Jonathan Greig

New open access translation of Porphyry, "Letter to Anebo" and "On Oracles":

cswr.hds.harvard.edu/4t/porphyry-...

(Seems I need to check out more of these "good [Oxbridge] stories")

Avoid Pancakes in Greek “Greenwood, an old Cambridge don, once observed that he did not like pancakes, for he thought of their derivation – πᾶν κακόν.” -Selby Henry, Good Stories from Oxford and Cambridg…

Apparently the source is Selby Henry, Good Stories from Oxford and Cambridge, p.86 (London, 1931). (h/t sententiaeantiquae.com/2015/03/11/a...)

A copy of Richard Rorty's book held open by a scale replica of a medieval longsword

I was looking for a copy of Rorty's "Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature" and found one that belongs to a true pragmatist...

Save Classics at the University of Ottawa! #sosclassicsuo
The #UniversityofOttawa administration has decided to suspend admissions to the BA program in Ancient Greek and Roman Studies (in February 2026).
Please support the fight against this measure via
bsky.app/profile/antr...

I always had suspicions with the Cambridge linguistics crowd

Perhaps @histphilosophy.bsky.social or @pieterbeullens.bsky.social may beg to (dis-)agree?

h/t a friend's twitter ref.

My co-authored article with Jonathan Egid on the controversy over the authorship of the Ḥatäta Zärʾa Yaʿǝqob – a brilliant philosophical autobiography set in seventeenth-century Ethiopia – is finally out (advanced access) in the Journal of the History of Ideas (@jhideas.bsky.social)! 🧵
#philsky

Un nuovo postillato di Galileo Galilei - Biblioteca nazionale centrale di Firenze Scoperta in Biblioteca nazionale centrale di Firenze una copia dell'Almagesto postillata da Galileo Galilei

A 1551 print of Ptolemy’s Almagest annotated by Galileo Galilei has been newly discovered in the Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale di Firenze! 🌙🔭🪐 #HistSci

The call for Visiting Fellowships is open!

In a nutshell:
📚 Open topic (x2) or a more specific theme (x3)
⏳ 4–6 weeks in the academic year 2026–2027
💶 Non-stipendiary (alas!), but we will cover travel to/from Leuven and accommodation
📆 Apply by 6 March 2026
🔗 www.kuleuven.be/lectio/visit...

That signature epitaph at the end has a whole new ring in that light.

Quaestio 24 (2024): besides many others, articles on an aporia on nature in Augustine, accidental events in Siger of Brabant, the multiple uses of Avicenna in Henry of Ghent's doctrine of the res, and the context of Suárez's metaphysics. buff.ly/L3ndWx6

I was in gray, dreary, semi-depressing London when that cosmic chronological switch happened—your scene looks better.

All good wishes to you bud! Welcome to the club 👌

St Ephrem on the Pearl and its Symbols The theme of the pearl, with its mysterious origins, has been taken up by writers in many different languages and cultures. In Syriac, beside the 'Hymn of the Pearl', incorporated into the Acts of Tho...

Sebastian Brock's highly anticipated work 'St Ephrem on the Pearl and its Symbols', is available for pre-order. We're particularly delighted to be publishing this work as it's our first to include English, West Syriac, and East Syriac! www.gorgiaspress.com/st-ephrem-on... #Ephrem #comingsoon

Here’s an open question to throw out for philo-bsky: has anyone compared self-constitution b/w Proclus and Spinoza? I had some email me recently on this, and I honestly have no idea about the Spinoza scene to say - am curious.

Point of no returns: researchers are crossing a threshold in the fight for funding With so little money to go round, the costs of competing for grants can exceed what the grants are worth. When that happens, nobody wins.

This conversation has come up many times over the years. Even more so for academic jobs, like professorships. www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Some days I miss my childhood home.

Good overview of Aubenque (also by Menn): shs.cairn.info/article/LEPH...

And your reading also sounds like Pierre Aubenque’s, which is Aristotle as a tentative, almost skeptical empiricist than the N American mind normally entertains, esp. when going through the Metaphysics. Very sympathetic with that stance, even if I’m not sold on Aristotle as a skeptic (entirely).

Very sympathetic with that reading. It sounds like you're also taking up Stephen Menn’s view of Aristotle‘s god as nous/the good as a follow-up to Plato (familiar with his 1992 paper?) - ie Aristotle preserves the same thing Plato got at w/ the Paradigm/the Good, but with a ”purer” god, ala nous.

Incredible news - congratulations to an old Leuven colleague, Dan Batovici!

Journal of the History of Philosophy 63.4 (2025): an article analysing Aquinas's Five Ways. buff.ly/Kh0gIA9

I'm co-organizing a panel for the 2026 ISNS on differing narratives of Greek philosophy between Neoplatonists and their monotheist inheritors. Come join us!

isnswebsite.wordpress.com/2025/11/16/c...

(Or alternatively is there already such a place and I missed it? I.e. a site that is currently active.)

Recently realized that, besides 1-2 mailing lists, there isn't a blog or site tracking ancient/late antique philosophy events/news/pubs/etc. at the moment, along the lines of (say) IPM Monthly (ipmtoday.com).

Would there be any broader interest in this?

Artworks, technical artefacts, and a few other things: a fresh Aristotelian approach - Synthese I advance an Aristotelian approach by which we shall find a unified account of technical artefacts and artworks. The unification is conceptually available to Aristotle not because he does not have a s...

New article (open access!) out in Synthese by @marilupapandreou.bsky.social - arguing for a new Aristotelian approach to artifacts, esp. in the domain of natural philosopher instead of the metaphysician. Looks very good: link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Ancient philosophy people are so great at labels.

Doing my favorite early summer activity: hang out in a beer garden and check out the recent pubs.