The Ascetic Ideal

Stephen Mulhall traces the development of an ideal of asceticism through Western culture. He shows how influential this self-denying attitude to life has been not just in religion and morality but in aesthetics, science, and philosophy. And he illuminates the role of the ascetic ideal in the thought of Nietzsche, who introduced the concept.

Stephen Mulhall is a Professor of Philosophy, and Fellow of New College, University of Oxford. He was previously a Reader in Philosophy at the University of Essex, and a Prize Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford. He received an MA in Philosophy from the University of Toronto, and a DPhil in Philosophy from the University of Oxford.

Introduction
Essay One: Authority and Revelation
Essay Two: Writing the Life of the Mind
Essay Three: Knowing, Framing, and Enframing