David Sedley

Early life

Academic career

Honours

Publications

Book

• The Hellenistic Philosophers, Cambridge 1987
• Lucretius and the Transformation of Greek Wisdom, Cambridge 1998
• The Cambridge Companion to Greek and Roman Philosophy, Cambridge 2003
• Plato's ''Cratylus, Cambridge 2003
• The Midwife of Platonism. Text and Subtext in Plato's Theaetetus, Oxford 2004
• Creationism and its Critics in Antiquity, Berkeley and Los Angeles 2007
• Pyrrhonists, Patricians, Platonizers. Hellenistic Philosophy in the Period 155–86 BC'', Naples, 2007

  Articles and Chapters

• ‘The structure of Epicurus’ On nature’ ''Cronache Ercolanesi 4, 89–92
• ‘Epicurus, On nature, Book XI: an argument against Eudoxan astronomy’ in Proceedings of the XIV International Congress of Papyrology, 269–275
• ‘Epicurus and his professional rivals’ in J. Bollack, A. Laks, Études sur l’épicurisme antique, 119–159
• ‘Epicurus and the mathematicians of Cyzicus’ Cronache Ercolanesi 6, 23–54
• ‘Diodorus Cronus and Hellenistic philosophy’ Proceedings of the Cambridge Philological Society 203, 74–120
• ‘The protagonists’ chap. 1 of M. Schofield et al., Doubt and Dogmatism: Studies in Hellenistic Epistemology, 1–19
• ‘The end of the Academy’ Phronesis 26, 67–75
• ‘Two conceptions of vacuum’ Phronesis 27, 175–193
• ‘On signs’ in J. Barnes et al., Science and Speculation: Studies in Hellenistic Theory and Practice, 239–272
• ‘The Stoic criterion of identity’ Phronesis 27, 255–275; French version, tr. J. Brunschwig, ‘Le Critère d’identité chez les Stoïciens’, Revue de métaphysique et de morale 4, 513–533
• ‘Epicurus’ refutation of determinism’ in ΣΥΖΗΤΗΣΙΣ_: studi sull’ epicureismo greco e romano offerti a Marcello Gigante_, 11–51
• ‘The motivation of Greek skepticism’ in M.F. Burnyeat, The Skeptical Tradition, 9–29
• ‘On the Stoic goods in Stobaeus, Eclogae 2’ in W.W. Fortenbaugh, On Stoic and Peripatetic ethics: the work of Arius Didymus, 85–86
• ‘The character of Epicurus’ On nature' in Atti del XVII congresso internazionale di papirologia, 381–387
• ‘The negated conjunction in Stoicism’ Elenchos 5, 311–316
• ‘The Stoic theory of universals’ in Southern Journal of Philosophy 23, suppl., ‘Spindel Conference 1984: Recovering the Stoics’, 87–92; Chinese translation in Tsinghua Studies in Western Philosophy 4.2, 86–92
• ‘Three notes on Theophrastus’ treatment of tastes and smells’ in W.W.Fortenbaugh, Theophrastus of Eresus, on his Life and Work, 205–207
• ‘Philoponus’ conception of space’ in R. Sorabji, Philoponus and the Rejection of Aristotelian Science, 140–153
• ‘Epicurean anti-reductionism’ in J. Barnes, M. Mignucci, Matter and Metaphysics, 295–327; French version in Les Cahiers Philosophiques de Strasbourg 15, 321–359
• ‘Epicurus on the common sensibles’ in P.M. Huby, G.C. Neale, The Criterion of Truth: Studies in Honour of George Kerferd on his 70th birthday, 123–136
• ‘Philosophical allegiance in the Greco-Roman world’ in M. Griffin, J. Barnes, Philosophia Togata, 97–119
• ‘Is the Lysis a dialogue of definition?’ Phronesis 34, 107–108
• ‘The proems of Empedocles and Lucretius’ Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies 30, 269–296
• ‘Teleology and myth in the Phaedo’ Proceedings of the Boston Area Colloquium in Ancient Philosophy 5, 359–383
• ‘Is Aristotle’s teleology anthropocentric?’ Phronesis 36, 179–196
• ‘Empedocles’ theory of vision and Theophrastus De sensibus’ in W.W. Fortenbaugh, D. Gutas, 20–31
• ‘Sextus Empiricus and the atomist criteria of truth’ Elenchos 13, 19–56
• ‘Chrysippus on psychophysical causality’ in J. Brunschwig, M. Nussbaum, Passions & Perceptions, 313–331
