Address: Columbia University 708 Philosophy Hall 1150 Amsterdam Avenue 10027 New York Email: Website: gb2437@columbia.edu https://giuliabonasio.wordpress.com/ Research Interests AOS: Ancient Philosophy, Ethics, Moral Psychology AOC: History of Philosophy, Ethics, Political Philosophy, Ancient Greek and Latin Language and Literature Positions and research Fellowships 2018 Chateaubriand Fellowship (4 months) - Paris I - Panthéon Sorbonne 2017-2018 Preceptorship in Contemporary Civilization - Core Curriculum - Columbia University 2012-current PhD candidate (ABD) in Classical Studies at Columbia University 2016 DAAD Fellowship - Munich School for Ancient Philosophy Education 2018 spring: expected Ph.D. in Classical Studies. Dissertation: Happiness and Superlative Value in the Eudemian Ethics. Sponsor: Professor Katja Vogt 2015 M. Phil. in Classical Studies, Columbia University 2014 MA in Classical Studies at Columbia University 2011-2012 PhD student in Ancient Philosophy, Centre Léon Robin, Paris IV - Sorbonne 2009-2011 MA in Philosophy (110 cum laude/110). Università di Padova, Italy. Master thesis on cognition and emotions in Kant and in F. Sibley. 2006-2011 Diploma of the Galilean School of Higher Education, Padua, Italy (70 cum laude/70). Thesis title: Tragic emotions: pity and fear in Aristotle. 2006-2009 BA in Philosophy (110 cum laude/110). Università di Padova, Italy. Thesis title: The multiple senses of being: a comparison among Aristotle, Brentano and Heidegger.
Publications Perfect agency in the Eudemian Ethics: the kalos kagathos. Under review. Pleasure and motivation in the Eudemian Ethics in Proceedings of the Aristotle World Congress in Thessaloniki: Aristotle 2400 Years, D. Sfendoni-Mentzou (ed.). Forthcoming. Beyond the flammantia moenia mundi. The transgressive notion of the sublime in Lucretius De rerum natura, Journal of the LUCAS graduate conference, Leiden, February 2016. Passions tragiques : la pitié et la crainte par rapport à la catharsis en Aristote, Proceedings of the conference: Passions : transports, sublimation, Université Paul-Valéry, Montpellier, France, 2014. Aesthetic pleasure: cognition and emotion in the aesthetic concepts. Remarks after Sibley s work, Rivista di Estetica, 55, 1, 2014 (submitted and accepted in 2011). Book Reviews W. Lapini, L epistola a Erodoto e il bios di Epicuro in Diogene Laerzio (2015), Gymnasium. Zeitschrift für Kultur der Antike und Humanistische Bildung, M. Janka, A. Luther, U. Schmitzer (eds.), 124, 2, 2017, pp. 186-188. J. Warren, The pleasures of reason in Plato, Aristotle, and the Hellenistic Hedonists (2014), Classical World, 109, 4, 2016. Grants and awards 2018 Chateaubriand Fellowship for four months at Paris I - Panthéon Sorbonne 2017-2018 Preceptorship in Contemporary Civilization - Core Curriculum - Columbia University 2017-2018 Teaching-scholar Fellowship at Columbia University for teaching a self-designed class on Aristotle s ethics (declined) 2012-2017 Dean s Fellowship, Columbia University 2016 DAAD fellowship for studying at the Munich School of Ancient Philosophy 2016 Aristotle World Congress grant for excellence in research 2015 Classical Studies grant for mentoring first year PhD students (Columbia University) 2015 Columbia University GSAC travel grant 2013-2017 Classical Studies summer research fellowship 2010-2011 University of California and University of Padova fellowship for studying at the University of California Los Angeles.
