Surely one of the most opulent, generous, and flatly surprising
offerings from any major publisher in 2018 is this translation by
Pamela Mensch of Lives of the Eminent Philosophers by Diogenes
Laertius, new from Oxford University Press." -- Open Letters
Review
"This [translation] by Pamela Mensch, a distinguished translator of
ancient Greek, is superior in three respects. First, it is based on
a more accurate edition of the Greek text, made by Tiziano Dorandi
in 2013. Second, Mensch avoids the bowdlerization that the Hicks
translation was often guilty of. Third, the Mensch translation is
furnished with a weighty apparatus of footnotes that are
delightfully revealing of Greek history and folkways. Other virtues
of
this new edition of Lives include the hundreds of
philosophy-inspired artworks with which the editor has chosen to
adorn the text (a de Chirico, a Daumier, a Francesco Clemente) and
sixteen superb essays
by such scholars as Anthony Grafton, Ingrid Rowland, and Glenn W.
Most." -- New York Review of BooksR
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