Tad Brennan

About

Tad Brennan is a Professor in the Department of Classics at Cornell University. His academic interests focus on Greek Literature and Ancient Philosophy, with a primary emphasis on Plato and Aristotle. He also studies the Stoics, Skeptics, Epicureans, Pre-Socratics, and late Platonists. Brennan's research involves exploring various aspects of Ancient Greek philosophical thought, including ethics, epistemology, and the interpretation of classical texts. He has authored several publications, including books such as 'The Stoic Life: Emotions, Duties, and Fate' and 'Ethics and Epistemology in Sextus Empiricus.' Brennan has contributed chapters to scholarly collections on Stoic moral psychology and the emotions in Hellenistic philosophy, and has written articles on topics like Sextus Empiricus, Anaxagoras, and Pyrrho. His work is accessible through his Academia.edu profile, where he shares papers, chapters, and reviews. Brennan teaches courses on Greek and Roman Philosophy, Hellenistic Philosophy, and Greek Philosophical Texts at Cornell University. His academic career is dedicated to the study and teaching of classical philosophy, with a focus on understanding the ethical, metaphysical, and epistemological ideas of ancient Greek philosophers.

Research topics

• Philosophy
• Epistemology
• Computer Science
• Physics
• Psychology
• Art
• Psychoanalysis
• Mathematics
• Literature
• Linguistics

Selected publications

• The nature of the spirited part of the soul and its object

  Cambridge University Press eBooks · 2012-02-16 · 38 citations

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• Stoic souls in Stoic corpses

  2009-10-27 · 30 citations

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• A Relative Improvement

  Phronesis · 2014-06-03 · 28 citations

  article1st authorCorresponding

  Abstract The Mode of Relativity in Agrippa’s Five Modes does not fit with the other four modes, and disrupts an otherwise elegant system. We argue that it is not the familiar argument from epistemic relativism, but a formal condition on the structure of justifications: the principle that epistemic grounding relations cannot be reflexive. This understanding of Agrippan Relativity leads to a better understanding of the Modes of Hypothesis and Reciprocity, a clearer outline of the structure of Agri…

  PublisherDOI

• Ethics and Epistemology in Sextus Empircus

  2015-12-03 · 7 citations

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  This book defends the consistency, plausibility, and interest of the brand of Ancient Skepticism described in the writings of Sextus Empiricus (c. 150 AD), both through detailed exegesis of the original texts, and through sustained engagement with an array of modern critics.

  PublisherDOI

• The kathekon

  Philosophie antique · 2014-01-01 · 4 citations

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  former Cornell student, has recently proposed what I believe to be an extremely interesting and profitable interpretation of the role of indifferents in Stoic ethics. 1 Klein's proposal is in some ways similar to some positions that I have taken in the past, and so I find it very congenial. But it develops these ideas in a much more precise way, and with consequences that are more radical than anything I had seen. I find it very plausible, although it requires me to abandon certain interpretatio…

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Frequent coauthors

• Charles Brittain

  8 shared

• Keimpe Algra

  Utrecht University

  4 shared

• Brad Inwood

  3 shared

• R. J. Hankinson

  The University of Texas at Austin

  3 shared

• Rachel Barney

  University of Toronto

  3 shared

• Susanne Bobzien

  University of Oxford

  2 shared

• G. F. Woods

  1 shared

• Paul Oskar Kristeller

  Columbia University

  1 shared

Similar researchers at Cornell University

• Scott MacDonaldh-20
• Rachana Kamtekarh-18
• Mike Fontaineh-17