• ‘Commentary on Mansfeld’ Proceedings of the Boston Area Colloquium in Ancient Philosophy 7, 146–152
• ‘A Platonist reading of Theaetetus 145–147’ Aristotelian Society suppl. vol. 67, 125–149
• ‘La causalità psicologica nel Fedone’ in A. Alberti, Realtà e Ragione, 107–122
• ‘The dramatis personae of Plato’s Phaedo’ in T.J. Smiley, Philosophical Dialogues: Plato, Hume and Wittgenstein, 1–26
• ‘Three Platonist interpretations of the Theaetetus’  in C. Gill, M.M. McCabe, Form and Argument in Late Plato, 79–103
• ‘Aristotle’s De interpretatione and ancient semantics’ in G. Manetti, Knowledge through Signs: Ancient Semiotic Theories and Practices, 87–108; revised version, ‘Aristote et la signification’, Philosophie Antique 4, 5–25
• ‘Plato’s Phaedo in the third century BC’ in M. Serena Funghi, ΟΔΟΙ ΔΙΖΗΣΙΟΣ_: Le vie della ricerca _, 447–455
• ‘The inferential foundations of Epicurean ethics’ in G. Giannantoni, M. Gigante, Epicureismo Greco e Romano, 313–39; repr. in S. Everson, Ethics, 129–150
• ‘Alcinous’ epistemology’ in K.A. Algra, P.W. van der Horst, D.T. Runia, Polyhistor: Studies in the History and Historiography of Ancient Philosophy, 300–312
• ‘Plato’s auctoritas and the rebirth of the commentary tradition’ in J. Barnes, M. Griffin, Philosophia Togata II, Plato and Aristotle at Rome,, 110–129
• ‘A new reading in the anonymous Theaetetus commentary ’ in Papiri Filosofici: Miscellanea di studi I, 139–144
• ‘“Becoming like god” in the Timaeus and Aristotle’ in T. Calvo, L. Brisson Interpreting the Timaeus-Critias, 327–339; longer version, entitled ‘The ideal of godlikeness’, in G. Fine, Plato 2: Ethics, Politics, Religion, and the Soul, 309–328 Longer version:
• ‘The ethics of Brutus and Cassius’ Journal of Roman Studies 87, 41–53
• ‘How Lucretius composed the De rerum natura’ in K.A. Algra, M.H. Koenen, P.H. Schrijvers, Lucretius and his Intellectual Background, 1–19
• ‘Platonic causes’ Phronesis 43, 114–132
• ‘Theophrastus and Epicurean physics’ in J.M. van Ophuijsen, M. van Raalte, Theophrastus: Reappraising the Sources, 331–354
• ‘The sequence of Argument in Lucretius I’ in C. Atherton, Form and Content in Didactic Poetry, Nottingham Classical Literature Studies 5, 37–55
• ‘Le scuole filosofiche e le città’ in S. Settis, I greci vol. II.3, 467–482
• ‘The etymologies in Plato’s Cratylus’ Journal of Hellenic Studies 118, 142–156
• ‘Aristotelian relativities’ in M. Canto Sperber and P. Pellegrin, Le Style de la pensée. Receuil d’hommages à Jacques Brunschwig, 324–352; already published in Italian under the title ‘Relatività aristoteliche’, in Dianoia 2, 11–25, and 3, 11–23
• ‘Pythagoras the grammar teacher and Didymon the adulterer’ in Hyperboreus 4/1, 122–138; shorter version, entitled ‘Pythagoras the grammar teacher ’, in Papiri filosofici: Miscellanea di studi II, 167–181
• ‘The Stoic-Platonist debate on kathêkonta’ in K. Ierodiakonou, ΘΕΜΑΤΑ ΣΤΩΙΚΗΣ ΦΙΛΟΣΟΦΙΑΣ, and in K. Ierodiakonou, Topics in Stoic Philosophy, 128–152
• ‘Lucretius’ use and avoidance of Greek’ in J.N. Adams, R. Mayer, Aspects of the Language of Latin Poetry, 227–246
• ‘Aspasius on akrasia’ in A. Alberti, R.W. Sharples, Aspasius: the Earliest Extant Commentary on Aristotle’s Ethics, 162–175
• ‘Parmenides and Melissus’ in A.A. Long, The Cambridge Companion to Early Greek Philosophy, 113–133
• ‘Hellenistic physics and metaphysics’ in The Cambridge History of Hellenistic Philosophy, 353–411
• ‘Metaphysics Λ 10’ in M. Frede, D. Charles, Aristotle’s Metaphysics Book Lambda, 327–e50
