GEORGIA MOUROUTSOU

After publishing on metaphysics in Plato, I turned to a problem about time and affectivity in an article on pure pleasure in Plato’s Philebus: How do we experience the present time when attaining different kinds of pleasure? A series of peer-reviewed articles on pleasure in Plato and Aristotle led to my book project with Brill, Plato’s Twofold Dialectic of Pleasure: Critical Dialogue with Hedonist and Critical Analysis of Pleasure. My central question is how concretely Plato’s genuine dialogue with various types of hedonists shaped his metaphysics of pleasure. While elenctic dialectic proves to have a therapeutic character in the interpersonal exchange in the Protagoras and the Gorgias, Philebus’ didactic dialectic paves the way to Aristotle’s depersonalised dialectic. In addition to the strengths of Plato’s dialectic, a limitation comes to the fore, too: Genuine though the exchange with various types of hedonists was, Plato was unable to converse with a proponent of a view fundamentally opposed to his central proposal of eudaimonism. More than that: he was unwilling to initiate a dialogue with a hedonic presentist, although a contemporary, Aristippus the Elder, represented the idea. In this, he falls short of his high standards of dialectic. The entire project shows that dialectic plays a substantial role in Plato’s metaphysics of pleasure instead of merely preparing the way to it. I have also developed a keen interest in later Stoicism and primarily focus on Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations – particularly on the mind’s plasticity, the concept of, and emphasis on the present time and its therapeutic power, and affectivity. I firmly believe that ancient philosophy, especially Stoicism, still has much to contribute to the therapy of mental illness. I am thrilled to foster dialogue and collaborate with clinicians, psychiatrists and philosophers of psychiatry for this purpose. Currently I am discussing editing a volume with the tentative title “The Therapeutic Focus on the Present: Ancient Philosophers in Dialogue with Clinicians” with Routledge that will result from an interdisciplinary conference at Cambridge UK. More is to update in due time.

Selection of Published and Forthcoming Publications

 Refereed Monographs

1. Die Metapher der Mischung in den Platonischen Dialogen Sophistes und Philebos, in the Series of International Plato Society Vol. 28, Sankt Augustin 2010.
2. Plato’s Twofold Dialectic of Pleasure: Critical Dialogue with Hedonists and Critical Analysis of Pleasures (forthcoming, with Brill Plato Series).
3. On the Therapeutic Focus of the Present: Ancient Philosophers in Dialogue with Clinicians (editor, with Routledge

Articles in Peer-Review Journals

1. (Forthcoming) ‘Aristippus of Cyrene, pleasure and the present’, with Cambridge University Press (Elements Series)?
2. ‘The Allegory of the Cave: The Necessity of the Philosopher’s Descent.’ Plato, The Internet Journal of the International Plato Society Journal 11, 2011, URL: http://gramata.univ-paris1.fr/Plato/article105.htm
3. ‘Mary Louise Gill, Philosophos: Plato’s Missing Dialogue, Oxford 2012.’ Plato Journal 2013, 115-125 (review article).
4. ‘Sarah Broadie, Nature and Divinity in Plato’s Timaeus, Cambridge 2012.’ Ancient Philosophy 34, 2014, pp. 207-216 (review article).
5. ‘Plato in Search of a Language Without Particulars: Timaeus 49a6-50a4 in a New Light.’ Philosophical Inquiry, Athens 2019, pp. 240-276.
6. ‘Plato’s Phaedo: Are the Philosophers’ Pleasures of Learning Pure?’ Classical Quarterly 69, 2019, pp. 566-584.
7. ‘Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations: Plasticity of the Present Moment.’ Ancient Philosophy 40, 2, 2020, pp. 411-434.
8. ‘Choosing a life and rejecting a thoughtless life in Philebus 20-22.’ Ancient Philosophy 41, 2021, 393-412.
9. ‘Therapeutic Presentisms: A Hedonist and a Stoic in Agreement?’ Forthcoming In: History of Philosophy and Logical Analysis 2023.

Chapters in Refereed Volumes

1. ‘Die Frage nach der schlechten Seele in dem zehnten Buch von Nomoi: Versuch einer Entmythologisierung’, in: Platon über das Göttliche, D. Koch, I. Männlein-Robert, N. Weidtmann (eds.), Tübingen 2010, pp. 139-173.
2. ‘Eikōn bei Platon: Metaphysik des Bildes’, in: Das Bild als Denkfigur in der Philosophie, S. Neuber and R.Veressov (eds.), München 2010, pp. 33-49.
3. ‘Placing Pure Pleasures Beyond the Chain of Hunger: Plato’s Quest for Paradigmatic Pleasures in the Philebus’, in: Plato’s Philebus, J. Jirsa, Š. Špinka (eds), Oikoymenh, Prague 2016, pp. 130-156.
4. ‘Plasticity of the Mind: Reflecting on and Discussing Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations with Catherine Malabou’, in: Thinking Catherine Malabou. Passionate Detachments, Wormald, T. and Dahms, I. (eds.), New York 2018, pp. 219-236.
5. ‘Moral Philosophy in the Imperial Roman Stoa’, in: Routledge Handbook of Hellenistic Philosophy, ed. by Kelly Arenson, New York 2020, pp. 319-331.
6. ‘Diagnosis of the Dialectic in Parmenides 142b1-144e7’, in International Plato Society Proceedings for the Parmenides Symposium 2019. Sankt Augustin, 2022, 193-200.
   7. ‘A Patient Marcus Aurelius Exercising on the Experience of Time: Tools for Training a Healthier Mind’, in The Phenomenology of Emotion Regulation. Feeling and Agency, ed. by Thomas Fuchs (forthcoming with Oxford University Press).

Reviews

1. Lloyd Gerson, Aristotle and other Platonists, New York 2005 in: Zeitschrift für Philosophische Forschung 63, Tübingen, 2009 (2), pp. 333-336.
2. Th. A. Szlezák, Platon Lesen, Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt 1993, in: Hypomnema 4, Athens 2006, pp. 355-368.
3. Julius Stenzel, Studien zur Entwicklung der Platonischen Dialektik von Sokrates zu Aristoteles, Arete und Dihairesis, in: Studia Universitatis Babe-Bolyai Philosophia 50, 2 (2005), pp. 202-206.
4. James Warren, The Pleasures of Reason in Plato, Aristotle, and the Hellenistic Hedonists, Cambridge 2014, Bryn Mawr Classical Reviews, February 2016, http://www.bmcreview.org/2016/02/20160207.html