•  448
    Dog-Helen and homeric insult
    Classical Antiquity 14 (1): 41-61. 1995.
    Helen's self-disparagement is an anomaly in epic diction, and this is especially true of those instances where she refers to herself as "dog" and "dog-face." This essay attempts to show that Helen's dog-language, in that it remains in conflict with other features of her characterization, has some generic significance for epic, helping to establish the superiority of epic performance over competing performance types which treated her differently. The metaphoric use of χύων and its derivatives has…Read more
  •  140
    Stoicism & emotion
    University of Chicago Press. 2007.
    On the surface, stoicism and emotion seem like contradictory terms. Yet the Stoic philosophers of ancient Greece and Rome were deeply interested in the emotions, which they understood as complex judgments about what we regard as valuable in our surroundings. Stoicism and Emotion shows that they did not simply advocate an across-the-board suppression of feeling, as stoicism implies in today’s English, but instead conducted a searching examination of these powerful psychological responses, seeking…Read more
  •  53
    Bulletin de philosophie ancienne
    with Catherine Collobert, Benoît Castelnérac, Gabriela Cursaru, George Englebretsen, Francisco Gonzalez, David Konstan, Yvon Lafrance, Daniel Larose, and Sara Magrin
    Revue de Métaphysique et de Morale 75 (3): 403. 2012.
  •  49
    Emotion and Peace of Mind (review)
    Ancient Philosophy 22 (1): 225-234. 2002.
  •  48
    Morals and Villas in Seneca’s Letters (review)
    Ancient Philosophy 28 (2): 457-460. 2008.
  •  47
    Managing Mental Pain: Epicurus Vs. Aristippus on the Pre-Rehearsal of Future Ills
    Proceedings of the Boston Area Colloquium of Ancient Philosophy 17 (1): 155-184. 2002.
  •  40
    Epictetus
    Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. 2009.
  •  38
    The concept of πρoπαειαι or "pre-emotions" is known not only to the Roman Stoics and Christian exegetes but also to Philo of Alexandria. Philo also supplies the term πρoπαεια at QGen 1.79. As Philo cannot have derived what he knows from Seneca, nor from Cicero, who also mentions the point, he must have found it in older Stoic writings. The πρoπαεια concept, rich in implications for the voluntariness and phenomenology of the passions proper, is thus confirmed for the Hellenistic period. It is …Read more
  •  38
    Seneca (review)
    Ancient Philosophy 26 (1): 221-226. 2006.
  •  26
    Philo of alexandria and the origins of the stoic O
    Phronesis 44 (4): 300-325. 1999.
    The concept of o or "pre-emotions" is known not only to the Roman Stoics and Christian exegetes but also to Philo of Alexandria. Philo also supplies the term o at QGen 1.79. As Philo cannot have derived what he knows from Seneca (despite his visit to Rome in 39), nor from Cicero, who also mentions the point, he must have found it in older Stoic writings. The o concept, rich in implications for the voluntariness and phenomenology of the passions proper, is thus confirmed for the Hellenistic perio…Read more
  •  25
    Cicero on the Emotions: Tusculan Disputations 3 and 4 (edited book)
    University of Chicago Press. 2002.
    The third and fourth books of Cicero's _Tusculan Disputations_ deal with the nature and management of human emotion: first grief, then the emotions in general. In lively and accessible style, Cicero presents the insights of Greek philosophers on the subject, reporting the views of Epicureans and Peripatetics and giving a detailed account of the Stoic position, which he himself favors for its close reasoning and moral earnestness. Both the specialist and the general reader will be fascinated by t…Read more
  •  25
    Examines Lucretius ' solution to the problem of perceptual relativity that was posed by ancient skeptics as a challenge to the possibility of knowledge based on the senses. The solution, having to do with differences among individuals in the ' pores ' through which effluences enter the body, is fundamental to Lucretius ' Epicurean epistemology. There are interesting problems, however, with some of the cases, and it is also interesting to note the disturbing element of violence in Lucretius ' des…Read more
  •  19
    The Manhandling of Maecenas: Senecan Abstractions of Masculinity
    American Journal of Philology 119 (4): 607-632. 1998.
  •  16
    Commentary on Inwood
    Proceedings of the Boston Area Colloquium of Ancient Philosophy 15 (1): 44-56. 1999.
  •  13
    Power and persuasion in Cicero's philosophy (edited book)
    with Nathan Gilbert and Sean McConnell
    Cambridge University Press. 2022.
    This interdisciplinary volume will be essential reading for students and scholars working on Greco-Roman philosophy, Roman rhetoric, and the history and literary culture of the Roman Republic. It showcases innovative methodological approaches to Cicero the philosopher and defines new directions for the immediate future of the field.
  •  12
    Seneca: the literary philosopher
    Cambridge University Press. 2023.
    Seneca stands apart from other philosophers of Greece and Rome not only for his interest in practical ethics, but also for the beauty and liveliness of his writing. These twelve in-depth essays take up a series of interrelated topics in his works, from his relation to Stoicism, Epicureanism, and other schools of thought; to the psychology of emotion and action and the management of anger and grief; to letter-writing, gift-giving, friendship, and kindness; to Seneca's innovative use of genre, sty…Read more
  •  10
    Emotion and Peace of Mind (review)
    Ancient Philosophy 22 (1): 225-234. 2002.
  •  8
    Seneca (review)
    Ancient Philosophy 26 (1): 221-226. 2006.
  •  1
    Honeybee Reading and Self-Scripting: Epistulae Morales 84
    In Jula Wildberger & Marcia L. Colish (eds.), Seneca Philosophus, De Gruyter. pp. 269-294. 2014.
  •  1
    Therapeutic Reading and Seneca's "Moral Epistles"
    Dissertation, Brown University. 1996.
    The dissertation studies Seneca's views on the reading of philosophical and literary texts as a means of ethical therapy. The therapeutic efficacy of reading was not uncontroversial in the period: a strong preference for orality in philosophic instruction goes back to issues raised in Plato's Phaedrus and is still to be found in the discourses of Epictetus. Seneca recognizes the force of the Socratic objections to philosophic writing, but claims that written texts can be efficacious when properl…Read more