• ‘Socratic irony in the Platonist commentators’ in J. Annas and C.J. Rowe, New Perspectives on Plato: Modern and Ancient, 37–57; earlier version, ‘L’ironie dans le dialogue platonicien selon les commentateurs anciens’, in F. Cossuta, M. Narcy, La forme-dialogue chez Platon, 5–19
• ‘Epistemologia e teorie della natura nell’età ellenistica’ in Storia della scienza I, 678–690
• ‘The origins of Stoic god’ in D. Frede, A. Laks, Traditions of Theology, 41–83
• ‘Diogenes of Oenoanda on Cyrenaic ethics’ in Proceedings of the Cambridge Philological Society 228, 159–174
• ‘The collapse of language? Theaetetus 179c–183c’ published on line in Plato 3
• ‘The school: from Zeno to Arius Didymus’ in B. Inwood, The Cambridge Companion to the Stoics, 7–34
• ‘Hellenistic philosophy’ in D.N. Sedley, The Cambridge Companion to Greek and Roman Philosophy, 151–183
• ‘Zeno’s definition of phantasia kataleptike’ in T. Scaltsas and A.S. Mason, The Philosophy of Zeno. Zeno of Citium and his Legacy, 133–154; also published as ‘La définition de phantasia kataleptike par Zénon’ in G. Romeyer Dherbey, J.-B. Gourinat, Les Stoïciens, 75–92
• ‘Lucretius and the new Empedocles’ published online in Leeds International Classical Studies 2
• ‘A Socratic interpretation of Plato’s Theaetetus’ Proceedings of the Boston Area Colloquium in Ancient Philosophy 18, 277–313
• ‘Etymology as a techne in Plato’s Cratylus’ in C. Nifadopoulos, ETYMOLOGIA: Studies in Ancient Etymology, 21–32; also ‘La tecnicità del metodo etimologico nel Cratilo’, in M. Migliori, Il problema del metodo in Platone e Aristotele
• ‘The nomothetes in Plato’s Cratylus’ Studia Philonica Annual 15, 5–16
• ‘Philodemus and the decentralisation of philosophy’ Cronache Ercolanesi 33, 31–41
• ‘On Generation and Corruption I 2’ in F.A.J. de Haas, J. Mansfeld, Aristotle, On Generation and Corruption Book 1. Symposium Aristotelicum, 65–89
• ‘Stoic metaphysics at Rome’ in R. Salles, Metaphysics, Soul and Ethics. Themes from the Work of Richard Sorabji, 117–142
• ‘Empedocles’ life cycles’ in A. Pierris, The Empedoclean Cosmos: Structure, Process and the Question of Cyclicity. Proceedings of the Symposium Philosophiae Antiquae Tertium Myconense. 6–13 July 2003, 331–371
• ‘Les origines des preuves stoïciennes de l’existence de dieu’ in Revue de métaphysique et de morale 4, 461–4387
• ‘Verità futura e causalità nel De fato di Cicerone’ in C. Natali and S. Maso La catena delle cause. Determinismo e antideterminismo nel pensiero antico e in quello contemporaneo, 241–254
• ‘The speech of Agathon in Plato’s Symposium’ in B. Reis, The Virtuous Life in Greek Ethics, 49–67
• ‘Plato’s tsunami’ varying versions in THEO DORON, in Hyperboreus 11. 2 205–214, and in proceedings of a conference in honour of Antonio Carlini
• ‘Form-particular resemblance in Plato’s Phaedo’ Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society 106 , 311–27
• ‘Plato on language’ in H. Benson, A Companion to Plato, 214–227
• ‘Equal sticks and stones’ in D.J. Scott, Maieusis, 68–86
• ‘Philosophy, the Forms, and the art of ruling’ in G.R.F. Ferrari, The Cambridge Companion to Plato’s Republic, 256–283; earlier version of one part in International Symposium: The Ideal and Reality of Ancient Greek Democracy, Department of History, Aoyama Gakuin University, Tokyo, 2004
• ‘Atomism’s Eleatic roots’ in P. Curd, D.W. Graham, The Oxford Handbook of Presocratic Philosophy, 305–332
• ‘Socrates’ place in the history of teleology’ Elenchos 29, 317–34; revised version, ‘Socrates, Darwin and Teleology’, in J. Rocca, Teleology in the Ancient World, 25–42
• ‘Myth, punishment and politics in Plato’s Gorgias’ in C. Partenie, Plato’s myths, 51–76
