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34Colloquium 6: Was Aristotle a Particularist?Proceedings of the Boston Area Colloquium of Ancient Philosophy 21 (1): 191-233. 2006.
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60Contextuality in practical reasonOxford University Press. 2008.A. W. Price explores the varying ways in which context is relevant to our reasoning about what to do.
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801Choice and Action in AristotlePhronesis 61 (4): 435-462. 2016.There is a current debate about the grammar of intention: do I intend to φ, or that I φ? The equivalent question in Aristotle relates especially to choice. I argue that, in the context of practical reasoning, choice, as also wish, has as its object an act. I then explore the role that this plays within his account of the relation of thought to action. In particular, I discuss the relation of deliberation to the practical syllogism, and the thesis that the conclusion of the second is an action.
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146Are Plato’s Soul-Parts Psychological Subjects?Ancient Philosophy 29 (1): 1-15. 2009.It is well-known that Plato’s Republic introduces a tripartition of the incarnate human soul; yet quite how to interpret his ‘parts’ 1 is debated. On a strong reading, they are psychological subjects – much as we take ourselves to be, but homunculi, not homines. On a weak reading, they are something less paradoxical: aspects of ourselves, identified by characteristic mental states, dispositional and occurrent, that tend to come into conflict. Christopher Bobonich supports the strong reading in h…Read more
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22Aristotle's ethicsJournal of Medical Ethics 11 (3): 150-152. 1985.How are we to understand Aristotle's famous doctrine of the mean? "If ten pounds are too much for a particular person to eat and two too little, it does not follow that the trainer will order six pounds"... In fact, the relation of morality to physical health is more intimate than mere analogy. Emotions involve a bodily process (cp On the Soul 403al6ff): for example, 'Anger is productive of heat' (On the Parts ofAnimals 650b35), while 'Fear is, indeed, a kind of chill' (Rhetoric 1389b32). The ho…Read more
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51Review of John Ibberson: The language of decision: an essay in prescriptivist ethical theory (review)Ethics 98 (4): 841-842. 1988.
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54Doubts about ProjectivismPhilosophy 61 (236). 1986.How, in pursuit of ontological neutrality, should one talk about values? I propose to say: there are values. Those three words do nothing to define within what kind of conception of a world values are at home.1 I take it that the ‘realist’ must have more to say about values and their world. I recognize that an ‘anti-realist’ may prefer to talk of value-terms ; I ask him to wait and see whether taking the linguistic turn is the only way to put values in their place.
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35H. Lawson-Tancred: Plato’s_ Republic _and the Greek Enlightenment. Pp. viii + 96, 10 ills. London: Duckworth, 1998. Paper, £8.95. ISBN: 1-85399-494-4. - B. Williams: Plato: The Invention of Philosophy. Pp. iv + 57. London: Orion, 1998. Paper, £3. ISBN: 0-73580-215-5 (review)The Classical Review 50 (1): 329-330. 2000.
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25This paper discusses two debated questions about how best to interpret the contribution to the Symposium that Socrates pretends to derive from Diotima: Within the Lesser Mysteries, is the erōs that is being defined and characterized, with appeal to the notion of “generation in beauty”, a generic erōs that is equivalent to Socratic desire in general, or a specific erōs that is erotic in our sense? Within the Greater Mysteries, is interpersonal erōs maintained, or supplanted? I find that neither a…Read more
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55Mental ConflictRoutledge. 1994.As earthquakes expose geological faults, so mental conflict reveals tendencies to rupture within the mind. Dissension is rife not only between people but also within them, for each of us is subject to a contrariety of desires, beliefs, motivations, aspirations. What image are we to form of ourselves that might best enable us to accept the reality of discord, or achieve the ideal of harmony? Greek philosophers offer us a variety of pictures and structures intended to capture the actual and the po…Read more
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55Aristotle on Desire, Its Objects, and VarietiesPolis 31 (1): 160-167. 2014.I discuss various crucial points, most notably the relation between desire and the good
Areas of Specialization
Meta-Ethics |
Ancient Greek and Roman Philosophy |
Areas of Interest
Philosophy of Action |