2006-2011 Fellowship for studying at the Galilean School of Higher Education during BA and MA (Padova, Italy) Teaching Spring 2018 Contemporary Civilization (a class on moral and political philosophy from Plato to Foucault). Sole Instructor. Columbia University - Core Curriculum. Fall 2017 Contemporary Civilization. Sole Instructor. Columbia University - Core Curriculum. Fall 2015: Elementary Latin II. Sole Instructor. Columbia University. Spring 2015: Elementary Latin I. Sole Instructor. Columbia University. Fall 2014: Introduction to Philosophy. Teaching Assistant. Columbia University - Barnard. Spring 2014: Intensive Elementary Latin. Teaching Assistant. Columbia University. Fall 2013: Greek History. Teaching Assistant. Columbia University. Reading group and workshop organization Fall 2015 Organizer of the Reading Group on Aristotle s Eudemian Ethics at Columbia University. Reading of EE I, II, VIII.3 in Greek and discussion of papers from the secondary literature. Fall 2015 Organizer of a one day workshop on the Eudemian Ethics at Columbia University, involving presentations done by PhD students. April 13, 2018 Speaker on Classroom Discussion: From Socrates to the Progressive Stack at the Team Teaching Pedagogy Colloquium, Columbia University Outreach 2015 Teaching in the philosophy community outreach program Rethink (Columbia University, New York). Presentations June 28, 2018 TBD, Munich-New York City Workshop in Ethics, Kompetenzzentrum Ethik, LMU, Munich. June 15-16, 2018 TBD, Conference on the relation between the Eudemian Ethics and the Nicomachean Ethics, Trinity College, Dublin.
June 8, 2018 Desire for the natural goods in the Eudemian Ethics, Seminar on desire, équipe GRAMATA, Université Paris I Panthéon Sorbonne. February 21-24, 2018 Natural goods in the Eudemian Ethics: a particular type of good-for, APA Central Division Meeting, Chicago. November 17, 2017 Perfect agency in the Eudemian ethics: the kalos kagathos, NYU Workin-progress seminar. October 21, 2017 Natural goods in the Eudemian Ethics, SAGP conference at Fordham University (New York). January 8, 2017 Pleasure and motivation in the Eudemian Ethics, AIA-SCS Meeting in Toronto. December 16, 2016 Perfect agency in the Eudemian Ethics: the kalos kagathos, Ancient Philosophy Workshop for Female Graduate Students and Early Career Researchers, Humboldt University, Berlin. October 7, 2016 Pleasure and the apparent good in the Eudemian Ethics, Work in Progress Workshop in Ancient and Contemporary Ethics, Columbia University. June 21, 2016 Pleasure in the Eudemian Ethics, Doctoral colloquium, Munich School of Ancient Philosophy. May 23-28, 2016 Pleasure and happiness in the Eudemian Ethics. Against the view that pleasure is the apparent good, Aristotle World Congress: 2400 years, Thessaloniki, Greece. May 9, 2016 Kalokagathia in Aristotle s Eudemian Ethics, Oberseminar (invited by Prof. C. Horn), University of Bonn, Germany. April 26, 2016 The kalos kagathos as the ideal agent of the Eudemian Ethics, Oberseminar, Munich School of Ancient Philosophy. April 20-22, 2016 Aristotle on kalokagathia and happiness, International Congress of Greek Philosophy, Lisbon, Portugal. October 23-25, 2015 Aristotle on kalokagathia and happiness, SAGP conference at Fordham University (New York). September 24-26, 2015 The psychology of the kalon: Plato on love and beauty, conference on Love and the Good, Pardubice, Czech Republic. April 17-19, 2015 What is pleasure? On the definition of pleasure in Aristotle s ethics, conference on Pain and pleasure, Columbia University, New York. January 29-30, 2015 Beyond the flammantia moenia mundi: sublime transgressions in Lucretius De Rerum Natura, LUCAS conference on Breaking the rules, University of Leiden (Netherlands).
