Tad Brennan
Biographic Data
| ID | 5633914 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Tad Brennan |
| GIVEN NAMES | Tad |
| FAMILY NAME | Brennan |
| SIGNATURE | BRENNAN T |
| AFFILIATIONS | Cornell University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-6299-7606 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 20 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 5 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 19 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1994 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 1 |
Cicero's Tusculan Disputations
Cicero composed the Tusculan Disputations in the summer of 45 BC at a time of great personal and political turmoil. He was grieving for the death of his daughter Tullia earlier that year, while Caesar's defeat of Pompey's forces at Munda and return to Rome as dictator was causing him great fears and concerns for himself, his friends and the Republic itself. This collection of new essays offers a holistic critical commentary on this important work…
Cephalus, patêr tou logou
I argue that Cephalus introduces the argumentative paradigm of the entire Republic , the Challenge of Glaucon and Adeimantus, through his comments on wealth and his story about Themistocles
A Mild Remedy for a Mild Disease: The Text of Republic 459b
Here's a fine argument for you! 1) Anyone who plans to prescribe medicines will need to be a skilled doctor ; 2) These people plan to prescribe medicines ; 3) Therefore, these people will need to be skilled rulers . If you expected the last word of the conclusion to be ‘doctors’ instead of ‘rulers’, then you will find the rest of this note plain sailing
A Relative Improvement
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…
Arius, Stobaeus and the Scholiast
In this article I argue for a change to the text of Stobaeus’ doxography of Stoic ethics. I propose we emend it by reference to a parallel text in the Scholia in Lucianum . In order to make that argument, I offer a new assessment of the value of the scholiast's report of Stoic doxography – a report that, at least in virtue of its length (over 1,000 words of Greek) ought to be better known to scholars of Stoicism than it currently is
Plato and the Divided Self
Plato's account of the tripartite soul is a memorable feature of dialogues like the Republic, Phaedrus and Timaeus: it is one of his most famous and influential yet least understood theories. It presents human nature as both essentially multiple and diverse - and yet somehow also one - divided into a fully human 'rational' part, a lion-like 'spirited part' and an 'appetitive' part likened to a many-headed beast. How these parts interact, how exac…
The nature of the spirited part of the soul and its object
The Implicit Refutation of Critias
At Charmides 163, Critias attempts to extricate himself from refutation by proposing a Prodicean distinction between praxis and poiēsis . I argue that this distinction leads him further into contradictions
Stoic souls in Stoic corpses
The Stoic Life: Emotions, Duties, and Fate
This reader-friendly introduction to the ethical system of the Ancient Greek Stoics combines state-of-the art scholarship with lively and accessible prose. It builds on the renewed attention that the Hellenistic philosophers have enjoyed in the last few decades, incorporating the best results of recent critical debates while staking out new positions on a variety of topics. Starting from scrupulous attention to the evidence (references are provid…
The Cambridge Companion to the Stoics
This unique volume offers an odyssey through the ideas of the Stoics in three particular ways: first, through the historical trajectory of the school itself and its influence; second, through the recovery of the history of Stoic thought; third, through the ongoing confrontation with Stoicism, showing how it refines philosophical traditions, challenges the imagination, and ultimately defines the kind of life one chooses to lead. A distinguished ro…
Stoic Moral Psychology
Moral psychology addresses itself to the interface between ethics and psychology. One of the basic principles of moral psychology is the apparently trivial one, that all ethically correct actions are, to begin with, actions: inasmuch as they are the deliberate or at least intentional actions of human beings, ethical actions will share features with the class to which they belong, and fall under whatever constraints belong to the larger kind.
Reservation in Stoic Ethics
Reservation in Stoic Ethics 1 by Tad Brennan (New Haven
The Old Stoic Theory of Emotions
The Poets Julia Balbilla and Damo at the Colossus of Memnon
Epicurus on Sex, Marriage, and Children
Epicurus strongly discouraged sex, marriage, and the rearing of children. This paper looks at some of the primary evidence for these claims, clears up a translation of one passage, and emends another passage. (The emendation has been accepted into Dorandi's new edition of Diogenes Laertius).
