Susan Sauvé Meyer
Professor and Chair
Department of Philosophy
University of Pennsylvania
CONTACT INFORMATION
Department of Philosophy
433 Claudia Cohen Hall
249 South 36th Street
Philadelphia PA 19104-6304
Ph. 215-898-8663, -8950 fax 215-898-5576
RESEARCH
I work on Greek and Roman Philosophy in the Classical and Hellenistic Periods. My earliest work focussed on Aristotle's natural philosophy and ethics, with special attention to topics concerning causation and responsibility, and I have returned to these issues in recent years, with the new introduction to Aristotle on Moral Responsibility (reissued 2011) and a forthcoming paper on Aristotle's notion of what is "up to us." In the interval, I addressed related topics in Stoicism, with particular emphasis on how we are to understand the Stoic doctrine of fate. More recently I have concentrated on the ancient ethical tradition. In Ancient Ethics (2008) I offer a systematic account of of the ethical theories of Plato, Aristotle, the Epicureans and the Stoics. Accessible to the general philosophical reader as well as of interest to specialists in the field, it is a contribution to the ongoing project of understanding the moral philosophy of the ancients. My present projects concern a cluster of topics in ancient moral psychology, especially matters pertaining to the emotions in Plato and the Stoics. I am currently writing a translation and commentary on Plato's Law, Books I and II.
BOOKS
Ancient Ethics (London: Routledge, 2008).
Ch. 1 What is Ancient Ethics?
Ch. 2 Plato and the Pursuit of Excellence.
Ch. 3 Aristotle and the Pursuit of Happiness.
Ch. 4 Epicurus and the Life and Pleasure.
Ch. 5 The Stoics: Following Nature.
Appendix I: Freedom and what is 'up to us' in Stoicism.
Aristotle on Moral Responsibility: Character and Cause. (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1993;
Reissued with new introduction by Oxford University Press, December 2011).
Plato: Laws Books I and II, translation and commentary.
In preparation for the Clarendon Plato Series at Oxford University Press.
PENULTIMATE DRAFT Comments welcome.
RECENT PAPERS & WORK IN PROGRESS
Note: By downloading any of the published materials on this page you agree that it shall be solely for your personal use. If you wish it for other purposes, please contact the publisher for permission.
"Affect and Impulse in the Stoic Doctrine of the Passions" [Draft of May 2013; comments welcome]
"Aristotle on What is Up to us and What is Contingent" forthcoming in R. Salles, P. Destrée, M. Zingano, eds., What is Up to Us? Studies on Causality and Responsibility in Ancient Philosophy. Ethica: International Studies in Ancient Practical Philosophy, Academia Verlag. PDF
“Emotion and the Emotions”, [with Adrienne Martin]. Chapter 30 of Roger Crisp, ed., The Oxford Handbook to the History of Ethics. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013, pp. 638-671. PDF
“Pleasure, Pain, and 'Anticipation' in Plato’s Laws, Book I.” In Presocratics and Plato: A Festschrift in Honor of Charles H. Kahn, ed. R. Patterson, V. Karasmanis and A. Hermann. Las Vegas, Nevada: Parmenides Publishing 2012: 349-366. PDF
“Living for the Sake of an Ultimate End.” In Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics: A Critical Guide, edited by Jon Miller. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011, pp. 47-65. PDF
“Legislation as a Tragedy: on Plato, Laws VII 817a-b.” In Plato and the Poets, edited by Pierre Destrée & Fritz-Gregor Herrmann. Mnemosune Supplements Volume 328. Brill: Leiden/Boston 2011, pp. 387-402. PDF
“Chain of Causes: What is Stoic Fate?” In Ricardo Salles, ed., God and Cosmos in Stoicism, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009, pp. 71-90. PDF
"Aristotle on the Voluntary" in Richard Kraut, ed., The Blackwell Guide to Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2006, pp. 137-157.
“Plato on the Law” The Blackwell Companion to Plato, ed. Hugh Benson. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 2006, pp. 373-87.
SELECTED REVIEWS
Michael Frede, A Free Will: Origins of the Notion in Ancient Thought. Classical World 106 (3) 2013, pp.535-536. PDF
A. W. Price, Virtue and Reason in Plato and Aristotle. Ethics, 123 (3) April 2013, 572-577. PDF
(continues the discussion of whether Aristotle postulates a "Grand End" for practical reasoning)
Christopher Bobonich, ed. Plato’s Laws: A Critical Guide. Classical Review 62.1 , pp. 73-75.
© Cambridge University Press (http://journals.cambridge.org). PDFChristopher Bobonich and Pierre Destrée (eds), Akrasia in Greek Philosophy: from Socrates to Plotinus. Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews (January 2008). link
Susanne Bobzien, Determinism and Freedom in Stoic Philosophy. The Philosophical Review 112.3 (2003) 405-9. PDF
LINKS
Department of Philosophy, University of Pennsylvania
Department of Classical Studies, University of Pennsylvania
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews
Greater Philadelphia Philosophy Consortium
Society of Ancient Greek Philosophy
37th Annual Workshop in Ancient Philosophy (Philadelphia, April 4-5 2014) (coming soon)