Eric Sanday

Research Interests:
Ancient Philosophy
Ethics
Politics
Metaphysics
Continental Philosophy
Education

Ph.D. Pennsylvania State University, 2003 (Philosophy)
M.A. Fordham University, 1996 (Philosophy)
B.A. University of Pennsylvania, 1991 (Physics)

Research

Eric Sanday specializes in Ancient Greek Philosophy with a special focus on the relationship between ethics and ontology. His book, A Study of Dialectic in Plato's Parmenides, is available from Northwestern University Press (2015). His recent and forthcoming articles focus on the nature of pleasure in Plato's Philebus, paradigm in Plato’s Statesman, and the existential weight of the philosophical path in Plato's Symposium. He is the co-editor with Greg Recco of a volume on Plato's Laws (Indiana University Press) and with Sean Kirkland of a collection of essays on ancient philosophy (Northwestern). His next book project will focus on the account of truth and life in Plato's Timaeus.

Note to potential graduate students:  

"If you are interested in studying Ancient Greek philosophy at UK, please feel free to contact me by phone or email."

Selected Publications:

 

Juried Journal Articles, Book Chapters, Books:

“The Subject and Number of Hypotheses in Plato’s Parmenides”, Collected Papers of the Symposium Platonicum XII, Nomos Verlag [forthcoming 2021]. [3,750 words]

A Study of Dialectic in Plato’s Parmenides, Northwestern University Press (2015). [100k words]

“Challenging the Established Order: Socrates’ perversion of Callicles’ position in Plato’s Gorgias,” Epoché, vol. 14.2, 197-216 (2012). [9,500 words]

“Eleatic Metaphysics in Plato’s Parmenides: Zeno’s Puzzle of Plurality,” Journal of Speculative Philosophy, vol. 23.3, 208-226 (2009). [8,000 words]

“Philosophy as the Practice of Musical Inheritance: Republic Book II,” Epoché, vol. 11.2, 305-317 (2007). [6,500 words]

Invited Articles and Chapters, Edited Volumes:

“The Wandering Cause and Generated Order in Plato’s Timaeus”, Chora, No. 20, 2022. [5,000 words]

“Strife, Justice, and Gender in Hesiod’s Theogony”, Circles, Vol. 1, No. 2, 2021 [forthcoming]. [18,000 words]

Companion to Ancient Greek Philosophy, eds. Sean Kirkland and Eric Sanday (Northwestern: 2018).

Introduction, Companion to Ancient Greek Philosophy, co-authored with Sean Kirkland (Northwestern: 2018) [4,500 words]

“Being in Late Plato,” in Companion to Ancient Greek Philosophy, Kirkland and Sanday eds. (Northwestern: 2018). [5,800 words]

“Self-Knowledge in Plato’s Symposium,” in Knowledge and Ignorance of Self in Platonic Philosophy, German and Ambury (eds.), Cambridge University Press (2018). [9,300 words]

“Paradigm and Dialectical Inquiry in Plato’s Statesman,” in Plato’s Statesman: Dialectic, Myth, and Politics, Sallis ed., SUNY Press (2017). [10,000 words]

“Truth and Pleasure in the Philebus,” Graduate Faculty Philosophy Journal, 36.2 (2015). [11,000 words]

Plato’s Laws: Force and Truth in Politics, Indiana University Press, Greg Recco and Eric Sanday eds. (2012).

“Phantasia in De Anima,” Continuum Companion to Aristotle, Claudia Baracchi ed., 91-112 (2013). [14,000 words]

“Property and Impiety in Plato’s Laws: Books 11 and 12,” in Plato’s Laws: Force and Truth in Politics, Recco & Sanday eds., Indiana University Press, 215-235 (2013). [10,000 words]

In Process:

  • "Dionysus and Diotima" (working title of an essay on the relationship between the household, reversal, and justice in Euripides and Plato).
  • Ethicality, Spatiality, and Organic Life in Plato’s Timaeus (book project).
  • Essays on Heraclitus (edited volume in process).
  • “Reading Philosophy:  Heraclitus Fragment B1,” in Essays on Heraclitus.