-
1‘Review of A. Bronowski (2019) The Stoics on Lekta: All There is To Say (Oxford University Press)’ (review)Classical Journal. 2022.
-
1Epicurean education and the rhetoric of concernActa Classica 58 111-145. 2015.There has been a large amount of scholarly controversy over the precise nature of the motivations at play in the Epicurean accounts of justice and friendship, and whether any form of altruism or other-concern is compatible with Epicurean hedonist ethics. This paper addresses this tension between self- and other-concern from a novel angle, by examining the motivations behind Epicurean educational practice. What emerges is a rather complex motivational picture that reaffirms the Epicureans' philos…Read more
-
1Cicero and SocratesIn Christopher Moore (ed.), Brill's Companion to the Reception of Socrates, Brill. pp. 347-366. 2019.Much has been written on Cicero’s deployment of the Socratic method of in utramque partem argument, his use of Plato’s Socratic dialogues as literary models, and so forth. There has been less attention given to the nature of Cicero’s reception of ‘Socrates the man’. In this chapter I consider Cicero’s reception of ‘Socrates the man’ and argue that essentially he saw Socrates as an important model for ‘philosophy in practical life’.
-
‘Why is Latin spectrum a bad translation of Epicurus’ ΕΙΔΩΛΟΝ? Cicero and Cassius on a point of philosophical translation’Mnemosyne 72 (1): 154-162. 2019.This paper examines two letters between Cicero and Gaius Cassius Longinus in which they critically discuss and denigrate the translation of Epicurus’ term εἴδωλον as spectrum by an Epicurean named Catius. It first offers a new positive account for why Catius made his choice of translation, and it then outlines the full reasons for why Cicero and Cassius found the translation unsatisfying.
-
Cicero and the golden age traditionIn Pierre Destrée, Jan Opsomer & Geert Roskam (eds.), Utopias in Ancient Thought, De Gruyter. 2021.This paper examines Cicero’s engagement with the golden age tradition of utopian thinking, which is prominent not only in Greek literature but also in Plato and the Peripatetic and Stoic philosophical traditions. It makes the case that in De re publica and later philosophical works such as the Tusculan Disputations Cicero draws on philosophical accounts of the golden age—most significantly that of the Peripatetic Dicaearchus of Messana (c.350–c.285 BC)—in his analysis of the Roman res publica an…Read more
-
‘Review of R. Kamtekar (ed.) (2012) Virtue and Happiness: Essays in Honour of Julia Annas. Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy Supplementary Volume’. Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2013.7.37. (review)Bryn Mawr Classical Review 7 37. 2013.
-
Cicero and DicaearchusOxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy 42 307-349. 2012.Cicero's general interest in Dicaearchus’ ethical and political thought can be detected in his letters to Atticus and De legibus. One can also infer from De divinatione that Dicaearchus was a source for Cicero’s De republica. At present, however, we do not possess a clear and detailed picture of Dicaearchus’ influence on Cicero’s own ethical and political thought. Scholars have been hindered by a lack of explicit evidence concerning the nature of Dicaearchus’ philosophical arguments as well as C…Read more
-
‘Review of A. Dressler (2016) Personification and the Feminine in Roman Philosophy (Cambridge University Press)’. Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2017.03.48. (review)Bryn Mawr Classical Review 3 48. 2017.
-
Cicero on the emotions and the soulIn Jed W. Atkins & Thomas Bénatouïl (eds.), The Cambridge Companion to Cicero's Philosophy, Cambridge University Press. 2021.This chapter provides a critical account of Cicero’s discussion of the nature of the soul and the emotions in the Tusculan Disputations. The first two sections trace the key steps of Cicero’s argumentation, as he critically evaluates the strengths and weaknesses of various competing views in the Greek philosophical tradition. Cicero ultimately purports to favor Plato’s position on the immortality of the soul and the Stoics’ cognitivist account of the emotions. The final section draws attention t…Read more
-
-
‘Review of J. Fish and K. R. Saunders (eds.) (2011) Epicurus and the Epicurean Tradition (Cambridge University Press)’. Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2011.11.43. (review)Bryn Mawr Classical Review 11 43. 2011.
Dunedin, Otago, New Zealand
Areas of Specialization
Social and Political Philosophy |
Ancient Greek and Roman Philosophy |
History of Western Philosophy |
Classics |