Examines the central issues of personal morality, political theory, and social organization: philosophy as the pursuit of self-improvement and happiness; the conceptualization and management of emotion; attitudes and obligations to others; ideas of the self and personhood; constitutional theory and the ruler; and the working of the good community.

Finally, Trapp turns his attention to the status of philosophy itself as an element of the elite culture of the period, and to the ways in which philosophical values may have posed a threat to other prevalent schemes of value; Trapp argues that the idea of 'philosophical opposition', though useful, needs to be substantially modified and extended.

Preface
'Ethics', 'philosophy' and philosophia
Perfection and progress
The passions
Self, person and individual
Self and others
Politics 1: constitutions and the ruler
Politics 2: good communities
Politics 3: philosophia in politics and the community
Philosophia and the mainstream
Appendix
Bibliography
Indexes.