RESEARCH
Area of Specialization
Ancient Greek Philosophy (especially Plato, Aristotle, and pre-Socratic poetry)
Areas of Competency
History of Philosophy, Philosophy of Art and Literature, History of Ethics and Political Philosophy
PUBLICATIONS
"Ἀπορία in Action: Human Nature in Protagoras' Great Myth"
This paper argues that Protagoras’ great myth depicts human nature as both Promethean and Epimethean: human foresight depends on the condition of oversight. If Protagoras’ praise of foresight betrays his desire to overcome this condition, Socrates embraces it. While Protagoras repeats Epimetheus’ mistake of forgetting his own nature by aiming to overcome the risks of oversight, Socrates’ foresight recognizes that oversight and perplexity are intrinsic to human nature.
"THE COMMON ORIGINS OF PHILOSOPHICAL AND POLITICAL POWER IN PLATO'S GORGIAS"
Plato’s Gorgias concerns the tension between political and philosophical power. In it, Socrates and Gorgias discuss rhetoric’s power, which Gorgias claims is universal, containing all powers, enabling the rhetorician to rule over others politically. Polus and Callicles develop Gorgias’s understanding of rhetoric’s universal power. Scholars addressing power’s central focus rightly distinguish Socrates’ notion of philosophical power from Gorgias’s. However, these authors make this distinction too severe, overlooking the kinship between philosophy and politics. This paper argues that Socrates’ notion of power has its origins in Gorgias’s, but instead of seeking to persuade others, philosophy primarily concerns self-persuasion.