Current Research

I am currently employed in the VolkswagenStiftung-funded project Visions of the History of Greek Philosophy, led by Anna Izdebska. I also work on how late antique and Byzantine thinkers inherited, transformed, and argued with the ancient philosophical tradition. Three threads currently organize my work. For finished work, see Publications; for a fuller record, my CV.

Threads

Byzantine reception of ancient philosophy

My work on Byzantine philosophy follows how the Neoplatonists (esp. Proclus and Damascius), Aristotle, and the Chaldean Oracles were read, critically engaged, and also rewritten in the Greek East: some examples of this work includes Maximus the Confessor (7th cent. CE) on the soul and body, Michael Psellos’ (11th cent.) adjudicating between ancient philosophical authorities, Nicholas of Methone’s (12th cent.) critique of Proclus, and the reception of Platonism in late Byzantium (esp. Gemistos Plethon and Gennadios Scholarios, 15th cent.). A common question is how Byzantine authors weigh competing authorities (reason, revelation, and the ancient sources) when they disagree.

Related: Publications · Talks

Late antique and Byzantine historiographies of Greek philosophy

A second thread asks how the history of philosophy was written in late antiquity and the Middle Ages: what school names, commentaries, and prolegomena say about how authors saw their own tradition, from Olympiodorus in Alexandria to the Arabic and Byzantine heirs. This is the focus of the HU Berlin project Visions of the History of Greek Philosophy, with Anna Izdebska and Ruizhi Ma.

Related: Talks

Tracing philosophical authority and re-use computationally

With Tamás Kovács, I am helping in the development of computational methods for detecting implicit reuse of philosophical sources in Byzantine texts, beginning with a pilot study of Eustratius of Nicaea (12th cent. CE). The aim is to make visible implicit borrowings—instances of text re-use—that can take longer or be missed with traditional reading, and to test the method against what we already know.

Related: Under Review and Preprints

Projects in progress

Edited volumes, special issues, and translations

In preparationVisions of the History of Greek Philosophy (tentative title)Co-edited with Anna Izdebska. Manuscript being finalized for review with Cambridge University Press.

In preparationSpecial issue of the International Journal of the Platonic Tradition on the concept of totalityCo-edited with Arthur Oosthout and Sokratis-Athanasios Kiosoglou. Expected late 2027.

Proposal under reviewMaximus the Confessor, Dispute with Pyrrhus: translation and commentaryWith Anna Marmodoro and Christopher Ross.

Proposal under reviewMichael Psellos, De omnifaria doctrina: translationWith Samuel Noble.

Chapters, articles, and entries

Revise & resubmitDamascius and Aristotle on unityArticle under revision for Apeiron.

Under reviewDualism in late Neoplatonism: Proclus and DamasciusFor a volume on dualism in ancient Greek thought (Cambridge University Press), ed. Rareș Marinescu.

In preparationProvidence and epistemic authority in Michael PsellosFor a volume on Psellos (De Gruyter), ed. Tamar Khubulava.

In preparationLate Byzantine PlatonismFor the Cambridge History of Platonism in the Italian Renaissance, eds. Denis Robichaud, Václav Zheng, and Chris Celenza.

In preparationDialectic and first principles in NeoplatonismFor the Bloomsbury Handbook of Neoplatonism, eds. S. Ahbel-Rappe et al.

In preparationPlato and Aristotle as authorities from Baghdad and Byzantium to FlorenceSmall entry for a Mohr Siebeck companion to the late Middle Ages, eds. Ingo Klitzsch, Volker Leppin, and Ulrike Treusch.

In preparationEntry on Damascius for the Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyWith Jan Opsomer.

In preparationArticles on school names and the writing of the history of philosophy (with Anna Izdebska), on Neoplatonic participation in Thomas Aquinas and Nicholas of Methone, and on particulars and bundle theories between Neoplatonism and early Byzantium

Collaborative and digital

Revise & resubmitText re-use pilot study in Eustratius of NicaeaWith Tamás Kovács. Preprint.

Online soonOnline bibliography on DamasciusCo-administered with Alberto Kobec, hosted by the De Wulf-Mansion Centre, KU Leuven. A preprint version is available here on this site in the meantime.