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127Perceiving Particulars and Recollecting the Forms in the 'Phaedo'Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society 95. 1995.I ask whether the Recollection argument commits Socrates to the view that our only source of knowledge of the Forms is sense perception. I argue that Socrates does not confine our presently available sources of knowledge to empirically based recollection, but that he does think that we can't begin to move towards a philosophical understanding of the Forms except as a result of puzzles prompted by the shortfall of particulars in relation to the Forms, and hence that our awareness of the Forms is …Read more
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142On making mistakes in Plato: Thaeatetus 187c-200dTopoi 31 (2): 151-166. 2012.In this paper I explore a famous part of Plato’s Theaetetus where Socrates develops various models of the mind (picturing it first as a wax tablet and then as an aviary full of specimen birds). These are to solve some puzzles about how it is possible to make a mistake. On my interpretation, defended here, the discussion of mistakes is no digression, but is part of the refutation of Theaetetus’s thesis that knowledge is “true doxa”. It reveals that false doxa is possible only if there is a certai…Read more
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204Happy lives and the highest good: An essay on Aristotle's nicomachean ethics – Gabriel Richardson Lear (review)Philosophical Investigations 30 (1). 2006.
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12On Aristotle's "Physics 1.1-3"Cornell University Press. 2006.In this, the first half of Philoponus' analysis of book one of "Aristotle's Physics", the principal themes are metaphysical. Aristotle's opening chapter in the "Physics" is an abstract reflection on methodology for the investigation of nature, 'physics'. Aristotle suggests that one must proceed from things that are familiar but vague, and derive more precise but less obvious principles to constitute genuine knowledge. His controversial claim that this is to progress from the universal to the mor…Read more
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47Companionable Aristotle J. Barnes (ed.): The Cambridge Companion to Aristotle . Pp. xxv + 404. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995. ISBN: 0-521-41133-5 (0-521-42292-9 pbk) (review)The Classical Review 49 (01): 115-. 1999.
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35Tertullien: Contre Marcion Tome II . Texte Critique, Traduction et Notes (review)The Classical Review 44 (1): 212-213. 1994.
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3723Christopher SteadStudia Patristica 53 (1): 17-30. 2013.Professor Christopher Stead was Ely Professor of Divinity from 1971 until his retirement in 1980 and one of the great contributors to the Oxford Patristic Conferences for many years. In this paper I reflect on his work in Patristics, and I attempt to understand how his interests diverged from the other major contributors in the same period, and how they were formed by his philosophical milieu and the spirit of the age. As a case study to illustrate and diagnose his approach, I shall focus on a d…Read more
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18Rethinking early Greek philosophy: Hippolytus of Rome and the PresocraticsCornell University Press. 1987.An analysis of Hippolytus' Refutation of All Heresies, to discover his practices and motivations in preserving and quoting extracts from Greek Philosophy, in particular his important contribution to our knowledge of Presocratic Philosophy. The work argues that such sources must be read as embedded texts, and that fragments must not be extracted and treated in isolation from the quoting authority whose interests and knowledge are important in interpreting the material.
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44The Pythagorean Society and PoliticsIn Carl Huffman (ed.), A History of Pythagoreanism, Cambridge University Press. pp. 112-130. 2014.Pythagoreans dominated the political scene in southern Italy for nearly a century in the late 6th to 5th century BC. What was the secret of their political success and can their political, social and economic policies be assessed in the customary terms with which historians try to analyse ancient societies? I argue that they cannot, and that the Pythagorean approach to politics was sui generis, and successful because it was based on ideas, not force or popular demagogy.
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44Metaphysics, Soul, and Ethics in Ancient Thought: Themes from the Work of Richard Sorabji (review)The Classical Review 57 (2): 332-336. 2007.
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45Literary genres and judgements of taste: some remarks on Aristotle's remarks about the poetry of EmpedoclesIn Erler Michael (ed.), Argument Und Literarische Form in Antiker Philosophie, De Gruyter. pp. 305-314. 2013.In this paper I review four texts in which Aristotle comments on Empedocles ' writing style. I show that Aristotle thought that Empedocles was a fine poet. That is fine, if a poet is what you want
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41Firmus de Césarée: Lettres. Introduction, texte et traduction, notes et index (review)The Classical Review 40 (2): 483-484. 1990.
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51Three studies on anaximander D. L. Couprie, R. Hahn, G. Naddaf: Anaximander in context. New studies in the origins of greek philosophy . Pp. XIV + 290, maps, ills. Albany: State university of new York press, 2003. Paper, us$27.95 (cased, us$81.50). Isbn: 0-7914-5538-6 (0-7914-5537-8 hbk) (review)The Classical Review 54 (02): 288-. 2004.
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158Socrates in the platonic dialoguesPhilosophical Investigations 29 (1). 2005.If Socrates is portrayed holding one view in one of Plato's dialogues and a different view in another, should we be puzzled? If (as I suggest) Plato's Socrates is neither the historical Socrates, nor a device for delivering Platonic doctrine, but a tool for the dialectical investigation of a philosophical problem, then we should expect a new Socrates, with relevant commitments, to be devised for each setting. Such a dialectical device – the tailor-made Socrates – fits with what we know of other …Read more
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57Presocratic Philosophy: A Very Short IntroductionOxford University Press. 2004.This is a book about the invention of Western philosophy, and the first thinkers to explore ideas about the nature of reality, time, and the origin of the universe. Generations of philosophers, both ancient and modern, have traced their inspiration back to the presocratics, even though we have very few of their writings left. In this book, Catherine Osborne invites her readers to dip their toes into the fragmentary remains of thinkers from Thales to Pythagoras, Heraclitus to Protagoras, to try t…Read more
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University of East AngliaSchool of Politics, Philosophy, Language and Communication StudiesRetired faculty
Norwich, Norfolk, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Areas of Specialization
Ancient Greek and Roman Philosophy |
Plato |
Areas of Interest
13 more