Papers by Andrea Nightingale
A discussion of the unburied dead in archaic and classical Greece in the context of the pandemic
Chicago University Press, 2011
I analyze Augustine's ideas about time and the body. I discuss the social and religious context ... more I analyze Augustine's ideas about time and the body. I discuss the social and religious context for Augustine's work.
Proceedings of the Boston Area Colloquium of Ancient Philosophy, 1996
Cambridge University Press, 2021
This is the Introduction to my book, Philosophy and Religion in Plato's Dialogues
The Reenchantment of the World, 2021
This essay examines the difference between wonder and the scientific desire to achieve certainty.... more This essay examines the difference between wonder and the scientific desire to achieve certainty. It argues that the ecological pursuits of Henry David Thoreau aim at wonder and a carnal knowledge of the earth. Francis Bacon attacked wonder if it ended up in uncertainty. He called this "broken knowledge." I discuss Augustine and Descartes' views of curiosity about the natural world. I then analyze Thoreau's very different mode of engaging with the natural world.
Ancient Philosophy, 1999
This essay examines Plato's historiography and cosmology in the Laws. It shows that Plato uses t... more This essay examines Plato's historiography and cosmology in the Laws. It shows that Plato uses two different genres to set forth his ideas. The historiographical and cosmological accounts conflict with each other in key ways. This is because they reflect different aspects of Plato's late thinking.
Sight and the Ancient Senses, 2015
This essay examines the theories of vision in Democritus, Plato and Aristotle. These philosopher... more This essay examines the theories of vision in Democritus, Plato and Aristotle. These philosophers offered different accounts of how a person (or the eye) can see things in the visible world. Each philosopher's theory of vision reflects his specific views of the physical world, the human body, and the psyche. The essay also discusses the notion of attention and the cultural contexts in which one chooses to attend to some things and not to others.
Gaze, Vision and Visuality and Ancient Greek Literature, 2018
This essay examines Plato's discussions of the Form of Beauty and the aesthetics of beauty. It a... more This essay examines Plato's discussions of the Form of Beauty and the aesthetics of beauty. It analyzes the myth in the Phaedo that features philosophers gazing at beauty in the physical and aetherial realm. It discusses Plato's theory of vision in the Timaeus. What does Plato give so much emphasis to beauty?
A Companion to World LIterature, 2020
This essay analyzes Plato's conception of eros, beauty and desire in the Symposium. It then disc... more This essay analyzes Plato's conception of eros, beauty and desire in the Symposium. It then discusses Christian, Islamic and modern writers who used and transformed Plato's ideas in the Symposium.
Arion, 2018
This essay analyzes Plato's use of (1) poetic texts that feature divine epiphanies, and (2) the l... more This essay analyzes Plato's use of (1) poetic texts that feature divine epiphanies, and (2) the language of the Eleusinian mysteries, which featured a divine epiphany. Plato uses traditional notions of divine epiphany (a god appearing to a human) to portray the Forms as divine Beings that appear to the philosopher in a new kind of epiphany
Arion, 2017
This essay discusses Plato's allegory of the cave and shows how Aristotle used and transformed th... more This essay discusses Plato's allegory of the cave and shows how Aristotle used and transformed this myth. Each philosopher uses the myth to valorize his own philosophy. It also analyzes the use of the metaphorics of light in Plato and his followers
Cambridge Companion to Archaic Greece, 2007
This essay analyzes the archaic Greek philosophers in their cultural and historical context. Wha... more This essay analyzes the archaic Greek philosophers in their cultural and historical context. What is a "philosopher" in this period? What kinds of "philosophy" did these thinkers practice?
Education in Greek and Roman Antiquity, 2001
This essay discusses the use of the phrase "liberal education" in Plato and Aristotle. For them,... more This essay discusses the use of the phrase "liberal education" in Plato and Aristotle. For them, "liberal" education--the education of a "free man"-- was placed in opposition to "working for a wage" and "working with one's hands." Plato and Aristotle use aristocratic rhetoric to attack people who had to work for a living--these men were not "free." Plato and Aristotle had different conceptions of what counted as liberal education. We need to consider their views in relation to the modern conception of liberal education.
Arion, 2015
This essay discusses Augustine's use of the word "I" (ego) of the psalms and of Paul's letters in... more This essay discusses Augustine's use of the word "I" (ego) of the psalms and of Paul's letters in the Confessions. Augustine uses these "I" words in the same way that he uses "I" in his autobiography. Who, then, is speaking when Augustine uses the psalmic and Pauline "I"? When Augustine says "it was not I" (using Paul's line) he associates the "not I" with sin. I analyze the "I" and "not I" in the Confessions in theological, philosophical and ontological terms.
Performance and Culture in Plato's Laws, 2013
This essay discusses Plato's conception of writing in the Laws in relation to the Phaedrus and to... more This essay discusses Plato's conception of writing in the Laws in relation to the Phaedrus and to Isocrates' "Panathenaicus." It analyzes Plato and Isocrates' metaphors of the written word as "bastard" or "orphaned" discourse. While Plato criticizes writing in the Phaedrus, he celebrates writing in the Laws. In the semi-ideal city of Magnesia in Plato's Laws, the citizens have to read and memorize the preludes to the laws. These written texts make the citizens forget improper discourses. The drug (pharmakon) of writing generates forgetfulness of bad texts.
Ancient Models of Mind: Studies in Human and Divine Rationality, 2010
This essay discusses Plato's conception of self-knowledge, technical knowledge, and ethical knowl... more This essay discusses Plato's conception of self-knowledge, technical knowledge, and ethical knowledge in the Charmides. It also analyzes the difference between "expert" and "elenctic" knowledge (deductive vs. aporetic) in the early Platonic dialogues. It argues that Plato also presented a kind of knowledge that differs from these other kinds of knowledge: self-knowledge. This is not elenctic, ethical, or technical knowledge. I also discuss Plato's conception of aporia.
Arion, 2008
This essay discusses the question whether Augustine and Thoreau should be seen as a "holy man." ... more This essay discusses the question whether Augustine and Thoreau should be seen as a "holy man." It analyzes the genre of autobiography and hagiography in the ancient world and in 19th century America. It discusses the problem of celebrating oneself in an autobiography. It juxtaposes Augustine and Thoreau's views of the natural world, their views on god, and their ascetic practices.
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Papers by Andrea Nightingale