-
Justification or Excuse: Saving Soldiers at the Expense of CiviliansCanadian Journal of Philosophy, Supplementary Volume 8 (n/a): 159. 1982.
-
1Antiphon, Sophist and Athenian: A Discussion of Michael Gagarin, Antiphon the Athenian, and Gerard J. Pendrick, Antiphon the SophistIn David Sedley (ed.), Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy Xxvi: Summer 2004, Oxford University Press. 2004.
-
1Eikos and bad faith in the paired speeches of ThucydidesProceedings of the Boston Area Colloquium of Ancient Philosophy 10 115-145. 1994.
-
TheatreIn Jerrold Levinson (ed.), The Oxford handbook of aesthetics, Oxford University Press. 2003.
-
23Reverence: Renewing a Forgotten VirtueOup Usa. 2001.This short, elegiac volume makes an impassioned case for the fundamental importance of the forgotten virtue of reverence, and how awe for things greater than oneself can - indeed must - be a touchstone for other virtues like respect, humility, and charity. Ranging widely over diverse cultural terrain - from Philip Larkin to ancient Greek poetry, from modern politics to Chinese philosphy - Woodruff shows how absolutely essential reverence is to a well-functioning society
-
56Paideia and Good JudgmentThe Proceedings of the Twentieth World Congress of Philosophy 3 63-75. 1999.Good judgment (euboulia) was the principal reward Protagoras promised from his teaching, and he was the foremost teacher to whom students went for paideia in fifth-century Greece. I begin with a theoretical exposition of the nature of good judgment in the contexts relevant to fifth-century paideia—in deliberative bodies, in the law courts, among generals discussing tactics, and among private citizens managing their households. I then turn to review what teachers like Protagoras taught, and ask w…Read more
-
3Socrates Among the SophistsIn Sara Ahbel-Rappe & Rachana Kamtekar (eds.), A Companion to Socrates, Wiley-blackwell. 2006.This chapter contains sections titled: The Sophists Socrates.
-
14Aristotle's Poetics: The Aim of TragedyIn Georgios Anagnostopoulos (ed.), A Companion to Aristotle, Wiley-blackwell. 2008.This chapter contains sections titled: What Is Tragedy? Mimesis6 Understanding Katharsis17 Five Questions for Interpreters A Short History of Katharsis Interpretation The Nature of Our Question Notes Bibliography.
-
9The Oedipus Plays of Sophocles: Philosophical Perspectives (edited book)Oup Usa. 2018.Philosophers and classicists examine Sophocles' treatment of Oedipus, the man who did not know himself, in these new essays. They discuss barriers to self-knowledge and an old man's quest for serenity, and explore the question: is it better not to be born at all, or better, once born, to die young rather than live a long life?
-
24Learning through Love: A Lover’s Initiation in the SymposiumJournal of Ancient Philosophy 17 (1): 36-58. 2023.In the Symposium of Plato, Socrates reports that Diotima once described to him a process of initiation by which a lover rises from desiring one beautiful body to catching sight of what seems to be the Platonic form of beauty. Scholars have debated whether the lover is to make this ascent by a rational process or a non-rational one, or by both working either in concert or independently. This paper argues that love leads and guides a process in this initiation that necessarily involves rational ac…Read more
-
8"The Poem of Empedocles' Peri Physios. Towards a New Edition of All the Fragments", ed. by N. van der Ben (review)Journal of the History of Philosophy 14 (4): 477. 1976.
-
8Roger A. Shiner, "Knowledge and Reality in Plato's "Philebus"" (review)Journal of the History of Philosophy 17 (1): 79. 1979.
-
9Justification or Excuse: Saving Soldiers at the Expense of CiviliansCanadian Journal of Philosophy 12 (sup1): 159-176. 1982.
-
15Chapter ThreeProceedings of the Boston Area Colloquium of Ancient Philosophy 3 (1): 79-115. 1987.
-
68Mindful Virtue, Mindful ReverenceZygon 36 (4): 585-595. 2001.How does one talk about moral thought and moral action as a religious naturalist? We explore this question by considering two human capacities: the capacity for mindfulness, and the capacity for virtue. We suggest that mindfulness is deeply enhanced by an understanding of the scientific worldview and that the four cardinal virtues—courage, fairmindedness, humaneness, and reverence—are rendered coherent by mindful reflection. We focus on the concept of mindful reverence and propose that the mindf…Read more
-
7Why Did Protagoras Use Poetry in Education?In Olof Pettersson & Vigdis Songe-Møller (eds.), Plato’s Protagoras: Essays on the Confrontation of Philosophy and Sophistry, Springer. 2016.Like Plato, Protagoras held that young children learn virtue from fine examples in poetry. Unlike Plato, Protagoras taught adults by correcting the diction of poets. In this paper I ask what his standard of correctness might be, and what benefit he intended his students to take from exercises in correction. If his standard of correctness is truth, then he may intend his students to learn by questioning the content of poems; that would be suggestive of Plato’s program in Republic III. But his sta…Read more
-
Ancient scepticismIn Nicholas D. Smith (ed.), The philosophy of knowledge: a history, Bloomsbury Academic. 2018.
-
Self-ridicule : Socratic wisdomIn Pierre Destrée & Franco V. Trivigno (eds.), Laughter, Humor, and Comedy in Ancient Philosophy, Oxford University Press. 2019.
-
14Living toward virtue: practical ethics in the spirit of SocratesOxford University Press. 2023.Virtue ethics can be practical if we give it a new start, working from Socrates' approach to ethics as represented in Plato. This approach is more promising than that of most recent virtue ethicists, who begin from Aristotle. It is also more practical than modern ethical theories. Socrates asks us to nurture the moral health of our souls all our lives, whereas Aristotle teaches us to acquire virtues as traits. Traits are not reliable however, and false confidence in one's virtue is a major cause…Read more
-
2The Garden of Leaders: Revolutionizing Higher EducationOxford University Press. 2019.The Garden of Leaders explores two related questions: What is leadership? And what sort of education could prepare young people to be leaders? Paul Woodruff argues that higher education--particularly but not exclusively in the liberal arts--should set its main focus on cultivating leadership in students. Woodruff advances a new view of liberal arts education that places leadership at the root of everything it does, so that students will be prepared to lead in their lives and careers--and not nec…Read more
-
17The Ajax Dilemma: Justice, Fairness, and RewardsOup Usa. 2011.A leading philosopher shows how the story of Ajax and Odysseus sheds new light on the contentious issue of disproportionate rewards in contemporary society.
-
1The Skeptical Side of Plato's Method in PlatonRevue Internationale de Philosophie 40 (156-157): 22-37. 1986.
-
2What could go wrong with inspiration?In J. M. E. Moravcsik & Philip Temko (eds.), Plato on beauty, wisdom, and the arts, Rowman & Littlefield. 1982.
-
20The socratic approach to semantic incompletenessPhilosophy and Phenomenological Research 38 (4): 453-468. 1978.
-
30The proem of empedocles' peri physios: Towards a new edition of all the fragments: Thirty-one fragmentsJournal of the History of Philosophy 14 (4): 477-479. 1976.