June 16-18, 2014 Plato on the good and the beautiful, Agency and values conference, Columbia University and Alliance Française, Paris. May 2-4, 2014 On the nature of desire in Aristotle: why desire cannot be psychophysical, Canadian Colloquium for Ancient Philosophy, Vancouver, Canada. April 3, 2014 Le kalon comme cause de l action chez Platon, seminar on AITIAI, le lien causal dans le monde antique at the Centre Léon Robin, Sorbonne Université, Paris IV. June 14-15, 2012 Passions tragiques: la pitié et la crainte par rapport à la catharsis en Aristote, conference Passions: transports, sublimation, Université Paul Valery, Montpellier, France. Commentaries March 2, 2018 Commentator of M. Lane s paper. Classical Dialogues. Columbia University. November 27, 2017 Commentator of D. Jagannathan s paper on the Philebus, Workshop in Ancient and Contemporary Ethics, Columbia University. May 4, 2014 Commentator of M. Johnstone s paper on Aristotle and Alexander on the possibility of perceptual error. Canadian Colloquium for Ancient Philosophy, Vancouver, Canada. April 5-6, 2013 Commentator of P. Destrée s paper on Aristotle on dramatic pleasures, conference on Rethinking aesthetics and the politics of pleasure in Ancient Greek literature and culture, Columbia University. Languages Italian (Native) English (Fluent) French (Fluent) German (B2 Goethe Zertifikat - Advanced intermediate) Portuguese, Spanish (Reading and listening: advanced; speaking and writing: elementary) Ancient languages: Greek, Latin. Dissertation abstract In my dissertation Happiness and Superlative Value in the Eudemian Ethics, I analyze the good, the beautiful and the pleasant, as Aristotle conceives of these value-properties in the Eudemian Ethics. I argue that in the EE, Aristotle aims at proving what I call the Superlative Thesis (ST). According to ST, happiness is what is best, most beautiful, and most pleasant of all. By assigning the three
properties in the superlative to happiness, Aristotle combines the idea that there is a plurality of values with the idea that there is a highest good: eudaimonia. I argue that only the most excellent agent of the EE enjoys happiness as described in ST. This agent is the kalos kagathos; that is, the person who possesses kalokagathia. It is my contention that in the EE, Aristotle proposes a different perfect agent from the one of the NE, often considered the phronimos. With kalokagathia, the virtue of being-beautiful-and-good, Aristotle defends a stronger version of the unity of the virtues. I argue that kalokagathia comprises all the character virtues and all the virtues of thinking. The kalos kagathos does not only have all the virtues. This agent is further characterized as possessing things that are good by nature and as pursuing the beautiful. What is good by nature, the socalled natural goods, are those conditions that benefit human beings. These goods are immediately connected to our function and to our nature. Natural goods are discussed only in the EE: I argue that they provide an unexplored resource for ethical naturalism. In relation to the third value, the pleasant, on my view, NE VII=EE VI is a fundamental step in the demonstration of ST. In this book, Aristotle discusses pleasure. I argue that this book belongs to the EE. I defend two claims, relating to the metaphysics of value and to motivation respectively. As far as the metaphysics of value is concerned, Aristotle conceives of the pleasant as an independent value property. In the view that I defend, the pleasant is to be explained via a relation between the agent s psychology and how things are going in the world. The core of this idea is expressed when Aristotle says, for example, that the pleasant is what is pleasant to the good person. In relation to motivation, I argue that the pleasant, in the sense of what really is pleasant, plays a positive role in the good life. Finally, I reconstruct Aristotle s engagement with the ways in which early Greek poetry reflects on the questions of what is best, what is most beautiful, and what is most pleasant. On my reading, already the very beginning of the EE signals that Aristotle responds to views he finds in the poets and to the Pythagorean tradition. I consider Aristotle s engagement with the poets as part of the method of clarification of the truth that he employs in the EE. References Katja Vogt (sponsor), Professor of Philosophy Columbia University, 212-854-3539, kv2101@columbia.edu. Gareth Williams, Violin Family Professor of Classics Columbia University, 212-854-2850, gdw5@columbia.edu. Karen Margrethe Nielsen, Professor of Philosophy University of Oxford, karen.nielsen@philosophy.ox.ac.uk. Marwan Rashed, Professor of History of Greek and Arabic Philosophy Paris IV - Sorbonne, marwanrshd@gmail.com. Pierre-Marie Morel, Professor of Philosophy Paris I - Panthéon Sorbonne, pierre-marie.morel@univ-paris1.fr. Teaching references: Patricia Kitcher, Professor of Philosophy
Columbia University, +1 212-854-8617, pk206@columbia.edu. Simona Aimar, Lecturer in Philosophy University College London, +44 (0)20 7679 3065, s.aimar@ucl.ac.uk. Last modification: March 12, 2018