On Being Human: Classical Thought on Self and Society

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue invites contributions that explore what classical paradigms from Greece and Rome contribute to our notions of humanity and what it means to be a human being. Papers may also relate these questions to the concept of the humanities and their role in our educational systems.

On the one hand, classical thought, religion, literature and the arts distinguish humans from gods and animals, and recognize anthropological diversity in the form of distinct peoples, tribes, ethnicities and races. And yet, these same media can employ a concept like metamorphosis to contest these distinctions. The notion of “human nature” is prominent among ancient philosophers and historians, and clearly influences our own universal ideas about the human, but it remains (for example) an open question whether the ancients possess a concept of human rights congruent with our own formulations.

When we examine Greek and Roman philosophy, literature, and the arts, does the human being appear primarily as a social creature (a “political animal”) or as an individual, a “self”? Why do ancient inquiries about the self indicate its essence through terms like psyche, nous, logos, animus/a, mens, ratio, etc.? Why is there no consensus in classical thought about such basic dichotomies in a human being as body vs. soul or the existence of immortal human parts that survive in an afterlife through spiritual salvation?

Cross-cultural comparisons with non-western traditions can provide contexts to reexamine the classical question of what human beings require if they are to “live well” and achieve happiness. Likewise non-western traditions may alter our perspective on the virtues Greeks and Romans identify as effective moral and ethical assets for human well-being. How do the changing political formations and social networks of the ancient world impact thinking about the human, especially in light of quarrels about which political model provides the environment best suited to human flourishing? What role too has the notorious gender bias of classical antiquity played in influencing ideas of what is human?

Prof. Vincent Farenga
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All papers will be peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Humanities is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

References:

Barton, Carlin A. 2001. Roman Honor: The Fire in the Bones. Berkeley and Los Angeles: U California P.

Bartsch, Shadi. The Mirror of the Self: Sexuality, Self-Knowledge, and the Gaze in the Early Roman Empire. Chicago: U Chicago P.

Crabbe, M. James C. 1999. From Soul to Self. London and New York: Routledge.

Farenga, Vincent. 2006. Citizen and Self in Ancient Greece: Individuals Performing Justice and the Law. Cambridge: Cambridge UP.

Gill, Christopher. 1996. Personality in Greep Epic, Tragedy and Philosophy. Oxford: Oxford UP.

Long, A. A. 2015. Greek Models of Mind and Self. Cambridge MA: Harvard UP.

Martin, Raymond and John Barresi. 2006. The Rise and Fall of Soul and Self: An Intellectual History of Personal Identity. New York: Columbia UP.

Rubin, Edward. 2015. Soul, Self, Society and the New Morality in the Modern State. Oxford: Oxford UP.

Star, Christopher. 2012. The Empire of the Self: Self-command and Political Speech in Seneca and Petronius. Baltimore: John Hopkins UP.

Sorabji, Richard. 2006. Self: Ancient and Modern Insights about Individuality, Life, and Death. Chicago: U Chicago P.

• humanity
• the humanities
• humanistic education
• human nature
• the self
• the soul (psyche)
• community
• classical paradigms
• Greek and Roman philosophy
• Greek and Roman literature and arts