Reasonable Impressions in Stoicism
This article offers a contribution to the understanding of the Stoic notion of the kathekon, by exploring the meaning of one of the terms which its definition is formulated. The kathekon is that which, once done, receives a defense or justification; my purpose is to investigate what is meant here by eulogos. The conclusion of the article is limited and negative. There are scattered bits of evidence that have led some critics to adopt one particul…
The Text of Anaxagoras Fragment DK 59 B22
Two Modal Theses in the Second Half of Metaphysics Theta.4
L'A. etudie les deux principes modaux exposes par Aristote au passage 1047b14-b30 du livre Theta de la «Metaphysique», le premier exprimant un principe valide, interprete par J. Hintikka dans un sens equivalent a l'axiome K de la logique modale, mais dont l'argumentation se revele fausse dans sa circularite, le second exprimant un faux principe liant necessite et possibilite de facon absurde
Criterion and Appearance in Sextus Empiricus: The Scope of Sceptical Doubt, the Status of Sceptical Belief
L'A. etudie les arguments developpes par chacune des interpretations enragee et revisionniste du scepticisme de Sextus Empiricus concernant d'une part les criteres d'existence, d'action et de perception (καταληψι) et, d'autre part, le statut epistemique des apparences. Mais l'A. ne pretend pas resoudre le desaccord fondamental concernant l'oeuvre de Sextus Empiricus
Reasonable Impressions in Stoicism
This article offers a contribution to the understanding of the Stoic notion of the kathekon, by exploring the meaning of one of the terms which its definition is formulated. The kathekon is that which, once done, receives a defense or justification; my purpose is to investigate what is meant here by eulogos. The conclusion of the article is limited and negative. There are scattered bits of evidence that have led some critics to adopt one particul…
The Poets Julia Balbilla and Damo at the Colossus of Memnon
Two Modal Theses in the Second Half of Metaphysics Theta.4
L'A. etudie les deux principes modaux exposes par Aristote au passage 1047b14-b30 du livre Theta de la «Metaphysique», le premier exprimant un principe valide, interprete par J. Hintikka dans un sens equivalent a l'axiome K de la logique modale, mais dont l'argumentation se revele fausse dans sa circularite, le second exprimant un faux principe liant necessite et possibilite de facon absurde
Two Modal Theses in the Second Half of Metaphysics Theta.4
L'A. etudie les deux principes modaux exposes par Aristote au passage 1047b14-b30 du livre Theta de la «Metaphysique», le premier exprimant un principe valide, interprete par J. Hintikka dans un sens equivalent a l'axiome K de la logique modale, mais dont l'argumentation se revele fausse dans sa circularite, le second exprimant un faux principe liant necessite et possibilite de facon absurde
Criterion and Appearance in Sextus Empiricus: The Scope of Sceptical Doubt, the Status of Sceptical Belief
L'A. etudie les arguments developpes par chacune des interpretations enragee et revisionniste du scepticisme de Sextus Empiricus concernant d'une part les criteres d'existence, d'action et de perception (καταληψι) et, d'autre part, le statut epistemique des apparences. Mais l'A. ne pretend pas resoudre le desaccord fondamental concernant l'oeuvre de Sextus Empiricus
The Text of Anaxagoras Fragment DK 59 B22
Epicurus on Sex, Marriage, and Children
Epicurus strongly discouraged sex, marriage, and the rearing of children. This paper looks at some of the primary evidence for these claims, clears up a translation of one passage, and emends another passage. (The emendation has been accepted into Dorandi's new edition of Diogenes Laertius).
