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7Marwan Rashed, La Jeune Fille et la Sphère. Études sur EmpédoclePhilosophie Antique 21 269-272. 2021.This book is an amazing treasure trove of riches, and my response, done properly, would probably occupy three monographs. Naturally, Rashed is addressing quite a few controversial issues concerning the interpretation of Empedocles, and on some of these I would heartily disagree with his conclusions, or have minor quibbles; but all his contributions are welcome and reflect a most impressive breadth of learning and scholarship. Where I disagree, it is mostly not that Rashed’s reports of the tex...
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5Relativism in Plato's ProtagorasIn Verity Harte & Melissa Lane (eds.), Politeia in Greek and Roman Philosophy, Cambridge University Press. pp. 191-211. 2013.The character Protagoras in Plato's Protagoras holds similar views to the one in the Theaetetus, and faces similar problems. The dialogue considers issues in epistemology and moral epistemology, as a central theme. The Protagorean position is immune from Socrates' attacks, and Socrates needs Protagorean methods to make any impact.
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5Literary genres and judgements of taste: some remarks on Aristotle’s remarks about the poetry of EmpedoclesIn Michael Erler & Jan Erik Heßler (eds.), Argument Und Literarische Form in Antiker Philosophie: Akten des 3. Kongresses der Gesellschaft Für Antike Philosophie 2010, De Gruyter. pp. 305-314. 2013.
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3EditorialRhizomata 3 (1): 1. 2015.A brief introduction to the selection of papers on Heraclitus that form the contents of the Special Issue.
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3André Laks, Le vide et la haine: éléments pour une histoire archaïque de la négativité; Introduction à la “philosophie présocratique” (review)Rhizai. A Journal for Ancient Philosophy and Science 339-344. 2008.Review of André Laks, Le vide et la haine: éléments pour une histoire archaïque de la négativité, Presses Universitaires de France, Paris, 2004 ; Introduction à la “philosophie présocratique”, Presses Universitaires de France, Paris, 2006
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2On Aristotle's Physics 1.4-6Duckworth. 2009.Aristotle's Physics 1.4-9 explores a range of questions about the basic structure of reality, the nature of prime matter, the principles of change, the relation between form and matter, and the issue of whether things can come into being out of nothing, and if so, in what sense that is true. Philoponus' commentaries do not merely report and explain Aristotle and the other thinkers whom Aristotle is discussing. They are also the philosophical work of an independent thinker in the Neoplatonic trad…Read more
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2Plato, Wittgenstein and the definition of gamesIn Luigi Perissinotto & Begoña Ramón Cámara (eds.), Wittgenstein and Plato: connections, comparisons and contrasts, Palgrave. pp. 196-219. 2013.In this paper I argue, controversially, that Plato's Meno anticipates Wittgenstein's critique of essentialism. Plato is usually read as an essentialist of the very kind that Wittgenstein was challenging, and the Meno in particular is usually taken as evidence that Plato thought that to know something you must be able to define it, and that if you can't define it you can't investigate any other questions on the topic. I suggest instead that Plato shows Socrates proposing such a position (much as …Read more
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Why the Philosopher Kings will Believe the Noble LieOxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy 50 67-100. 2016.
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Topography in the Timaeus: Plato and Augustine on Mankind's Place in the Natural WorldProceedings of the Cambridge Philological Society 34 104-111. 1988.I consider the relation between the shape or structure of the world and the moral position occupied by human beings, and show that a cosmology that places earth at the centre does not give the centre of the universe pride of place but the lowest place, so any reluctance to move the earth from the centre of the universe was not due to thinking that humans must be in the most important position. From Plato on, the surface of the earth is at the bottom and the outer heaven is the highest place. Thi…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
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