Lisa Shapiro - Pleasure: A History

OXFORD PHILOSOPHICAL CONCEPTS

Christia Mercer, Columbia University

Series Editor

PUBLISHED IN THE OXFORD PHILOSOPHICAL CONCEPTS SERIES

Efficient Causation

Edited by Tad Schmaltz

Sympathy

Edited by Eric Schliesser

The Faculties

Edited by Dominik Perler

Memory

Edited by Dmitri Nikulin

Moral Motivation

Edited by Iakovos Vasiliou

Eternity

Edited by Yitzhak Y. Melamed

Self-Knowledge

Edited by Ursula Renz

Embodiment

Edited by Justin E. H. Smith

Dignity

Edited by Remy Debes

Pleasure

Edited by Lisa Shapiro

FORTHCOMING IN THE OXFORD PHILOSOPHICAL CONCEPTS SERIES

Persons

Edited by Antonia LoLordo

Evil

Edited by Andrew Chignell

Health

Edited by Peter Adamson

Space

Edited by Andrew Janiak

Teleology

Edited by Jeffrey K. McDonough

Love

Edited by Ryan Hanley

Human

Edited by Karolina Hbner

Animals

Edited by G. Fay Edwards and Peter Adamson

The World-Soul

Edited by James Wilberding

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Shapiro, Lisa, editor.

Title: Pleasure : a history / edited by Lisa Shapiro.

Description: New York : Oxford University Press, 2018. | Series: Oxford handbooks | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2017047686 (print) | LCCN 2018008898 (ebook) | ISBN 9780190225131 (online course) | ISBN 9780190225124 (updf) | ISBN 9780190882495 (epub) | ISBN 9780190225117 (pbk. : alk. paper) | ISBN 9780190225100 (cloth : alk. paper)

Subjects: LCSH: Pleasure.

Classification: LCC B105.H36 (ebook) | LCC B105.H36 P54 2018 (print) | DDC 128/.4dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017047686

Lisa Shapiro

Emily Fletcher

Matthew Strohl

Sajjad Rizvi

Susanna Berger

Martin Pickav

Lisa Shapiro

Melissa Frankel

Keren Gorodeisky

Roger Mathew Grant

Dominique Kuenzle

Ann M. Kring and Amy H. Sanchez

Murat Aydede

Oxford Philosophical Concepts (OPC) offers an innovative approach to philosophys past and its relation to other disciplines. As a series, it is unique in exploring the transformations of central philosophical concepts from their ancient sources to their modern use.

OPC has several goals: to make it easier for historians to contextualize key concepts in the history of philosophy, to render that history accessible to a wide audience, and to enliven contemporary discussions by displaying the rich and varied sources of philosophical concepts still in use today. The means to these goals are simple enough: eminent scholars come together to rethink a central concept in philosophys past. The point of this rethinking is not to offer a broad overview, but to identify problems the concept was originally supposed to solve and investigate how approaches to them shifted over time, sometimes radically. Recent scholarship has made evident the benefits of reexamining the standard narratives about western philosophy. OPCs editors look beyond the canon and explore their concepts over a wide philosophical landscape. Each volume traces a notion from its inception as a solution to specific problems through its historical transformations to its modern use, all the while acknowledging its historical context. Each OPC volume is a history of its concept in that it tells a story about changing solutions to its well-defined problem. Many editors have found it appropriate to include long-ignored writings drawn from the Islamic and Jewish traditions and the philosophical contributions of women. Volumes also explore ideas drawn from Buddhist, Chinese, Indian, and other philosophical cultures when doing so adds an especially helpful new perspective. By combining scholarly innovation with focused and astute analysis, OPC encourages a deeper understanding of our philosophical past and present.

One of the most innovative features of OPC is its recognition that philosophy bears a rich relation to art, music, literature, religion, science, and other cultural practices. The series speaks to the need for informed interdisciplinary exchanges. Its editors assume that the most difficult and profound philosophical ideas can be made comprehensible to a large audience and that materials not strictly philosophical often bear a significant relevance to philosophy. To this end, each OPC volume includes Reflections. These are short stand-alone essays written by specialists in art, music, literature, theology, science, or cultural studies that reflect on the concept from their own disciplinary perspectives. The goal of these essays is to enliven, enrich, and exemplify the volumes concept and reconsider the boundary between philosophical and extraphilosophical materials. OPCs Reflections display the benefits of using philosophical concepts and distinctions in areas that are not strictly philosophical, and encourage philosophers to move beyond the borders of their discipline as presently conceived.

The volumes of OPC arrive at an auspicious moment. Many philosophers are keen to invigorate the discipline. OPC aims to provoke philosophical imaginations by uncovering the brilliant twists and unforeseen turns of philosophys past.

Christia Mercer

Gustave M. Berne Professor of Philosophy

Columbia University in the City of New York

NE Nicomachean Ethics. Translations are based on Aristotle: Nicomachean Ethics, translated with commentary by T. H. Irwin (Indianapolis: Hackett, 1999), and have sometimes been modified.

DA Avicennas De Anima, Being the Psychological Part of Kitb al-Shif. Edited by F. Rahman. London: Oxford University Press, 1959.

ST Summa Theologiae. In Opera omnia. Editio Leonina. Rome: Commissio Leonina, 18881906.