• ‘Presocratic themes: being, not-being and mind’
• in Robin Le Poidevin, Peter Simons, Andrew McGonigal, Ross Cameron The Routledge Companion to Metaphysics, 8–17
• ‘Les dieux et les hommes’ in J. Barnes, J.-B. Gourinat Lire les stoiciens, 79–97
• ‘Epicureanism in the Late Roman Republic’
• in J. Warren, The Cambridge Companion to Epicureanism, 29–45
• ‘Plato’s Timaeus and Hesiod’s Theogony’ in J.H. Haubold, G.R. Boys-Stones, Plato and Hesiod, 246–258
• ‘Three kinds of Platonic immortality’
• in D. Frede and B. Reis, Body and Soul in Ancient Philosophy, 145–161
• ‘Philosophy in the Artemidorus papyrus’
• in C. Gallazzi, B. Kramer, S. Settis Intorno al Papiro di Artemidoro I. Contesto Culturale, Lingua e Stile. Atti del Convegno di Pisa del 15 novembre 2008, 29–53
• ‘The Theaetetus as an ethical dialogue’ in A. Havlicek, F. Karfik and S. Spinka, Plato’s Theaetetus. Proceedings of Sixth Symposium Platonicum Pragense, 2–13. Revised version, ‘Plato’s Theaetetus as an ethical dialogue’ in A. Nightingale and D. Sedley, Ancient Models of Mind. Studies in Human and Divine Rationality, 64–74
• ‘The status of physics in Lucretius, Philodemus and Cicero’ in A. Antoni, D. Delattre, Miscellanea Papyrologica Herculanensia volumen I, 63–68
• ‘Teleology, Aristotelian and Platonic’ in J. Lennox, R. Bolton, Being, Nature and Life in Aristotle: Essays in Honor of Allan Gotthelf, 5–29
• ‘Philosophy’ in A. Barchiesi, W. Scheidel, The Oxford Handbook of Roman Studies, 701–712
• ‘Epicurus' theological innatism’ in J. Fish and K. Sanders, Epicurus and the Epicurean Tradition, 29–52
• ‘Matter in Hellenistic philosophy’ in D. Giovannozzi and M. Veneziani Materia, 53–66
• ‘PHibeh 184: Platonist logic in the third century BC?’ in M.S. Funghi Studi e testi per il Corpus dei papiri filosofici, 227–239
• ‘The theoretikos bios in Alcinous’
• in T. Bénatouïl and M. Bonazzi Theoria, Praxis, and the Contemplative Life after Plato and Aristotle, 163–181
• ‘Marcus Aurelius on physics’
• in M. Van Ackeren A Companion to Marcus Aurelius, 396–407
• ‘Antiochus as historian of Philosophy’ in D. Sedley The Philosophy of Antiochus, 80–103
• ‘Aristotle on place’ Proceedings of the Boston Area Colloquium in Ancient Philosophy XXVII, 183–201
• ‘Plato’s theory of change at Phaedo 70–71’ in Presocratics and Plato: A Festschrift in Honor of Charles H. Kahn, 181–197
• ‘Cicero and the Timaeus’ in M. Schofield Aristotle, Plato and Pythagoreanism in the First Century BC, 187–205
• ‘La classification du Théétète par Thrasylle’ in D. El Murr, La Mesure du savoir. Études sur le Théétète, 295–307
• ‘The atheist underground’ in V. Harte and M. Lane Politeia in Greek and Roman Philosophy, 329–348
• ‘From the Presocratic to the Hellenistic Age’ in S. Bullivant and M. Ruse, The Oxford Handbook of Atheism, 139–151
• ‘Plato and the One-over-Many principle’ in R. Chiaradonna and G. Galluzzo, Universals in Ancient Philosophy,, 113–137
• ‘Socratic intellectualism in the Republic’s central digression’
• in G. Boys-Stones, D. El Murr, C. Gill The Platonic Art of Philosophy. Studies in Honour of Christopher Rowe, 70–89
• ‘The unity of virtue after the Protagoras’  in B. Collette and S. Delcomminette, Unité et origine des vertus dans la philosophie ancienne, 65–90  ''
• ‘Horace’s Socraticae chartae ’ Materiali e Discussioni 72, 217–241
• ‘Diogenes Laertius on the ten Pyrrhonist modes’ in K.M. Vogt, Pyrrhonian Skepticism in Diogenes Laertius, 171–185
• ‘Varieties of definition’ in D. Ebrey, Theory and Practice in Aristotle’s Natural Philosophy, 187–198
