•  24
    Shaping the Language of Inquiry
    Epoché: A Journal for the History of Philosophy 10 (1): 21-36. 2005.
    In protreptic passages in three Aristotelian texts (Nicomachean Ethics I.7, Parts of Animals I.5 and Metaphysics A.1–2), there is a close relationship betweenthe use of the language of thaumaston (marvelous or admirable) and that of timion (honorable). These texts exhibit a progressive opening of Aristotle’s students to further horizons of philosophical awareness, within which is embedded a global transformation of the meanings of thaumaston. They mark the itinerary of a spiritual formation in w…Read more
  •  14
    E. Jane Doering, Simone Weil and the Specter of Self-perpetuating Force
    Journal for Peace and Justice Studies 21 (1): 83-86. 2011.
  •  7
    Colloquium 4 Hermeneutical Platonism in Plutarch’s Isis and Osiris
    Proceedings of the Boston Area Colloquium of Ancient Philosophy 36 (1): 99-122. 2021.
    I here examine the underlying order of Plutarch’s Isis and Osiris, following compositional cues the author uses to highlight its themes, in order to draw out distinctive features of Plutarch’s philosophical agenda. After placing the text in the context of Plutarch’s general themes and his other main Platonic-hermeneutical works, I follow the indications of key framing devices to bring to the surface his structuring concerns first with the erotic character of the cosmos, in which human eros is at…Read more
  •  6
    Roman Parallels: Plutarch and the Trump Election
    In Marc Benjamin Sable & Angel Jaramillo Torres (eds.), Trump and Political Philosophy: Patriotism, Cosmopolitanism, and Civic Virtue, Palgrave-macmillan. pp. 43-60. 2018.
    Plutarch’s analysis of statesmen and regimes through analogy and dis-analogy makes him a promising guide for reflection on what the election of a man like Trump reveals about the condition of contemporary America and its constitutional order. Examination of the Roman republican regime, and especially the role in it of the office of tribune, sheds light on a deficiency in the American constitutional order that Trump has exploited. Placing post-Cold War America in parallel with post-Punic War Rome…Read more
  •  4
    Plutarch’s epistolary essay, That a Philosopher ought to Converse especially swith Men in Power, has been neglected because not recognized for what it is: an attempt to persuade an addressee attached to Epicurean principles that his attraction to political friendship should be honoured rather than eradicated. Rather than attack Epicureanism, Plutarch attempts to expand the horizons of a hedonic and utilitarian ethics so as to include noble benefaction on a political scale. This requires him to u…Read more
  •  1
    Pierre Hadot's analysis of the role of ancient philosophical discourse in the formation of a philosophical self allows us to extend to the interpretation of Aristotle the counter-Heideggerian Platonic hermeneutics of Gadamer, Strauss and Klein. Central to Plato's and Aristotle's rhetorical/pedagogical strategy is the development of the language of theoria to formulate the goal of philosophical formation. ;Traditional meanings of theoria refer to attendance at public festivals and consultation of…Read more
  • Plutarch's epistolary essay, That a Philosopher ought to Converse especially with Men in Power, has been neglected because not recognized for what it is: an attempt to persuade an addressee attached to Epicurean principles that his attraction to political friendship should be honoured rather than eradicated. Rather than attack Epicureanism, Plutarch attempts to expand the horizons of a hedonic and utilitarian ethics so as to include noble benefaction on a political scale. This requires him to un…Read more