I'm a philosopher and classicist who mostly works on late antique philosophy these days. I live on an island at the arse end of the world and I like it that way.
This important collection of original essays is the first to concentrate at length on how the anc... more This important collection of original essays is the first to concentrate at length on how the ancients responded to the challenge of reading and interpreting Plato, primarily between 100 BC and AD, edited by Lloyd Gerson, University of Toronto; 600. It incorporates the fruits of recent research into late antique philosophy, in particular its approach to hermeneutical problems. While a number of prominent figures, including Apuleius, Galen, Plotinus, Porphyry and lamblichus, receive detailed attention, several essays concentrate on the important figure of Proclus, in whom Neoplatonic interpretation of Plato reaches it most impressive, most surprising and most challenging form. The essays appear in chronological of their focal interpreters, giving a sense of the development of Platonist exegesis in this period. Reflecting their devotion to a common theme, the essays have been carefully edited and are presented with a composite bibliography and indices.
This book brings together new essays that explore the connection between love and reasons. The ob... more This book brings together new essays that explore the connection between love and reasons. The observation that considerations of love carry significant weight in the deliberative process opens up new perspectives in the classic discussion about practical reasons, and gives rise to many interesting questions about the nature of love’s reasons, about their source and legitimacy, about their relation to moral and epistemic reasons, and about the extent to which love is sensitive to reasons. The contributors to this volume orient questions related to love within the broader context of the contemporary discussion on practical reasons, and move forward the conversation about the normative dimensions of love. Love, Reason and Morality will be of interest to philosophers working on issues of normativity, meta-ethics and moral psychology, and especially those interested in the source of practical reasons and the role of attachments in practical deliberation.
Acknowledgements Notes on the translation Introduction to Book 3, Part II The background to Procl... more Acknowledgements Notes on the translation Introduction to Book 3, Part II The background to Proclus' commentary on the world soul in Timaeus The structure of Proclus' commentary The contributions of Proclus' commentary Conclusion On the Timaeus of Plato: Book 3, Part II Analytical table of contents Translation References English-Greek glossary Greek word index General index.
The commentary on Plato's Republic by Proclus (d. 485 CE), which takes the form of a series o... more The commentary on Plato's Republic by Proclus (d. 485 CE), which takes the form of a series of essays, is the only sustained treatment of the dialogue to survive from antiquity. This three-volume edition presents the first complete English translation of Proclus' text, together with a general introduction that argues for the unity of Proclus' Commentary and orients the reader to the use which the Neoplatonists made of Plato's Republic in their educational program. Each volume is completed by a Greek word index and an English-Greek glossary that will help non-specialists to track the occurrence of key terms throughout the translated text. The second volume of the edition presents Proclus' essays on the tripartite soul and the virtues, female philosopher rulers, and the metaphysics and epistemology of the central books of the Republic. The longest of the essays in Volume II interprets the nature and significance of the 'marriage number' whose miscalculation leads to the degeneration of the ideal city-state.
This is the second volume of translation of the only extant commentary on Plato's Phaedrus from A... more This is the second volume of translation of the only extant commentary on Plato's Phaedrus from Antiquity. This attached document is the typescript of the Introduction to the book. If you want the translation, you'll need to order it from Bloomsbury.
The idea that there is a coherent and morally relevant concept of sexual perversions has been inc... more The idea that there is a coherent and morally relevant concept of sexual perversions has been increasingly called into question. In what follows, I will be concerned with two recent attacks on the notion of sexual perversion: those of Graham Priest and Igor Primoratz.2 Priest's paper is the deeper of the two. Primoratz goes methodically through various accounts of sexual perversion and finds difficulties in them. This is no small task, of course, but unlike Priest he does not attempt to provide any diagnosis of why any attempt to analyse the concept of sexual per version must fail. Priest argues that sexual perversion is an "inapplicable concept": the presuppositions that would allow us to make sense of the notion have been rightly rejected. Without the theoretical backdrop of an Aristotelian moral teleology, we cannot provide a satisfactory account of sexual perversion, for only such a teleological world-view allows us to give some sense to the idea that a sexual practice might be morally wrong because it is unnatural. Priest surveys accounts of perversion that don't appeal to any idea of unnaturalness and rejects them?rightly I believe. But, Priest argues, Aristotle's own moral teleology is part and parcel of his wider views about purpose in nature. This natural teleology has been shown to be explanatorily superfluous. Though some sciences still talk of functions, this can be understood in terms of contributions to evolutionary survival. Though there is considerable disagreement about the details of the right account of function, all versions of this scientifically respectable teleology are morally neutral: it would not follow from the fact (if indeed it were a fact) that homosexual intercourse does nothing to propagate the agents' genetic.material to future generations that it is therefore morally wrong. Here too I think Priest is right. He also considers what he calls "Aristotelian revivalism" in Roger Scruton's account of sexual perver sion.3 I think Priest sells Aristotelianism short. I have no interest in
This important collection of original essays is the first to concentrate at length on how the anc... more This important collection of original essays is the first to concentrate at length on how the ancients responded to the challenge of reading and interpreting Plato, primarily between 100 BC and AD, edited by Lloyd Gerson, University of Toronto; 600. It incorporates the fruits of recent research into late antique philosophy, in particular its approach to hermeneutical problems. While a number of prominent figures, including Apuleius, Galen, Plotinus, Porphyry and lamblichus, receive detailed attention, several essays concentrate on the important figure of Proclus, in whom Neoplatonic interpretation of Plato reaches it most impressive, most surprising and most challenging form. The essays appear in chronological of their focal interpreters, giving a sense of the development of Platonist exegesis in this period. Reflecting their devotion to a common theme, the essays have been carefully edited and are presented with a composite bibliography and indices.
