Jonathan Greig

My broad academic interest lies in Plato and Aristotle (especially metaphysics, politics/ethics, and philosophy of religion) and how their arguments were developed and transformed in the late antique, esp. Neoplatonist, commentary tradition into the monotheistic philosophical traditions—especially early Christian and Byzantine, as well as Latin and Arabic/Islamic in tandem.

In this light, I am particularly interested in epistemic authority and how texts and arguments are reused and adopted in new contexts and (especially) arguments. My broad hypothesis is that all philosophical activity, historical and now, depends on how we engage with our predecessors’ own positions: autonomous philosophizing*At least on a popular conception of the Enlightenment. is a chimera.

In other words: good philosophy depends on history of philosophy. Plato, Aristotle, and their reception are a key foundation for philosophical reflection and the pursuit of wisdom—and necessary to engage the world beyond the ancients.

My current work addresses these questions with recent research on Neoplatonist metaphysics (esp. Damascius) Maximus the Confessor, Middle Byzantines (esp. Michael Psellos), and late Byzantine Platonism, alongside a computational project on text re-use in Byzantine philosophical texts. See the Current Research page for more.