The Theory of Incorporeals in Ancient Stoicism

Émile Bréhier’s creative interpretations of Stoicism inspired the next generation of thinkers – from Jean-Paul Sartre to Luce Irigaray – to rethink the history of philosophy. Perhaps most of all, Bréhier’s thinking about the Stoic theory of incorporeality was pivotal to Gilles Deleuze’s understanding of Ancient Greek and Roman thinkers, especially the Stoics, and formative for his own materialistic metaphysics. To understand the metaphysics, philosophy of language, and interpretations of psychoanalysis in Deleuze’s Logic of Sense, Bréhier’s influence remains to be fully elucidated. Yet such influence has been largely unknown in Anglophone philosophy – until now. For the first time since its publication nearly a century ago, Bréhier’s groundbreaking essay finally appears in English. To frame its history and convey its importance for the future of philosophy, two new essays by a leading French philosopher and a British-Canadian philosopher bookend the translation.