Taming Anger: The Hellenic Approach to the Limitations of Reason

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From Homer to Aristotle, understanding anger and harnessing its power was at the core of Hellenic civilization. Homer created the framework for philosophical inquiries into anger, one that persisted until it was overturned by Stoicism and Christianity. Plato saw anger as the guardian of justice and Aristotle conceived of it as bound to friendship. Yet both showed that anger can become a guardian of injustice and a defender of our psychological abnormalities. Plato claimed that reason is a tertiary factor in controlling anger and Aristotle argued that non-cognitive powers can issue commands for anger's arousal - findings that shed light as to why cognitive therapeutic approaches often prove to be ineffective. Both proposed nurturing the thumos, the receptacle of anger and the seat of self-esteem. Aristotle's view of public anger as an early warning sign of social dissolution continues to be relevant to this day. In this carefully argued study, Kostas Kalimtzis examines the theories of anger in the context of the ancient world with an eye to their implications for the modern predicament.

Reviews

This book is an ambitious study of Ancient Greek understandings and treatments of anger. The author successfully illustrates the literary, cultural and especially the philosophical development of the nature of anger and how anger might be tamed. While Kalimtzis's project joins many other similar works, it deserves to be part of the debate as it is a concise yet thorough study that advances arguments more than it echoes the works of others. * Bryn Mawr Classical Review *
I would recommend Taming Anger to anyone who is eager to learn about emotions in Ancient Greece provided he is so open-minded as to keep at a distance the mainstream researchers' ideas on this topic. Because of his clearness and succinctness, this work can be easily read by experts as well as students if only they are willing to get closer to a new and alternative interpretation of what anger in particular and emotions in general were in the Ancient Greek Culture. -- Robert Zaborowski * Metapsychology Online Review *

Author Bio

Kostas Kalimtzis is a lecturer in Ancient Greek Philosophy at Arcadia University, USA, and an Honorary Research Associate at the Hellenic Institute at Royal Holloway, University of London, UK.