1st Edition

Critolaus of Phaselis Essays on Second Century BC Peripatetic Philosophy

Edited By Robert Mayhew, Stefan Schorn Copyright 2026
258 Pages 1 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

258 Pages 1 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

This is the first volume in over a century devoted to the second-century bce Peripatetic philosopher Critolaus of Phaselis, covering his views on cosmology, god, ethics, rhetoric, and politics. Critolaus of Phaselis was the most prominent Aristotelian philosopher of the second century bce; he was at the center of debates in ethics and rhetoric, and there is evidence that he also developed views... Read more

Introduction

 

1.  Critolaus, Philo, Lucretius and the Doxographical Tradition on the Eternity of the Cosmos - Richard Schorlemmer

 

2.  Critolaus on God and Divine Providence - Robert Mayhew

 

3.  Aristotelian Ethics in the 2nd Century BC: Critolaus of Phaselis against the Stoics on the Human Telos - Jan Szaif

 

4.  Critolaus and the Parts of Eudaimonia - Steven White

 

5.  Philodemus on Critolaus’ Account of Rhetoric - Mariacristina Fimiani

 

6.  Critolaus against Rhetoric - Yossie Liebersohn

 

7.  History, Biography and Politics in Critolaus - Stefan Schorn

 

8.  The so-called Athenian embassy of philosophers to Rome in 155 BCE: a ‘diplomatic happening’ in various perspectives - Matthias Haake

Biography

Robert Mayhew is Professor of Philosophy at Seton Hall University. He has published widely on ancient Greek philosophy and science, and especially on Aristotle and his followers. He has recently coedited three volumes published by Routledge in the series Rutgers University Studies in Classical Humanities.

Stefan Schorn is the editor in chief of Die Fragmente der Griechischen Historiker Continued. Part IV: Biography and Antiquarian Literature, part of the continuation project of Felix Jacoby’s monumental enterprise. He has often contributed to the RUSCH series and coedited Historiography and Mythography in the Aristotelian Mirabilia (2023).