Christopher Bobonich

About

Christopher Bobonich is the Clarence Irving Lewis Professor of Philosophy at Stanford University. His research focuses on topics in Greek ethics, political theory, psychology, and related issues in epistemology and metaphysics. He is currently working on a project about the relations between knowledge and action in Plato. His notable contributions include publications such as 'Agency in Plato’s Republic' and 'Plato's Laws,' and he has authored several books including 'Agency in Plato’s Republic,' 'Plato's 'Laws,' 'Akrasia in Greek Philosophy: from Socrates to Plotinus,' and 'Plato's Utopia Recast.' His work explores fundamental questions in ancient Greek philosophy, emphasizing the ethical and political dimensions of Plato's thought.

Research topics

• Philosophy
• Epistemology
• Law
• Sociology
• Political science

Selected publications

• <i>Akrasia</i> in Greek Philosophy

  2007-04-30 · 75 citations

  book1st authorCorresponding

  Discussions on akrasia (lack of control, or weakness of will) in Greek philosophy have been particularily vivid and intense for the past two decades. Standard stories that presented Socrates as the philosopher who simply denied the phenomenon, and Plato and Aristotle as rehabilitating it straightforwardly against Socrates, have been challenged in many different ways. Building on those challenges, this collective provides new, and in some cases opposed ways of reading well-known as well as more n…

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• The Cambridge Companion to Ancient Ethics

  Cambridge University Press eBooks · 2017-07-14 · 62 citations

  bookSenior author

  The field of ancient Greek ethics is increasingly emerging as a major branch of philosophical enquiry, and students and scholars of ancient philosophy will find this Companion to be a rich and invaluable guide to the themes and movements which characterised the discipline from the Pre-Socratics to the Neo-Platonists. Several chapters are dedicated to the central figures of Plato and Aristotle, and others explore the ethical thought of the Stoics, the Epicureans, the Skeptics, and Plotinus. Furth…

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• Agency in Plato’s Republic

  Oxford University Press eBooks · 2017-03-06 · 21 citations

  book1st authorCorresponding

  This article discusses some of the most important recent controversies in the psychology of Plato’s Republic. These include its views on akratic action, the capacities of the parts of the soul, and the distinction between the rational part of the soul and the nonrational parts. It argues that the Republic accepts the possibility of synchronic akratic action, that is, action contrary to the agent’s belief about what is overall best at the time of action. It then considers some recent arguments th…

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• Aristotle, political decision making, and the many

  Cambridge University Press eBooks · 2015-10-08 · 21 citations

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  A summary is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content.

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• WHY SHOULD PHILOSOPHERS RULE? PLATO'S <i>REPUBLIC</i> AND ARISTOTLE'S <i>PROTREPTICUS</i>

  Social Philosophy and Policy · 2007-05-29 · 19 citations

  article1st authorCorresponding

  I examine Plato's claim in the Republic that philosophers must rule in a good city and Aristotle's attitude towards this claim in his early, and little discussed, work, the Protrepticus . I argue that in the Republic , Plato's main reason for having philosophers rule is that they alone understand the role of philosophical knowledge in a good life and how to produce characters that love such knowledge. He does not think that philosophic knowledge is necessary for getting right the vast majority o…

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Frequent coauthors

• Luca Castagnoli

  6 shared

• Julia Annas

  5 shared

• Pierre Destrée

  Fonds National de la Recherche

  5 shared

• David Charles

  4 shared

• Daniel Devereux

  4 shared

• Dominic J. O’Meara

  4 shared

• Katja Maria Vogt

  Princeton University

  4 shared

• David Sedley

  4 shared

Similar researchers at Stanford University

• Leif Wenarh-22
• Jared Warrenh-15
• Antonia Peacockeh-4