Professor of Ancient Philosophy (Philosophy & CAMS)

(Fall 2024)

I am finishing an intellectual history of the fifth century BCE in Greece, focusing on the rise of (and attention to) “intellectuals” – a cultural category that includes so-called sophists, philosophers, rhetoricians, historians, and certain poets. Of particular concern to me is their traffic in what I call “ideas,” neither practical solutions nor theoretical systems but expressly interesting excerpts from chains of reasoning. Giving structure to the book is Aristophanes’ Clouds (first performed in 423), the most remarkable witness to, and symptom of, a society where the liberal arts – the humanities and sciences – have become a public issue, and where Socrates, the most vivid character in the play, can be assumed to have a public status. Socrates’ “Thinkery” (Phrontisterion), the research-and-teaching institute where the play takes place, depicts a total range of inquiry – astronomical, meteorological, geographical, linguistical, oratorical, theological, and concept-generational – and problematizes the relationship between these disciplines, their practitioners, and their value to students both young and old.