My work is in the area of ancient Greek philosophy, specializing in Socrates, Plato, the Socratic schools, and Hellenistic Philosophy. My first book is a critical edition with translation and commentary of [Philodemus]: [On Choices and Avoidances] (Bibliopolis Press, Naples, 1995), a text of late Epicurean ethics. My analysis focuses on the topics of rationalism, attitudes towards superstition and the fear of death. I discuss the contribution of late Epicureans to practical ethics and explain its philosophical interest. My second book The Epistemology of the Cyrenaic School (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge UK, 1998) is an interpretation of the epistemology of the Cyrenaics, a Socratic school active in the Classical and Hellenistic periods. I argue that the subjectivism of this school in some ways pre-announces modern positions and that its scepticism comes close to modern scepticism about the external world. Among the topics I examine are the relation between the mental and the physical, the authority of first-person reports, scepticism towards the empirical world and towards other minds, and the relations between relativism and scepticism. My third book The Ethics of Philodemus (Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2006) reconstructs and assesses the ethical system of Philodemus, a very important Epicurean philosopher of the 1st century BC., whose surviving writings belong to the collection of the Herculaneum papyri. Currently I am working on topics in ancient epistemology, moral psychology and ethics, and also on a monograph on Plato's Charmides.

Selected Bibliography

BOOKS

• [Philodemus]: [On Choices and Avoidances] (Bibliopolis Press, Naples, 1995)
• The Epistemology of the Cyrenaic School (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge UK, 1998)
• The Ethics of Philodemus (Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2006)

ARTICLES

• "New Readings in PHerc. 1251", Cronache Ercolanesi, 1990, pp. 27-38.
• "The Cyrenaic Theory of Knowledge", Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy, 1992, pp. 161-192.
• "The Socratic Origins of the Cynics and Cyrenaics", The Socratic Movement, 1994, pp. 367-391.
• "Conservatism and Pyrrhonian Skepticism", Selecta Classica 6: Hellenistic Thought, 1995, pp. 69-86.
• "Epicurean attitudes to management and finance", Epicureismo Greco e Romano, 1996, pp. 701-714.
• "Aristippus", "The Cyrenaics", "The Socratic Schools", The Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 1997.
• "Aristippus", "Cyrenaic Philosophy", "Phaedrus", "Phaedo", "The Socratic Circle", The Encyclopedia of Classical Philosophy, 1997.
• "Doubts about Other Minds and the Science of Physiognomy", Classical Quarterly, ii, 1998, pp. 1-12.
• "Socrates' Attack on Intellectualism in the Charmides", Apeiron (special volume on Plato, Wisdom, Ignorance, and Virtue), 1998, pp. 1-19.
• "Remarks About Other Minds in Greek Philosophy", Phronesis (XVIII/3), 1998, pp. 1-19.
• "Cicéron et Philodème: quelques considérations sur l'éthique", in Cicéron et Philodème, edd. Clara Assayas and Daniel Delattre, 2001, pp. 159-172.
• "Philodemus on the Therapy of Vice", Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy, Vol. XXI, 2001, pp. 233-258.
• "Interprétations socratiques de la connaissance de soi", Revue de philosophie antique, vol. 1, 2001, pp. 37-64.
• "Is There an Exception to Greek Eudaemonism?", in Le style de la pensée, edd. Pierre Pellegrin and Monique Canto, 2002, pp. 464-489.
• "Portare davanti agli occhi: Una tecnica retorica nelle opera morali di Filodemo ('Setting-before-the-eyes')", Cronache Ercolanesi, 33, 2003, pp. 243-247.
• "Interpretations of Socratic Self-Knowledge", Proceedings of international conference on Socrates: Athens/Delphi, 2004, pp. 319-330.
• "Aristo on Blends of Arrogance", in Aristo of Ceos, ed. by W. Fortenbaugh and S. White, 2005, pp. 1-14.
• "Philodemus (c.110-c. 40BC)", Encyclopedia of Philosophy, ed. D.M. Borchert (Thomson Gale Publishing), 2005.
• "Philodemus and the Epicurean tradition", Proceedings of Symposium Hellenisticum, edd. A.M. Ioppolo and D. Sedley, 2006.
• "Philodemus on Ethics And Moral Psychology", Greek and Roman Philosophy, 100BC to 200AD, Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies, edd. R. Sorabji and R. Sharples, 2006.
• "Philodème: L'Economique, Sur l'arrogance" (in collaboration with D. Delattre), Les Epicuriens. Editions de la Pléïade, Paris, forthcoming 2007.
• "Self-criticism in Plato's Socratic dialogues" (translated into French), L' Ethique de Socrate, edd. P. Destrée and A. Dorion, Presses Universitaires de France, forthcoming 2007.

WORKS IN PROGRESS (BOOKS)

• Philodemus: On Property Management: Intro,Text, Literature Translation, and Notes (Society of Biblical Literature: Monograph, General edd. E. Asmis and J. Fitzgerald, academic ed. D. N. Sedley, Atlanta).
• Philodemus: On Arrogance: Intro,Text, Literature Translation, and Notes (Society of Biblical Literature: Monograph, General edd. E. Asmis and J. Fitzgerald, academic ed. D. N. Sedley, Atlanta).
• Plato's Charmides

WORKS IN PROGRESS (ARTICLES)

• "In and Out of the Dialogue Frame: Critias in Plato's Charmides"
• "Dialectical devices in the Socratic elenchus"
• "The role of memory in Epicurean Ethics"
• "Epicurian Prolepsis"

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