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Plato on Women and the Private FamilyIn Sara Brill & Catherine McKeen (eds.), The Routledge Handbook of Women and Ancient Greek Philosophy, Routledge. pp. 202-216. 2024.Plato’s attitude towards women in his major political works, the Republic and Laws, is complex. On the one hand, Plato argues that in well-run cities, women should hold positions of rule; but on the other, he suggests that women are inferior to men with respect to virtue. To reconcile these conflicting attitudes, some scholars argue that Plato’s progressive proposals are about women as they could be given the right education and environment, while his derogatory comments are about women as they …Read more
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138The Political Soul: Plato on Thumos, Spirited Motivation, and the City (review)Philosophical Quarterly 73 (3): 902-905. 2023.
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212Law in Plato's Late PoliticsIn The Cambridge Companion to Plato, Cambridge University Press. pp. 522-558. 2022.Throughout his political works, Plato takes the aim of politics to be the virtue and happiness of the citizens and the unity of the city. This paper examines the roles played by law in promoting individual virtue and civic unity in the Republic, Statesman, and Laws. Section 1 argues that in the Republic, laws regulate important institutions, such as education, property, and family, and thereby creating a way of life that conduces to virtue and unity. Section 2 argues that in the Statesman, the p…Read more
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226Aristotle on Shame and Learning to Be Good, Marta Jimenez (review)Ethics 132 (4): 894-898. 2022.
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484Plato and the Tripartition of SoulIn John E. Sisko (ed.), Philosophy of mind in antiquity, Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group. pp. 101-119. 2018.In the Republic, Phaedrus, and Timaeus, Socrates holds that the psyche is complex, or has three distinct and semi-autonomous sources of motivation, which he calls the reasoning, spirited, and appetitive parts. While the rational part determines what is best overall and motivates us to pursue it, the spirited and appetitive parts incline us toward different objectives, such as victory, honor, and esteem, or the satisfaction of our desires for food, drink, and sex. While it is obvious that Socrate…Read more
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129Commentary on Vallejo: the Ontology of False Pleasures in the PhilebusProceedings of the Boston Area Colloquium of Ancient Philosophy 24 75-80. 2009.In his rich and suggestive paper, Alvaro Vallejo argues for the novel thesis that Plato posits a form of pleasure in the Republic and the Philebus. Vallejo argues that the notion of a Platonic form of pleasure best explains other things that Plato says about pleasure. First, Plato draws a distinction between true pleasure and the appearance of pleasure. Second, Plato uses the same language to describe the relationship between forms and their inferior instantiations as he uses to describe the rel…Read more
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314Soul Division and Mimesis in Republic XIn Pierre Destrée & Fritz Gregor Herrmann (eds.), Plato and the Poets, . pp. 283-298. 2011.It is well known that in the Republic, Socrates presents a view of the soul or the psyche according to which it has three distinct parts or aspects, which he calls the reasoning, spirited, and appetitive parts. Socrates’ clearest characterization of these parts of the soul occurs in Republic IX, where he suggests that they should be understood in terms of the various goals or ends that give rise to the particular desires that motivate our actions. In Republic X, however, Socrates uses the …Read more
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15The Socratic Paradox and its Enemies, by Roslyn Weiss (review)Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2007. 2007.
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171Gender and Rhetoric in Plato’s Political Thought, by Michael Kochin (review)Ancient Philosophy 24 (2): 470-474. 2004.
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227Plato as Critical Theorist, by Jonny Thakkar (review)Philosophical Review 130 (1): 145-149. 2021.
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115Colloquium 2 Commentary on Santas: Plato on the Good of the City-State in the RepublicProceedings of the Boston Area Colloquium of Ancient Philosophy 30 (1): 63-70. 2015.How does Socrates conceive of the good of the city-state in the Republic? Does he conceive of the city as a kind of organic entity, with a good of its own that is independent of the good of the citizens? Or does he think the good of the city includes the good of the citizens. If so, how? Santas argues that the good of the city must include the good of the citizens. Specifically, he argues that the city is organized so that the citizens can attain a great good: the ability to do well the work for…Read more
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4277The Tripartite Theory of Motivation in Plato’s RepublicPhilosophy Compass 5 (11): 880-892. 2010.Many philosophers today approach important psychological phenomena, such as weakness of the will and moral motivation, using a broadly Humean distinction between beliefs, which aim to represent the world, and desires, which aim to change the world. On this picture, desires provide the ends or goals of action, while beliefs simply tell us how to achieve those ends. In the Republic, Socrates attempts to explain the phenomena using a different distinction: he argues that the human soul or psyche co…Read more
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312Ring of GygesIn Hugh LaFollette (ed.), The International Encyclopedia of Ethics, Blackwell. 2013.Plato’s Socrates holds that we always have reason to be just, since being just is essential for living a happy and successful life. In Book II of Plato’s Republic, Socrates’ main interlocutor, Glaucon, raises a vivid and powerful challenge to this claim. He presents the case of Gyges, a Lydian shepherd who possesses a ring that gives him the power of invisibility. Glaucon’s contention is that Gyges does not have reason to be just in this circumstance, since being just will not promote his happin…Read more
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351Plato's Defense of Justice in the RepublicIn Gerasimos Xenophon Santas (ed.), The Blackwell Guide to Plato's Republic, Blackwell. pp. 263-282. 2006.Socrates' aim in the Republic is to show that being just is crucial for happiness. In Republic IV, Socrates argues that the just individual is one in whom each part of the soul or psyche performs its proper function, with the result that the individual attains psychic harmony. Commentators have worried, however, that this account of what it is to be just has little to do with being just in the ordinary sense of the term, which involves acting with regard for the good of others. In this essay, I …Read more
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405Why Spirit is the Natural Ally of Reason: Spirit, Reason, and the Fine in Plato's RepublicOxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy 44 41-65. 2013.In the Republic, Plato argues that the soul has three distinct parts or elements, each an independent source of motivation: reason, spirit, and appetite. In this paper, I argue against a prevalent interpretation of the motivations of the spirited part and offer a new account. Numerous commentators argue that the spirited part motivates the individual to live up to the ideal of being fine and honorable, but they stress that the agent's conception of what is fine and honorable is determined by soc…Read more
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231Are There Two Theories of Goodness in the "Republic"? A Response to SantasApeiron 39 (4): 319-330. 2006.It is well known that Socrates sketches, through his similes of the sun, line, and cave, an account of the form of the good in the middle books of the Republic and that this conception of the good relies heavily on his theory of forms. What is less well-noted is that Socrates presents a distinct account of goodness - a functional account - in Republic I. In numerous influential articles, Gerasimos Santas has presented an interpretation of Plato's two theories of goodness and their relationship t…Read more
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23The Cambridge Companion to Plato's Republic, G.R.F. Ferrari (ed) (review)Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews 2009 (7). 2009.
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486City and Soul in Plato’s Republic, by G.R.F. Ferrari (review)Ancient Philosophy 27 (1): 174-179. 2007.
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321Reasoning with the IrrationalAncient Philosophy 26 (2): 243-258. 2006.It is widely held by commentators that in the Protagoras, Socrates attempts to explain the experience of mental conflict and weakness of the will without positing the existence of irrational desires, or desires that arise independently of, and so can conflict with, our reasoned conception of the good. In this essay, I challenge this commonly held line of thought. I argue that Socrates has a unique conception of an irrational desire, one which allows him to explain the experience of mental confli…Read more
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Ancient Greek and Roman Philosophy |
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Value Theory |
Social and Political Philosophy |
Philosophy of Mind |