Plato's Pigs and Other Ruminations
Ancient Guides to Living with Nature

A pioneering, original work of synthesis that traces modern ideas about systems science and sustainable living back to Classical antiquity.

M. D. Usher (Author)

9781108839587, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 15 October 2020

282 pages
23.5 x 15.7 x 1.9 cm, 0.52 kg

'Not only is this book informative, educational, and persuasive, it is a genuine pleasure to read. Usher's congenialliterary style is engaging, so the book should appeal to a wide readership.' P. A. Streveler, Choice

The Greeks and Romans have been charged with destroying the ecosystems within which they lived. In this book, however, M. D. Usher argues rather that we can find in their lives and thought the origin of modern ideas about systems and sustainability, important topics for humans today and in the future. With chapters running the gamut of Greek and Roman experience – from the Presocratics and Plato to Roman agronomy and the Benedictine Rule – Plato's Pigs brings together unlikely bedfellows, both ancient and modern, to reveal surprising connections. Lively prose and liberal use of anecdotal detail, including an afterword about the author's own experiments with sustainable living on his sheep farm in Vermont, add a strong authorial voice. In short, this is a unique, first-of-its-kind book that is sure to be of interest to anyone working in Classics, environmental studies, philosophy, ecology, or the history of ideas.

Introduction. Environmental philology
1. Debts to nature
2. Anaximander for the anthropocene
3. Heraclitus and the quantum
4. A city for pigs
5. Mutual coercion, mutually agreed upon
6. Cynics and stoics
7. Roman revolutions
8. Community rule
Afterword. Works and days and then some.

Subject Areas: Sustainability [RNU], Social impact of environmental issues [RNT], Environmentalist thought & ideology [RNA], Western philosophy: Ancient, to c 500 [HPCA], Ancient history: to c 500 CE [HBLA]