Merrick Anderson. Princeton University Hall, Citizenship: Canada

Transcription

1 Merrick Anderson, CV 1 Merrick Anderson Princeton University Hall, merricka@princeton.edu Citizenship: Canada Research Area of Specialization: Ancient Philosophy, Ethics Areas of Competence: Metaethics, Moral Psychology, Nietzsche, Political Philosophy Research Languages: Ancient Greek, Latin, German, French (beginner) Education PhD (expected Summer 2018) Advised by H. Lorenz, A. Nehamas, M. Lane & R. Barney (external) 2016 MA Advised by A. Nehamas MA University of Toronto, Political Theory BA University of Toronto, Philosophy Graduated with High Distinction Publications Published Thrasymachus Sophistic Account of Justice in Republic I Ancient Philosophy 36 (1): (2016) Under Review Immorality or Immortality? An Argument for Virtue Rhetorica (submitted September, 2017) Selected Awards, Fellowships, Grants At Princeton University Laurance S. Rockefeller Graduate Prize Fellowship For promising interdisciplinary work on human values

2 Merrick Anderson, CV University Center for Human Values Travel Grant Paul Elmer More Fellowship Stanley J. Seeger Summer Fellowship At University of Toronto Hertog Political Studies Program Fellowship Registrars Graduation Award in the Humanities Awarded for having the highest GPA of the graduating class Socrates Project Fellow Selected Presentations 2017 Aristotle s Physics IV, translation and commentary University of the Aegean Syros, Greece 2017 How Does Justice Pay: An Analysis of Plato s Republic Princeton Philosophy Dissertation Seminar Princeton, New Jersey 2016 Democritus on Eudaimonia Fifth Biennial Conference of the International Association of Presocratic Studies Austin, Texas 2016 Immorality or Immortality? An Argument for Virtue Princeton Philosophical Society Princeton, New Jersey 2016 Aristotle s Politics I, translation and commentary University of the Aegean Syros, Greece 2016 Aristotle s Eudemean Ethics II, translation and commentary Princeton-USP Workshop in Ancient Philosophy São Paulo, Brazil 2015 Comments on Mi-Kyoung Lee s The Sophists on Greek Morality Seventh annual Toronto Workshop in Ancient Philosophy Toronto, Canada 2014 Aristotle s De Partibus Animalium I, translation and commentary Spetses, Greece 2014 The Sophistic Socrates in the Euthydemus

3 Merrick Anderson, CV 3 Cambridge University Graduate Conference Cambridge, England Teaching At Princeton University Assistant Instructor: 2017, Fall PHL 385, Practical Ethics Prof. Peter Singer, upper level undergraduate course 2016, Spring PHL 300, Plato and his Predecessors Prof. Benjamin Morison, upper level undergraduate course 2014, Fall PHL 306, Nietzsche Prof. Alexander Nehamas, upper level undergraduate course At University of Toronto Teaching Assistant: 2013, Spring PHL 383, Ethics and Mental Health Prof. Thomas Mathien, upper level undergraduate course PHL 100, Intro to Philosophy Prof. Jim John, introductory course 2012, Spring PHL 105, Intro to Philosophy Prof. Jacqueline Brunning, introductory course 2011, Fall PHL 271, Law and Morality Prof. David Dyzenhaus, intermediate undergraduate course PHL 100, Intro to Philosophy Prof. Peter King, introductory course References Research Hendrik Lorenz (Primary Supervisor) 1879 Hall, Room hlorenz@princeton.edu Professor of Philosophy

4 Merrick Anderson, CV 4 Alexander Nehamas (Secondary Supervisor) 1879 Hall, Room nehamas@princeton.edu Melissa Lane (Supervisor) Princeton University, Politics Marx Hall, Room mslane@princeton.edu John Cooper Marx Hall, Room johncoop@princeton.edu Edmund N. Carpenter II Class of 1943 Professor in the Humanities Class of 1943 Professor of Politics Director of the Center for Human Values Emeritus Professor Henry Putnam Professor of Philosophy Rachel Barney (External Supervisor) Professor of Philosophy and Classics University of Toronto, Philosophy Director of the Collaborative Program in 170 St. George St., Room 426 Ancient and Medieval Philosophy (CPAMP) Toronto, ON M5R 2M rachel.barney@utoronto.ca Teaching Benjamin Morison Marx Hall, Room bmorison@princeton.edu Professor of Philosophy Director of the Program in Classical Philosophy

5 Merrick Anderson, CV 5 Dissertation Abstract Justice and Prospering: Ancient Debates, Disagreements, and Dilemmas The relationship between morality and happiness is a topic of persistent philosophic interest. The fool hath said that justice does not exist and one acts for one s own felicity, but long before Hobbes, a number of Greek sophists questioned the reality of justice and urged others to liberate themselves from morality in their pursuit of self-interest. In my dissertation, I consider the first philosophic attempts to evaluate the role of justice in human lives and human happiness. In the first half of my dissertation, I argue that there was a lively debate concerning the merits and demerits of justice in the 5 th century BCE. The question was: does justice contribute to the highest human good, which I call the prospering of the individual? I begin with the Traditional View of Justice as articulated by the didactic poet Hesiod, who holds that individuals hoping to live the best life possible must be just. Several later figures sought to undermine this view by arguing that justice does not exist in the way Hesiod presupposes and, to the extent that it does exist, that it does not promote the prospering of the individual. Instead, they claimed, injustice does. Another group of pre-platonic thinkers responded by defending a modernized and secularized version of the Traditional View. In the second half of my dissertation, I draw on this 5 th century debate to offer a new and historically-informed interpretation of Plato s defense of justice in the Republic. Engaging with a thorny scholarly debate over the division of goods in book II, I argue against the now-standard interpretation that justice is valued primarily as an intrinsic good. Instead, I defend the view that justice in the Republic derives its value from the effects it has on the just agent s soul and the contributions it makes to the just agent s prospering. Although Plato s conception of the value of justice cannot be pigeonholed into our own category of intrinsic value on my interpretation, his analysis of justice and its value is both compelling and philosophically profound.