This book brings together new essays that explore the connection between love and reasons. The ob... more This book brings together new essays that explore the connection between love and reasons. The observation that considerations of love carry significant weight in the deliberative process opens up new perspectives in the classic discussion about practical reasons, and gives rise to many interesting questions about the nature of love’s reasons, about their source and legitimacy, about their relation to moral and epistemic reasons, and about the extent to which love is sensitive to reasons. The contributors to this volume orient questions related to love within the broader context of the contemporary discussion on practical reasons, and move forward the conversation about the normative dimensions of love. Love, Reason and Morality will be of interest to philosophers working on issues of normativity, meta-ethics and moral psychology, and especially those interested in the source of practical reasons and the role of attachments in practical deliberation.
Acknowledgements Notes on the translation Introduction to Book 3, Part II The background to Procl... more Acknowledgements Notes on the translation Introduction to Book 3, Part II The background to Proclus' commentary on the world soul in Timaeus The structure of Proclus' commentary The contributions of Proclus' commentary Conclusion On the Timaeus of Plato: Book 3, Part II Analytical table of contents Translation References English-Greek glossary Greek word index General index.
The commentary on Plato's Republic by Proclus (d. 485 CE), which takes the form of a series o... more The commentary on Plato's Republic by Proclus (d. 485 CE), which takes the form of a series of essays, is the only sustained treatment of the dialogue to survive from antiquity. This three-volume edition presents the first complete English translation of Proclus' text, together with a general introduction that argues for the unity of Proclus' Commentary and orients the reader to the use which the Neoplatonists made of Plato's Republic in their educational program. Each volume is completed by a Greek word index and an English-Greek glossary that will help non-specialists to track the occurrence of key terms throughout the translated text. The second volume of the edition presents Proclus' essays on the tripartite soul and the virtues, female philosopher rulers, and the metaphysics and epistemology of the central books of the Republic. The longest of the essays in Volume II interprets the nature and significance of the 'marriage number' whose miscalculation leads to the degeneration of the ideal city-state.
This is the second volume of translation of the only extant commentary on Plato's Phaedrus from A... more This is the second volume of translation of the only extant commentary on Plato's Phaedrus from Antiquity. This attached document is the typescript of the Introduction to the book. If you want the translation, you'll need to order it from Bloomsbury.
The idea that there is a coherent and morally relevant concept of sexual perversions has been inc... more The idea that there is a coherent and morally relevant concept of sexual perversions has been increasingly called into question. In what follows, I will be concerned with two recent attacks on the notion of sexual perversion: those of Graham Priest and Igor Primoratz.2 Priest's paper is the deeper of the two. Primoratz goes methodically through various accounts of sexual perversion and finds difficulties in them. This is no small task, of course, but unlike Priest he does not attempt to provide any diagnosis of why any attempt to analyse the concept of sexual per version must fail. Priest argues that sexual perversion is an "inapplicable concept": the presuppositions that would allow us to make sense of the notion have been rightly rejected. Without the theoretical backdrop of an Aristotelian moral teleology, we cannot provide a satisfactory account of sexual perversion, for only such a teleological world-view allows us to give some sense to the idea that a sexual practice might be morally wrong because it is unnatural. Priest surveys accounts of perversion that don't appeal to any idea of unnaturalness and rejects them?rightly I believe. But, Priest argues, Aristotle's own moral teleology is part and parcel of his wider views about purpose in nature. This natural teleology has been shown to be explanatorily superfluous. Though some sciences still talk of functions, this can be understood in terms of contributions to evolutionary survival. Though there is considerable disagreement about the details of the right account of function, all versions of this scientifically respectable teleology are morally neutral: it would not follow from the fact (if indeed it were a fact) that homosexual intercourse does nothing to propagate the agents' genetic.material to future generations that it is therefore morally wrong. Here too I think Priest is right. He also considers what he calls "Aristotelian revivalism" in Roger Scruton's account of sexual perver sion.3 I think Priest sells Aristotelianism short. I have no interest in
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