• ‘An introduction to Plato’s theory of Forms’ in A. O’Hear, The History of Philosophy, Royal Institute of Philosophy supplement 78, 3–22
• ‘Empedoclean superorganisms’ Rhizomata 4.1, 111–125
• ‘Epicurean versus Cyrenaic happiness’ in R. Seaford, J. Wilkins, M. Wright Selfhood and the Soul: Essays on Ancient Thought and Literature in Honour of Christopher Gill, 89–106
• ‘Divinization' in P. Destrée and G. Giannopoulou, Plato’s Symposium: A Critical Guide, 88–107
• ‘Zenonian strategies’ in Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy 53, 1–32
• ‘Becoming godlike’ in C. Bobonich, The Cambridge Companion to Ancient Ethics, 319–337
• ‘The creation of the world in ancient Greek thought’ in Eranos Yearbook 73, 2015–2016, 435–484
• ‘The duality of touch’ in A. Purves Touch and the Ancient Senses, 64–74
• ‘L’allusion empédocléenne en Lucrèce II, 1081–1083’ in S. Franchet d’Espèrey and C. Lévy, Les Présocratiques à Rome, 145–159; English version, ‘An Empedoclean allusion at Lucretius 2.1081–3’, in P. Burian, J. Strauss Clay and G. Davis, Euphrosyne: Studies in Ancient Philosophy, History, and Literature, 15–28
• ‘The Phaedo’s final proof of immortality’ in G. Cornelli, T.M. Robinson, F. Bravo, Plato’s Phaedo, 212–222
• ‘Epicurean theories of knowledge from Hermarchus to Lucretius and Philodemus’ in F. Verde and M. Catapano, “Hellenistic Theories of Knowledge”, Lexicon Philosophicum 6, 105–121
• ‘Stoics and their critics on diachronic identity’ in Rhizomata 6, 24–39
• ‘Epicurus on dialectic’ in T. Bénatouïl and K. Ierodiakonou, Dialectic after Plato and Aristotle, 82–113
• ‘Self-sufficiency as a divine attribute in Greek philosophy' in A. Hunt and H. Marlow, Ecology and Theology in the Ancient World: Cross-disciplinary Perspectives, 41–47
• ‘The Timaeus as vehicle for Platonic doctrine’ Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy 56, 45–71
• ‘The opening lemmas of the Derveni papyrus’ in C. Vassallo, Presocratics and Papyrological Tradition: A Philosophical Reappraisal of the Sources , 45–72. Revised version, ‘The opening lemmas’, in G.W. Most Studies on the Derveni papyrus vol. 2.
• ‘Énigmes et paradoxes dans la philosophie grecque ancienne’ in B. Collette-Ducic, M.-A. Gavray, J.-M. Narbonne, L’Esprit critique dans l’antiquité: I, Critique et licence dans la Grèce antique, 217–236
• ‘Etymology in Plato’s Sophist’ Hyperboreus 25.2 290–301
• ‘Plato’s theology’ in G. Fine, The Oxford Handbook of Plato, 305–332
• ‘Creationism’ in L. Taub, The Cambridge Companion to Ancient Science, 121–140
• ‘Carneades’ theological arguments’ in C. Balla, E. Baziotopoulou, P. Kalligas and V. Karasmanis, Plato’s Academy: a History, 220–245
• ‘Lucretian pleasures’ in P. Hardie, V. Prosperi and D. Zucca, Lucretius Poet and Philosopher. Background and Fortunes of De rerum Natura, 11–22
• ‘Plato’s self-references’ in B. Bossi and T.M.Robinson, Plato’s Theaetetus revisited, 3–9
• ‘Why aren’t atoms coloured?’ in U. Zilioli, Atomism in Philosophy: a History from Antiquity to the Present, 61–74
• ‘Lucretius on imagination and mental projection’ in D. El Murr, Le De rerum natura de Lucrèce: perspectives philosophiques, AITIA 10
• ‘Socrates’ second voyage ’ in F. Leigh, BICS Supplement 141, Themes in Plato, Aristotle, and Hellenistic Philosophy: Keeling Lectures 2011–18, 47–62
• ‘Xenocrates’ invention of Platonism’ in M. Erler, J. Hessler and F. Petrucci, Authorities and Authoritative Texts in the Platonist Tradition, 1–37
• ‘An iconography of Xenocrates’ Platonism’ in M. Erler, J. Hessler and F. Petrucci, Authorities and Authoritative Texts in the Platonist Tradition, 38–63