Philosophy | College of Liberal Arts
skip to content The University of Texas at Austin

Joint Program in Ancient Philosophy

The Joint Graduate Program in Ancient Philosophy is supported by the Departments of Classics and Philosophy. 

Core Faculty

Affiliated Faculty

The Joint Program was founded in 1967 to coordinate graduate study and research in ancient philosophy by uniting students and faculty in both Departments. Students are admitted through either Department and receive the Ph.D. in that Department. Prospective students may apply to either Department, depending on their background and interests.

Graduate Students

Events

Euthyphrones

The "straight-thinkers" discussion group brings together graduate students and faculty on a weekly basis for close reading and analysis of selected Greek philosophical texts. Meetings are informal and open to anyone interested. Students in the Joint Program are expected to participate regularly. In Fall 2024 the group will read Aristotle's Metaphysics Lambda. To join the group's email list, or to be removed from it, contact the Director.

Ancient Philosophy Workshop

An annual event since 1978, the Workshop is held on a weekend every Spring either here or on another campus. Bringing together specialists in ancient philosophy from around the country and beyond, the Workshops typically comprise eight to ten talks on "work in progress." Discussion is standardly initiated by respondents, and a congenial atmosphere promotes both critical debate and informal discussion. Program students regularly participate as respondents or presenters; and the Workshops are especially popular among Program alumni, who often return for subsequent events.

Lectures

The Joint Program also sponsors regular talks and seminars by visiting speakers. In the 24-25 academic year, we will be hosting Susan Sauvé Meyer (UPenn Philosophy) on September 25, Jessica Gelber (Toronto Philosophy) on October 25, Shaul Tor (KCL Philosophy) on November 1, Dhananjay Jagannathan (Columbia Philosophy) on November 15, David Charles (Yale Philosophy) on November 20 (this date is tentative), Patricia Marechal (UCSD Philosophy) on March 7, Pauline LeVen (Yale Classics) on March 28, and Johannes Haubold (Princeton Classics) on April 11.

Courses

 

Faculty in both departments regularly teach graduate-level courses on topics in ancient philosophy. In the 24-25 academic year, several courses are scheduled: Patricio Fernandez, together with visiting scholar Samuel Baker on “Aristotle on Practical Reason” (fall, PHL 381), Jim Hankinson on “Aristotle’s Philosophy of Science” (fall, PHL 381), Matteo Milesi on “Plato and Greek Prose” (fall, GK 385), Steve White on “Female Poets of Ancient Greece” (spring, GK 385), and Daniel Drucker and Matt Evans on “Plato on the Attitudes” (spring, PHL 381).

Vlastos Archive

 

The Archive assembles the academic books and papers of Gregory Vlastos, a leading figure in ancient philosophy in the 20th Century. The collection, the generous gift of his heirs, is housed on campus in the H.R. Ransom Humanities Research Center (HRC), where it complements holdings from Bertrand Russell, George Santayana, and other philosophers. It comprises a core library of annotated texts and monographs (c. 400 volumes), numerous offprints, over 100 document cases of papers (typescripts, correspondence, course notes, etc.), and 20 MB of electronic documents. The collection is also searchable.

Guidance

 

People often speak of "specialists" in ancient philosophy. But the term can be misleading. Nearly everyone who teaches ancient philosophy in an American university or college is a generalist, whether in Philosophy or in Classics; and nearly everyone teaches several other subjects outside their "field of specialization." Moreover, much of the most important research in ancient philosophy has been done by scholars with a solid background in core areas either of traditional and modern philosophy or of classical studies. And much of the most exciting teaching and research in the field is comparative, exploring relations or interactions between ancient and modern philosophy, or between ancient philosophy and other areas of ancient culture, ranging from poetry and oratory to history and science. It is to your advantage, then, to include a wide range of philosophical topics in your program of graduate study, and generally to avoid taking more than one seminar in ancient philosophy in a semester. During your three years of coursework in particular, you would do well to achieve the following goals:

  • Study of general issues or problems: essentialism, personal identity, virtue ethics, etc.
  • Study of major figures or works outside ancient philosophy: Aquinas, Hume, Nietzsche, etc.
  • Historical studies in early modern philosophy: empiricism and rationalism from Descartes to Kant.
  • Study of central problems and methods in 20th-century analytic philosophy.
  • Work in the modern counterparts to the three areas distinguished in antiquity:

Ancient

Modern

Logic

logic, epistemology, philosophy of science

Physics

metaphysics, philosophy of mind, theology

Ethics

ethics, political theory, aesthetics
  • At least one seminar each on Plato and Aristotle.
  • Seminars with many different faculty members, including several in the Joint Program Committee.

Most of these points merely reinforce or supplement requirements set by the Department for all students. Some are best satisfied by TA-ing for undergraduate courses rather than taking seminars; for example, TA-ing for Philosophy 329L ("Early Modern Philosophy") is an excellent way to fulfill the third bullet point.

Requirements

Dissertation

Members of the Joint Program (whether in Philosophy or in Classics) must complete a dissertation on a topic in ancient philosophy, under the supervision of at least one member of the Program’s Core Faculty.

Languages

Members of the Joint Program (in Philosophy) must take at least 2 upper level classes in Greek before advancing to candidacy, preferably by the end of their second year. A candidate may opt out of this requirement by passing a translation exam.

Portfolio

By the beginning of their third year, members of the Joint Program must submit a portfolio of 2 papers in ancient philosophy to the Director of the Program. This portfolio will be evaluated by the Core Faculty as a whole before the student advances to candidacy.

 

Menu