Andrew Shortridge
Email: pryio@yahoo.com
Thesis Topic:
"Nature and convention in Sophistic ethical thought."
Supervisors:
Dirk Baltzly (Philosophy) and Michael Janover (Politics).
Qualifications:
- BA (Hons.) in philosophy, Monash University (2002).
Areas of interest:
Ancient Greek philosophy.
Current research:
I am interested in the question of whether justice was a product of nomos (law or convention) or of phusis (nature).
This question occupied several Greek thinkers of the 5th C. BCE, and later literature has tended to argue that nomos and phusis were antithetical to one another.
Further, there is little consensus about the precise relationship and influence between the ideas of Antiphon the Sophist, Thrasymachus of Chalcedon, and the politician Callicles.
I believe that the scope and detail of the nomos-phusis debate has been largely misunderstood: a more sophisticated appreciation of this debate will help us better understand the relationship between these three exponents of Sophistic ethics.
Presentations:
- 'Antiphon the Sophist.' at the Australasian Postgraduate Philosophy Conference, 28th-30th September 2005.
Work-in-progress:
I am currently co-writing a chapter with Dr. Dirk Baltzly, 'Antiphon the Sophist', for inclusion in an undergraduate textbook.
Honours and awards:
- Monash University Teaching and Research Scholarship, for my MA, 2005-2007.
Personal:
I like to cook, and I am fond of cats.