Research
'Rodin and the art of ancient Greece',
British Museum, 2018
Areas of Specialisation: Ancient Philosophy, Philosophy of Healthcare, Comparative Philosophy
I am something of a jack of three philosophical trades. As is reflected in my published work to date, my research has spanned a wide range of puzzles in the context of ancient Greek philosophy, philosophy of healthcare and comparative philosophy. For instance, in ancient Greek philosophy, I have worked on metaphysical problems about place, causation and numerical identity, ethical questions about family and the shape of a life, and theological questions about religious bias in the context of the pre-Socratics, Plato, Aristotle and their reception. In philosophy of healthcare, I have written about the overtreatment of epilepsy, the nature and value of disease and the choiceworthiness of immortality. My work in comparative philosophy has focused on the work of Garcia de Orta and some orally transmitted South Indian puzzles.
I have always been interested in combining my areas of expertise. Recently, I have become increasingly focused on doing this in order to generate important lessons for philosophy and beyond - especially concerning the nature, value and place of important (and sometimes unavoidable) things our lives that might seem to be undesirable or bad for us, like disease, disability and fear of death.
Current Work: The Nature and Value of Old Age
I'm currently primarily focused on trying to work out what, if any, value old age has - for the elderly individual and for any collectives she may be part of. Whether or not old age has any value and, if so, what it is is a difficult question to answer. Firstly, it seems to hang in part on what old age itself is and what makes somebody elderly. But this is far from obvious. For example, is old age a disease or just some kind of deterioration? Is it relative to culture, society, gender or race? Secondly, it is difficult to establish what might make old age choiceworthy or desirable for the individual or those around them. After all, there are apparent disadvantages for both the elderly individual and the social and political groups she is part of, such as old-age-related changes that prevent her from fulfilling her desires and sacrifices that others must make in order for her to be cared for. On the other hand, there are apparent features of old age that might make it seem valuable. For instance, if there is such a thing as old-age wisdom, it might benefit both the elderly person who has it and those around her. Perhaps there is a specific kind of ethical development that comes from caring for an older adult. Yet, it is difficult to pin down exactly what old-age wisdom could be, where it comes from or how it would benefit others. And we might think that ethical development that requires sacrifice is problematic – or that this ethical development could be obtained in other ways more easily.
In my research, I have four aims: 1) Give an account of what old age is and establish criteria for being an elderly person; 2) Establish the value of old age for the individual; 3) Establish the value of old age for others; 4) Explore the consequences for the way that we live our lives, in relation to ourselves and others, especially in the context of healthcare. My methodology involves appealing to the rich sources about old age in the history of philosophy, many of which haven't been nearly as fully explored as I believe they should have been.
Elderly woman,
Roman, 3rd-2nd century
'Alcibiades Being Taught By Socrates'
Marcello Bacciarelli
1776-1777
Publications
'Bodhisattva Padmapani'
Ajanta Cave 1
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'Aspasia surrounded by Greek philosophers'
Michel Corneille the Younger
Forthcoming (2024): 'This Life Terminates Here: Plato’s Phaedo on the Right Time to Die and Some Lessons for Contemporary Healthcare’ in Healing Classics, ed. Brian Hurwitz (Peter Lang)
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Forthcoming (2024): 'Some Reflections About Old Age on Rereading the Republic' in eds. Mary Margaret McCabe and Simon Trépanier Rereading the Republic (Edinburgh, Edinburgh University Press)​
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Forthcoming: 'Mixing Up the Medicine: Some Problems With Eurocentric Philosophy in Garcia de Orta'
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'Everything in Its Right Place: Plato on Zeno’s Paradox of Place’, Organon 56 (2024) (as part of the Eleatic Ontology: Origin and Reception Project): read here.
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'That’s What Makes the World Go Round: Causation in the Myth in the Statesman’ (co-authored with Daniel Vázquez) in eds. Daniel Vázquez and Alberto Ross Cause and Explanation in Ancient Philosophy (New York, Routledge, 2024)
‘Regress? I’ve Had a Few? Infinite Regress, Similarity and Dissimilarity in the Parmenides’, Rhizomata 10(2): 238–260 (2022) - read here.
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'Teleology and Sophistic Endeavour in the Euthydemus', Australasian Philosophical Review, 2:3 (2021) (co-authored with Daniel Vázquez, Autonomous University of Barcelona) - read here.
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'Too Much of a Good Thing: Overtreatment in Epilepsy', Journal of Evaluation in Clinical Practice (2018) - read here.