•  63
    This thesis is a study of the theories of pleasure as proposed in Plato’s Philebus, Aristotle’s EN VII.11-14 and EN X.1-5, with particular emphasis on the value of pleasure. Focusing on the Philebus in Chapters 1 and 2, I argue that the account of pleasure as restorative process of a harmonious state in the soul is in tension with Plato’s claim that some pleasures are good in their own right. I show that there are in fact two ways in which pleasure can have value in the Philebus. The tension in …Read more
  •  50
    Aristotle Against Delos: Pleasure in Nicomachean Ethics X
    Phronesis 61 (3): 284-306. 2016.
    Two crucial questions, if unanswered, impede our understanding of Aristotle’s account of pleasure inenx.4-5: What are the activities that pleasure is said to complete? In virtue of what does pleasurealwaysaccompany these activities? The answers fall in place if we read Aristotle as responding to the Delian challenge that the finest, best and most pleasant are not united in one and the same thing. I propose an ‘ethical’ reading ofenx.4 according to which the best activities in question are those …Read more
  •  47
    An Inconsistency in the Philebus?
    British Journal for the History of Philosophy 21 (5). 2013.
    Plato's Philebus contains an intricate difficulty. Plato seems to hold both (a) that all pleasures are processes of becoming, a crucial premise in the argument that no pleasure is good (53c?55c) and (b) that some pleasures contribute in their own right to the goodness of the best life (64c?67b). Since it seems also plausible that only things which are good can contribute to the goodness of the best life in their own right, Plato's view seems to be inconsistent. Interpreters usually reject either…Read more
  •  32
    Republic 585b–d: Argument and text
    Classical Quarterly 68 (1): 53-68. 2018.
    The so-called ‘Olympian’ proof in Plato's Republic contains one of the first explicit distinctions between the nature of intellectual and bodily pleasures. The argument for the superiority of the former rests on a) identifying pleasure and pain with certain kinds of filling and emptying, and b) differentiating between bodily and intellectual pleasures according to the kind of filling: Bodily depletions differ from depletions of the soul in the kind of lack and, accordingly, in the kind of thing …Read more
  •  32
    Presents a new translation with commentary exploring the final book of Aristotle's Ethics in a philosophically rigorous yet interpretatively open way.
  •  21
    The Highest Good in Aristotle and Kant (edited book)
    Oxford University Press UK. 2015.
    The notion of the highest good used to occupy a primary role in ethical theorising, but has largely disappeared from the contemporary landscape. The notion was central to both Aristotle's and Kant's ethical theories, however--a surprising observation given that their approaches to ethics are commonly conceived as being diametrically opposed. The essays in this collection provide a comprehensive treatment of the highest good in Aristotle and Kant and show that, even though there are important dif…Read more
  •  13
    On philosophy in Plato’s Republic (review)
    British Journal for the History of Philosophy 31 (6): 1279-1288. 2023.
    How should we understand ‘philosophy' in Plato’s Republic? Sarah Broadie develops a thoroughly practical notion of the philosopher's activity. Her interpretation helps with the old puzzle about the philosopher's qualification to rule. It also addresses a new problem, namely that Plato ought to have subdivided the rational part of the soul into two parts if the philosophers engage in both theoretical and practical thinking. By conceiving of wisdom in practical terms, Broadie downplays the possibl…Read more
  •  12
    Philosophos: Plato's Missing Dialogue
    Philosophical Quarterly 64 (254): 154-156. 2014.
  • The content of happiness : a new case for Theôria
    In Joachim Aufderheide & Ralf M. Bader (eds.), The Highest Good in Aristotle and Kant, Oxford University Press Uk. 2015.