Reasonable Impressions in Stoicism
This article offers a contribution to the understanding of the Stoic notion of the kathekon, by exploring the meaning of one of the terms which its definition is formulated. The kathekon is that which, once done, receives a defense or justification; my purpose is to investigate what is meant here by eulogos. The conclusion of the article is limited and negative. There are scattered bits of evidence that have led some critics to adopt one particul…
The Old Stoic Theory of Emotions
The Poets Julia Balbilla and Damo at the Colossus of Memnon
Reservation in Stoic Ethics
Reservation in Stoic Ethics 1 by Tad Brennan (New Haven
The Cambridge Companion to the Stoics
This unique volume offers an odyssey through the ideas of the Stoics in three particular ways: first, through the historical trajectory of the school itself and its influence; second, through the recovery of the history of Stoic thought; third, through the ongoing confrontation with Stoicism, showing how it refines philosophical traditions, challenges the imagination, and ultimately defines the kind of life one chooses to lead. A distinguished ro…
Stoic Moral Psychology
Moral psychology addresses itself to the interface between ethics and psychology. One of the basic principles of moral psychology is the apparently trivial one, that all ethically correct actions are, to begin with, actions: inasmuch as they are the deliberate or at least intentional actions of human beings, ethical actions will share features with the class to which they belong, and fall under whatever constraints belong to the larger kind.
The Stoic Life: Emotions, Duties, and Fate
This reader-friendly introduction to the ethical system of the Ancient Greek Stoics combines state-of-the art scholarship with lively and accessible prose. It builds on the renewed attention that the Hellenistic philosophers have enjoyed in the last few decades, incorporating the best results of recent critical debates while staking out new positions on a variety of topics. Starting from scrupulous attention to the evidence (references are provid…
Stoic souls in Stoic corpses
Plato and the Divided Self
Plato's account of the tripartite soul is a memorable feature of dialogues like the Republic, Phaedrus and Timaeus: it is one of his most famous and influential yet least understood theories. It presents human nature as both essentially multiple and diverse - and yet somehow also one - divided into a fully human 'rational' part, a lion-like 'spirited part' and an 'appetitive' part likened to a many-headed beast. How these parts interact, how exac…
The nature of the spirited part of the soul and its object
The Implicit Refutation of Critias
At Charmides 163, Critias attempts to extricate himself from refutation by proposing a Prodicean distinction between praxis and poiēsis . I argue that this distinction leads him further into contradictions
A Relative Improvement
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…
Arius, Stobaeus and the Scholiast
In this article I argue for a change to the text of Stobaeus’ doxography of Stoic ethics. I propose we emend it by reference to a parallel text in the Scholia in Lucianum . In order to make that argument, I offer a new assessment of the value of the scholiast's report of Stoic doxography – a report that, at least in virtue of its length (over 1,000 words of Greek) ought to be better known to scholars of Stoicism than it currently is
A Mild Remedy for a Mild Disease: The Text of Republic 459b
Here's a fine argument for you! 1) Anyone who plans to prescribe medicines will need to be a skilled doctor ; 2) These people plan to prescribe medicines ; 3) Therefore, these people will need to be skilled rulers . If you expected the last word of the conclusion to be ‘doctors’ instead of ‘rulers’, then you will find the rest of this note plain sailing
Cephalus, patêr tou logou
I argue that Cephalus introduces the argumentative paradigm of the entire Republic , the Challenge of Glaucon and Adeimantus, through his comments on wealth and his story about Themistocles
Cicero's Tusculan Disputations
Cicero composed the Tusculan Disputations in the summer of 45 BC at a time of great personal and political turmoil. He was grieving for the death of his daughter Tullia earlier that year, while Caesar's defeat of Pompey's forces at Munda and return to Rome as dictator was causing him great fears and concerns for himself, his friends and the Republic itself. This collection of new essays offers a holistic critical commentary on this important work…
Philosophy (16 works) · Classical Philosophy and Thought (15 works) · Epistemology (13 works) · Classical Antiquity Studies (10 works) · History (9 works) · Computer Science (8 works) · Philosophy (8 works) · Psychology (8 works) · Art (5 works) · Historical, Religious, and Philosophical Studies (4 works)