Philodemus on Frank Criticism

by Philodemus, David Konstan (Translator)

English, Greek (translation)Original Greek

208 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1998

Reviews

[jon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Philodemus of Gadara (ca. 110–ca. 30 BCE) was a pupil of Zeno of Sidon, a Greek Epicurean philosopher. I mention Zeno because there is the opinion that this work, On Frank Criticism [Περὶ παρρησίας]—the only known work in antiquity with this title, is a kind of manual or handbook on frank speech and the art of criticism, rests on the lectures of Zeno. The Greek text is essentially the 1914 text of Alexander Olivieri, but this work offers the first translation [English] in any modern language.

[Andrew · Rating 3 out of 5]

The rating is a silly formality in this case.
This is a translation of the remains of a 1st century BCE text by the Epicurean philosopher, Philodemus, reflecting on how teachers and students in his community of aspirants to wisdom might and should treat each other in order to advance toward their goal. Philodemus' community was in Herculaneum, which of course was buried in the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in 79 CE. Thus the text is preserved only in extremely fragmentary form, and so the translators must provide a version of the meaning of the text which is highly conjectural at times. Still, their introduction is helpful for gaining a sense of the situation Philodemus sought to address, and for what purpose.
This is not a text for a general audience, but it has some great interest for students of ancient philosophy.