Dealing with Disagreement

The Construction of Traditions in Later Ancient Philosophy

Edited by Albert Joosse Edited by Angela Ulacco

Book cover: Dealing with Disagreement

Extent: 234, 234 pages

Publisher: Brepols Publishers

Subjects: Classical Studies, Philosophy

Series: Monothéismes et Philosophie

Series volume number: 33

Language: English

Paperback (Published)

(July 2023)

ISBN: 9782503602844

Price: $63.00

In stock

This book treats both Christian and non-Christian texts from the first century BCE to the sixth century CE, and suggests that dealing with disagreement helped philosophers define their own traditions while creating a conceptual common ground.


Ancient philosophy is known for its organisation into distinct schools. But those schools were not locked into static dogmatism. As recent scholarship has shown, lively debate persisted between and within traditions. Yet the interplay between tradition and disagreement remains underexplored. This volume asks, first, how philosophers talked about differences of opinion within and between traditions and, second, how such debates affected the traditions involved. It covers the period from the first century BCE, which witnessed a turn to authoritative texts in different philosophical movements, through the rise of Christianity, to the golden age of Neoplatonic commentaries in the fifth and sixth centuries CE. By studying various philosophical and Christian traditions alongside and in interaction with each other, this volume reveals common philosophical strategies of identification and differentiation. Ancient authors construct their own traditions in their (polemical) engagements with dissenters and opponents. Yet this very process of dissociation helped establish a common conceptual ground between traditions. This volume will be an important resource for specialists in late ancient philosophy, early Christianity, and the history of ideas.

  • Edited by Albert Joosse
  • Edited by Angela Ulacco