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De Interpretatione 3 on isolated verbsIn Ricardo Santos & Antonio Pedro Mesquita (eds.), New Essays on Aristotle's Organon, Routledge. 2023.
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2Cosmic and Individual Soul in Early StoicismIn Brad Inwood & James Warren (eds.), Body and Soul in Hellenistic Philosophy. pp. 113-144. 2020.After an introduction in which I rehearse some of the main elements of Stoic physics and psychology, I set out the evidence for the Stoic doctrine that the individual soul is both analogous to the cosmic soul and a part of it, as was held by the early exponents of the school (Section I). I argue that the doctrine threatened to land the Stoics in trouble, unless they were ready to qualify it by applying to it certain distinctions (Section II). Then I consider the doctrine’s historical origins, di…Read more
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49The Anatomy of Primary Substance in Aristotle's CategoriesOxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy 60 145-202. 2021.This paper investigates two related aspects of Aristotle’s conception of primary substances in the Categories. In Section 1 I distinguish different interpretations of the relation between a primary substance and its accidental attributes: one (A) according to which a primary substance encompasses all of its attributes, including the accidental ones; another (B) according to which a primary substance encompasses only its essential attributes, whereas the accidental attributes are extrinsic to the…Read more
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52On Plato's Conception of ChangeOxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy 55 35-83. 2018.In this paper I argue that in several passages Plato sympathizes with the following view: sensible particulars undergo continuous, pervasive physical change; as a consequence, where there seems to be one and the same object which is identical through time, there is in fact a succession of impermanent objects numerically distinct from each other but similar to each other. I illustrate the difference between this view—which invites interesting comparisons with modern and contemporary theories—and …Read more
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15The Platonic Origins of Stoic TheologyOxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy 43 217-243. 2012.In this article I investigate what the Stoic doctrine of the two principles, God and matter, owes to Plato. I discuss recent scholarly views to the effect that the Stoics were influenced by Old Academic interpretations of the Timaeus and argue that, although the Timaeus probably did play a role in the genesis of the Stoic doctrine, some role was also played by a dualist theory of flux set forth in the etymologies of the Cratylus. I also discuss Theophrastus’ account of Plato’s achievements in ph…Read more
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39Sophroniscus’ son is approaching: Porphyry, Isagoge 7.20–1Classical Quarterly 54 (1): 322-325. 2004.
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2The Principle of Bivalence in De interpretatione 4Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy 38 97-113. 2010.In De int. 9 Aristotle argues that some declarative sentences are neither true nor false. This raises the problem of how we should understand the words of ch. 4, which introduces the declarative sentence as ‘that in which being true or being false holds’. In this paper I remove the contradiction by arguing that in ch. 4 Aristotle does not intend to claim that *all* declarative sentences are either true or false, but rather that *only* they are either true or false, unlike other kinds of sentence…Read more
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93The Cratylus of Plato: a commentaryCambridge University Press. 2011.The first full-scale commentary on the Cratylus, one of Plato's most difficult and intriguing dialogues.
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26Pseudo-Plato on NamesPhronesis 62 (3): 255-273. 2017.The pseudo-Platonic Definitions seems to ascribe to ὄνοµα, ‘name’, the function of signifying two kinds of predicate. This is problematic, and I propose an emendation of the text, arguing that a definition of ῥῆµα, ‘verb’, has fallen out.
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The Equals, the Equals Themselves, Equality, and the Equals ItselfDocumenti E Studi Sulla Tradizione Filosofica Medievale 18 1-20. 2007.
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39Cratylus 393b–c and the Prehistory of Plato's TextClassical Quarterly 63 (2): 595-602. 2013.I discuss a textual problem at Cratylus 393bc and, after establishing the correct text, argue that the MSS readings point to the existence of a textual variant in the margin of an ancestor of the common source of our MSS, presumably an ancient edition of the dialogue. Then I make the further hypothesis that both readings originated as alternative attempts to interpret Plato's ambiguous orthography.
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Scuola Normale SuperioreVisiting Professor
Areas of Specialization
Ancient Greek and Roman Philosophy |