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Biography
I have a MA in Mathematical Sciences from St Anns College Oxford (1997 - 2000) and a Postgraduate Diploma with the OU in 2003/4 in Philosophy. After a long break I returned to complete my Masters in Philosophy here at Nottingham last year (2022-23) gaining a distinction. I am now in my third year of PhD study, with a focus on Plato's Parmenides.
Expertise Summary
My research focuses on Plato's Parmenides, especially in regard to three main areas. (1) the structure and logical generation of the Deductions in the second part of the dialogue. (2) the interpretation of the influential first Deduction (137c-142a). And (3) the problem of Participation as set up in the first part of the dialogue. I work on problems concerning Platonic logic and mereology, and relational principle concerning relations same, different, part-whole and whole-part (Parm. 146b). More broadly, I am interested in modern 'ordinary object' mereology, inspired by ancient mereology, developed by Peter Simons, Peter van Inwagen, Kathrin Koslicki and others, that opposes the Classical Extensional Mereology of Stanis艂aw Le艣niewski, Henry S. Leonard & Nelson Goodman.
Teaching Summary
I am a tutor with , teaching philosophy to secondary school pupils, and teach ESOL part time in a local community college.
Research Summary
My current research revolves around completing my PhD thesis, abstract below:-
This thesis argues that the relational principle buried in Plato's Parmenides 146b2-4 generates (i) a fourfold structure in the Deductions, (ii) a distinction between internal and external multiplicity clarifying in 'the one' of the first Deduction, and (iii) a minimal, global mereological model of participation. The Parmenides is the focus of three central, scholarly debates: (A) how are the eight (or nine) Deductions constructed? (B) Problems concerning the first Deduction (137b-142a), and (C) is there a viable model of participation to solve the problems of the first part of the dialogue?
There is a relational principle (RP) in the text (it goes: any two things are related as either the Same, Different, Whole-to-Part, or Part-to-whole (146b2-4)) which is central to addressing these issues in the following novel ways: First, RP implies that any two independent 'variables'[4] must stand in one of these four relations (Harte 2002: 118-222), explaining the structural relation between the subject of the hypothesis and the subject of the conclusions in the eight Deductions. Second, RP supports a distinction between external and mereological multiplicity (Sanday 2015: 118-9), allowing the first Deduction's claim that the One is "not many" to be understood mereologically. Finally, RP supports a notion of 'global parthood' (Simons 2000:363) expanded to include forms and provides the basis for a model of participation capable of surviving Parmenides' criticisms.
Past Research
Here is the abstract from my Master thesis (2023):
Scholars have thought that the speeches of the Symposium either represent character types or a philosophical ascent to Platonic philosophy. This would mean that Agathon's speech is either the speech of the poet type or of a potential philosopher. However, I will present a novel theory of Platonic character types that includes nine different classifications (from Phaedrus 248d-e) - the eighth includes the sophist and demagogic orator. In this dissertation I will argue that Agathon's speech has more in common with how Plato elsewhere characterizes the demagogic orator and this therefore supports my controversial claim that Plato wrote Agathon's speech to this type.
My evidence is textual evidence from the Gorgias, Phaedrus, Sophist, Republic, and Hippias M., and other sophists depicted in the dialogues. Most relevant are the principles and techniques explicitly referenced by Socrates in the second half of the Phaedrus in his discussion of the oratory of Gorgias, Polus and others - these techniques are exemplified throughout the entire speech of Agathon as my commentary demonstrates.
Future Research
My future research is around the question of the connection between Plato's 'logic' (in the broad sense as can be deduced from the Parmenides, building on my interpretation of that text for my doctoral thesis) and Aristotle's logic works.
I am looking to explore Plato's appreciation of what I am calling, 'Species-Genus symmetric inclusion problem', where it can be said Species is part of Genus in one sense and Genus part of Species in another. This carries over in a similar problem in terms of Forms. Courage is part of Virtue but also Virtue inpart of Courage.
I want to explore Plato taxonomy of character types and how they relate to the nine Deductions of the Parmenides.