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Comment tirer profit de ses ennemis suivi de Sur la manière de distinguer le flatteur d'avec l'ami
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ISBN: 2869306865 9782869306868 Year: 1993 Volume: 103 Publisher: Paris: Rivages,

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Amitié --- Ennemis --- Flatterie


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Flattery in Seneca the Younger : theory and practice
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ISBN: 9780192858115 Year: 2024 Publisher: Oxford : Oxford University Press,

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Flattery in Seneca the Younger explores the discourse of flattery in Seneca's philosophical texts, and analyses the extent to which Seneca developed a theory of adulation. Martina Russo maps a phenomenology of flattery, tracing its external manifestations in Senecan philosophy. The personal practice of flattery displayed in the Ad Polybium and in De clementia along with the 'distant' exempla of flattery represented by Seneca, and with the theorization of adulation, indicates the range and the complexity of strategic flattery during the Julio-Claudian dynasty. Furthermore, it is argued that Seneca emerges not only as a practitioner of flattery but also as a theorist of it. While many writers tarnished their reputation by giving in to flattery, Seneca was among the few who not only accepted flattery but also advocated it as an essential tool in his own times. Nevertheless, in Seneca's philosophical prose, a constant tension emerges: whereas flattery is 'politically' acceptable as an instrument to cope with the absolute power embraced by the princeps, the sapiens (wise) and the proficiens (would-be wise) should be careful because flattery can seriously compromise their path to wisdom. By analysing the theory and practice of flattery, Russo discusses how passages permeated with the most blatant flattery can be read on a new level, by viewing Seneca's philosophical prose as an extended exercise in symbolic projection and figured speech. It becomes possible to disclose traces of political criticism behind the façade of the most flagrant flattery.


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Jacob and the Divine Trickster
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ISBN: 1575066424 9781575066424 9781575062198 1575062194 Year: 2021 Publisher: University Park, PA

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What role does God play in relation to the deceptions that pervade the Jacob cycle? What has not been investigated is the way God may factor into this deceptive activity. The book of Genesis contains a latent tension: Jacob is both a brazen trickster who deceives members of his own family and YHWH's chosen, from whom the entire people of Israel derive and for whom they are named. How is one to reconcile this tension? This dissertation investigates the phenomenon of divine deception in the Jacob cycle (Gen 25-35). The primary thesis is that YHWH both uses and engages in deception for the perpetuation of the ancestral promise (Gen 12:1-3), giving rise to what Anderson has dubbed a theology of deception. Through a literary hermeneutic, emphasizing the symbiotic relationship between both how the text means and what the text means, with theological aims, this study examines the various manifestations of YHWH as Trickster in the Jacob cycle. Attention is given to how the multiple deceptions evoke, advance, and at times fulfill the ancestral promise. In Gen 25-28 YHWH engages in deception to insure Jacob receives the ancestral promise. Here Jacob is seen cutting his deceptive teeth by extorting the right of the firstborn from Esau and the paternal blessing from Isaac. YHWH, however, also plays the role of Trickster through an utterly ambiguous oracle to Rebekah in Gen 25:23, which drives the human deceptions. At Bethel (Gen 28:10-22) Jacob receives the ancestral promise from YHWH, in effect corroborating the earlier deceptions. In Gen 29-31 YHWH uses the many deceptions perpetrated between Jacob and Laban to advance the ancestral promise in the areas of progeny, blessing to the nations, and land. Lastly, in Gen 32-35 YHWH participates in Jacob's final deception of Esau (Gen 33:1-17) through two encounters Jacob has, first with the "messengers of God" and second with God. Jacob's tricking of Esau during their reconciliation results in Jacob's return to the promised land. Can anyone out-trick the Divine Trickster? Anderson thus rightly gives due attention to the Old Testament's image of God as dynamic, subversive, and unsettling, appreciating the complex and intricate ways that YHWH interacts with his people. This witness to YHWH's engagement in deception stands alongside and informs the biblical portrait of YHWH as trustworthy and a God who does not lie.

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