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Freedom as Self-Mastery in Plato's Laws

By Carl Young

I propose to investigate an argument that Plato makes only in the Laws, namely that self-mastery is a kind of freedom (635b-d). The Platonic concept of freedom is one of the more controversial subjects in the scholarly literature, but there is nearly universal agreement that Plato posits a concept of freedom as self-mastery, and that self-mastery is, what Isaiah Berlin called, “positive liberty” (Berlin 1997: 204, 212-213; cf., Stalley 1998: 145, 151-152; Klosko 2006: 165-169; Edge 2009: 44; Hansen 2010: 27, 21).

The Rhetoric of παρρησία in Greek Imperial Writers

By Matthew Taylor

The Greek term παρρησία has a historical life: it possesses a different meaning under different periods and in different contexts, denoting a practice, an ideal, or a right. This paper focuses specifically on παρρησία as the ethically-oriented performance of frank-speaking that Foucault schematizes as “monarchic parrhesia,” and explores how Greek authors under the Principate deployed it as a rhetorical trope with which to pass judgment on Roman emperors.

On Inoffensive Criticism: The Multiple Addressees of Plutarch’s De Adulatore et Amico

By Dana Fields

The explicit aim of Plutarch’s How to Tell a Flatterer from a Friend is to help the great manage their interactions with the somewhat less great.  However, the last third of this text seems designed not for the more powerful man in an unequal friendship, but for the man whose status is slightly lower than his associate.  This paper argues that much of the advice given throughout Plutarch’s text can also apply to the lesser party in an unequal friendship and that this reflects both the hierarchical nature of imperial society, including inequality among elites, and Plutarch’s own vie

Eyes to See, Hands to Serve: Ambrose's Transformation of Liberalitas

By Erin Galgay Walsh

           The reception of Cicero’s work within Ambrose’s De officiis has attracted much scholarly attention, and the range of opinions about his use of Cicero range from outright plagiarism to a complete transformation. By focusing on Ambrose’s treatment of a single virtue, liberalitas (generosity), the independence of Ambrose’s homonymous work becomes apparent.