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3DemonstrationIn Luca Castagnoli & Paolo Fait (eds.), The Cambridge Companion to Ancient Logic, Cambridge University Press. pp. 199-215. 2022.The topic of demonstration lies at the intersection of logic and epistemology. It is motivated by the following question: what features must an argument possess to be suitable for providing us with knowledge? A first, obvious thought is that it ought to be valid and to have true premises. But some ancient philosophers came to the view that this is not yet sufficient for an argument to grant knowledge of the truth of its conclusion; there are further requirements, concerning the epistemic status …Read more
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7Epicurean MaterialismIn David Charles (ed.), The History of Hylomorphism: From Aristotle to Descartes, Oxford University Press. pp. 44-68. 2023.My aim in this chapter is to present the fundamentals of Epicurus’ views on physics and ontology and to raise some questions that a competitor to Aristotelian hylomorphism ought to be able to handle. In section 1, I present the basic ontological framework; in section 2, I introduce atoms, which most closely correspond in Epicurus’ system to Aristotelian matter, and show how he attempted to account for some phenomenal and psychological properties of compound bodies by appealing just to the charac…Read more
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82Epicurus on Bivalence and the Excluded MiddleArchiv für Geschichte der Philosophie 98 (3): 239-271. 2016.In several of his philosophical works, Cicero gives reports of the Epicurean views on bivalence and the excluded middle that are not always consistent. I attempt to establish a coherent account that fits the texts as well as possible and can reasonably be attributed to the Epicureans. I argue that they distinguish between a semantic and a syntactic version of the law of the excluded middle, and that whilst they reject bivalence and the semantic law for fear of certain fatalistic consequences, th…Read more
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107Epicurus on Truth and FalsehoodPhronesis 61 (4). 2016.Sextus Empiricus ascribes to Epicurus a curious account of truth and falsehood, according to which these characteristics belong to things in the world about which one speaks, not to what one says about them. I propose an interpretation that takes this account seriously and explains the connection between truth and existence that the Epicureans also seem to recognise. I then examine a second Epicurean account of truth and falsehood and show how it is related to the first.
Department of Philosophy
Alumnus, 2018
Oxford, England, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Areas of Specialization
Ancient Greek and Roman Philosophy |