Continental Stoicisms: The Meanings and Values of Greco-Roman Stoicism in European Philosophy Today

This project aimed to bring together researchers from multiple disciplines and countries in order to map continental receptions of Stoicism and critically assess their philosophical significance, both for the study of the ancient world and for philosophy in the twenty-first century. With the exception of a few big names (especially Friedrich Nietzsche, Gilles Deleuze, and Michel Foucault), this was largely uncharted intellectual territory. Erudite and creative re-readings of Stoicism by thinkers such as Jean-Paul Sartre, Julia Kristeva, Hans Blumenberg, Hans Jonas, and Peter Sloterdijk have been mostly unknown to students of ancient Greek and Roman thought. Meanwhile, students of these contemporary philosophies had a limited grasp of the intricacies of Stoicism. We discovered particularly noteworthy developments in the areas of metaphysics, philosophy of language, and the ethics of freedom and subjectivity.

his project aimed to bring together researchers from multiple disciplines and countries in order to map continental receptions of Stoicism and critically assess their philosophical significance, both for the study of the ancient world and for philosophy in the twenty-first century.

We discovered particularly noteworthy developments in the areas of metaphysics, philosophy of language, and the ethics of freedom and subjectivity.