Michael Griffin, University of British Columbia

Profile photo of Michael Griffin, expert at University of British Columbia

Assistant Professor Classical, Near Eastern, and Religious Studies Vancouver, British Columbia michael.griffin@ubc.ca Office: (604) 822-4050

Bio/Research

I study the philosophers of the ancient Graeco-Roman world, especially the vibrant intellectual, scientific, and literary legacy that grew up around the work of Plato and Aristotle following their own lives and during the rise of the Roman Empire. My special focus has been the legacy of ancient ...

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Bio/Research

I study the philosophers of the ancient Graeco-Roman world, especially the vibrant intellectual, scientific, and literary legacy that grew up around the work of Plato and Aristotle following their own lives and during the rise of the Roman Empire. My special focus has been the legacy of ancient logic and dialectical practice, leading to my doctoral work reconstructing the earliest commentaries on Aristotle's Categories – a seminal work whose influence has crept into our everyday speech.

I am currently interested in the development of 'metaphysics' and formal ontology in the first surviving commentaries on Plato and Aristotle, culminating in the philosophy of Plotinus (c. 204/5-270 CE) and the later Neoplatonists, and in the legacy of the Platonic Socrates in later antiquity.


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