•  202
    Statecraft and Self-Government: On the Task of the Statesman in Plato’s Statesman
    Ergo: An Open Access Journal of Philosophy 9 (27). 2022.
    In this paper I argue that, according to Plato’s Statesman, true statesmen directly control, administer, or govern none of the affairs of the city. Rather, administration and governance belong entirely to the citizens. Instead of governing the city, the task of the statesman is to facilitate the citizens’ successful self-governance or self-rule. And true statesmen do this through legislation, by means of which they inculcate in the citizens true opinions about the just, the good, the fine, and t…Read more
  •  50
    Schelling and the Philebus
    Epoché: A Journal for the History of Philosophy 26 (2): 347-367. 2022.
    Schelling’s 1794 commentary on the Timaeus makes extensive use of Plato’s Philebus, particularly the principles of limit and unlimited. In this article, we demonstrate the resonances between Schelling’s 1794 treatment of the metaphysics of the Philebus and his 1798 philosophy of nature. Attention to these resonances demonstrates an underexplored but important debt to Plato in Schelling’s philosophy of nature. In particular, Schelling is indebted to Plato’s late metaphysics in his model of the it…Read more
  •  5
    Epictetus's Moral Epistemology
    In David B. Suits & Dane R. Gordon (eds.), Epictetus: His Continuing Influence and Contemporary Relevance, Rit Press. pp. 77-87. 2014.
    This paper articulates Epictetus's moral epistemology. The argument of the paper is that the famous Stoic "art of living" is best thought of as a science or kind of knowledge, and that, in his conception of knowledge, Epictetus is an orthodox Stoic, upholding the main tenets of Stoic epistemology. Thus, what exactly the art of living is and how it can be acquired can be better understood by understanding Stoic epistemology.
  •  45
    Epictetus on the Epistemology of the Art of Living
    Apeiron 48 (1): 20-44. 2015.
    This paper explores what Epictetus thinks we need to learn in order to acquire the art of living, and, in doing so, illuminates the central tenets of Epictetus’ epistemology. It argues that we need to have cognition of preconceptions–innate, self-evident, general, ethical truths–and we need to know how to apply them. We acquire this “know-how” through habituation and, with it, are able to have cognition of correct applications.
  •  45
    Normativity in Plato’s Philebus
    Canadian Journal of Philosophy 50 (8): 966-980. 2020.
    This paper extracts and articulates the account of normativity in Plato’s Philebus. Central to this account is the concept of measure, which plays both an ontological and a normative role. With regard to the former, measure is what makes particular things to be the specific kind of thing they are; with regard to the latter, measure supplies the appropriate standard for determining whether or not those things are good or bad instances of their kind. As a result of measure playing these two roles,…Read more
  •  50
    Measurement and Mathematics in Plato’s Statesman
    Ancient Philosophy 38 (1): 69-78. 2018.
    This paper concerns the two arts of measurement discussed at Statesman 283-287b. In particular, it argues against the standard interpretation of the first art of measurement, according to which the various branches of mathematics are instances of the first art. Having argued against this standard view, this paper then supplies a more accurate interpretation in its place. Furthermore, it discusses the consequences of this interpretive disagreement for how we understand the relationship between th…Read more
  •  25
    A Plausible Doctrine of the Mean
    Review of Metaphysics 72 (1): 53-75. 2018.
    While Aristotle is often lauded, especially by virtue ethicists, for his focus on and insight into virtue, a central aspect of his conception of virtue—the doctrine of the mean—is often derided as false if not indeed absurd. The reason for this disparity in reaction to Aristotle is that the doctrine of the mean has been severely misinterpreted as stating that there are a variety of parameters in which one must achieve a mean. Such a doctrine is false, but it is not Aristotle’s. In this paper, th…Read more