Associate Professor Dirk Baltzly
'Planehenge', Oodnadatta Track, SA, 2008.
Email: Dirk.Baltzly@monash.edu
Phone: +61 3 990 51519
Other contact details.
Academic background
PhD (Classics), Monash University 2009.
PhD (Philosophy), Ohio State University, 1992.
MA, Ohio State University, 1988.
BA (Hons), Ohio State University, 1985.
Career highlights
Member Institute for Advanced Studies, Princeton 2010-11
Fellow of the Australian Academy of Humanities 2008
Visiting Fellow, Institute of Classical Studies, London 2000
Researcher, Commentaria in Aristotelem Graeca project, King's College London, 1992-4
Visiting Lecturer at The University of Texas at Austin, 1989-90.
Research interests
Ancient Greek Philosophy, Metaphysics, Virtue ethics
Publications
Books
Proclus: Commentary on Plato's Timaeus, vol. IV - Book 3, part 2: Proclus on the World Soul. Cambridge University Press, 2009.
Proclus: Commentary on Plato's Timaeus, vol. III, - Book 3, part 1: Proclus on the World's Body. Cambridge University Press, 2006.
Reading Plato in Antiquity, H. Tarrant and D. Baltzly (eds). Duckworth Press, 2006.
Power and Pleasure, Virtues and Vices: essays in ancient moral philosophy, D. Baltzly, D. Blyth, H. Tarrant (eds): a supplementary volume of Prudentia (2001).
Studies in Hellenistic Philosophy (Monash University Distance Education Centre, 1998), 344 pp.
Articles and book chapters
‘Is Plato’s Timaeus panentheistic?’ Sophia, 49 (2010).
‘Gaia gets to know herself: Proclus on the world's self-perception’, Phronesis 54 (2009).
‘The Classical Ideals of Friendship’ (co-authored with Nick Eliopoulos) in B. Caine, Friendship: A History (Equinox, 2009).
'Proclus' in The History of Western Philosophy of Religion, G. Oppy and N. Trakakis (eds), Acumen and OUP, 2009.
‘Mereological Modes of Being in Proclus’ Ancient Philosophy 26 #2 (2008), 385–411.
'Higher Philosophy' in The Oxford Handbook of Hellenic Studies, George Boys-Stones, Barbara Graziosi and Phiroze Vasunia (eds), Oxford University Press.
‘General Introduction (co-authored with H. Tarrant) in H. Tarrant, Proclus: Commentary on Plato's Timaeus, vol. I – Book 1: Proclus on the Socratic State and Atlantis.
'Pathways to Purification: the cathartic virtues in the Neoplatonic commentary tradition' in Reading Plato in Antiquity, H Tarrant and D Baltzly (eds.) (Duckworth, 2006), 169–84.
‘The wrongness of adultery: a neo-Aristotelian approach’ in Sex and Ethics: Essays on Sexuality, Virtue and the Good Life, (ed.) Raja Halwani, Palgrave-Macmillan Publishing, (2006).
"The virtues and becoming like god", Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy 26 (2004).
"Knowing Freedom: Epicurean philosophy beyond atomism and the swerve", co-authored with Lisa Wendlandt, Phronesis 49 (2004).
"Melissus and the pluralists", Diotima 32 (2004).
"Stoic Pantheism", Sophia 34 (2003).
"A neo-Aristotelian account of sexual perversion", The Monist 86 (2003).
"What goes up: Proclus against Aristotle on the fifth element", Australasian Journal of Philosophy 80 (2002).
"Adunamic hedonism", in Power and Pleasure, Virtues and Vices.
"Moral dilemmas are not a local issue", Philosophy 75 (2000).
"Aristotle and Platonic Dialectic in Metaphysics gamma 4", Apeiron 32 (1999).
"Porphyry and Plotinus on the Reality of Relations", Journal of Neoplatonic Studies 6 (1998).
"Who are the mysterious dogmatists of Adversus Mathematicos ix, 352?", Ancient Philosophy 18 (1998).
"Plato, Aristotle and the logos ek ton pros ti", Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy 15 (1997).
"Knowledge and Belief in Republic V", Archiv für Geschichte der Philosophie 79 (1997).
"Socratic Anti-Empiricism in the Phaedo" in Dialogues with Plato, E. Benitez (ed), Apeiron 29, supplement 4 (1996).
"Stoicism" in the Stanford On-line Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
"Platonic Enchantments", in K. Boudouris (ed) The Philosophy of Logos (Athens, 1996).
"To an Unhypothetical First Principle in Plato"s Republic", History of Philosophy Quarterly 13 (1996).
"Aristotle and Plato"s Argument from Relatives in Peri Ideon", The History of Philosophy Yearbook 3 (1995).
"Plato and the New Rhapsody", Ancient Philosophy 12 (1992).
Work in progress
Books
Proclus: Commentary on Plato’s Timaeus, part V – Proclus on Time and Embodiment: a translation with notes and introduction, co-authored with H. Tarrant. Under contract with Cambridge University Press.
Theodore of Asine: a short monograph on this mysterious student of both Porphyry and Iamblichus. This book will provide the first translation of the testimonia concerning Theodore and examines the significance that Proclus attaches to this transitional figure in the Platonic tradition.
Articles and chapters
‘The Human Life’ in Proclus, Successor of Plato, edited by P. d’Hoine and M. Martijn, Oxford University Press
‘Friends and Lovers’ (with Jeanette Kennett) – an account of the nature of erotic love that explains why it seems to be both similar to friendship and yet importantly different.
Two Aristotelian Puzzles about Planets and their Neoplatonic Reception’
‘Plato’s Authority and the Formation of Textual Communities in Late Antiquity’
‘Proclus and the Tar Baby: Metempsychosis and Women in the Neoplatonic Commentary Tradition’
Teaching materials
Ataktos: a dialogue on Stoic ethics - we use this little dialogue in our first year subject on moral philosophy. Its literary merits are questionable, but it brings Stoicism into conversation with the views of Aristotle, Epicurus and the Cynics in a short, easy piece of reading for beginning philosophers.
Pearl and Dirk at sunrise, Little Desert, Vic, 2008.
Personal
Dirk and his wife, Elaine Miller, emigrated to Australia in June 1994. Elaine has Masters degrees in Philosophy and English from Ohio State and Bachelor of Laws from Monash. She is a writer and editor with Otmar–Miller Consultancy, specialising in academic and law books. In addition to philosophy, their interests include bushwalking, camping and touring in Pearl the Unstoppable Troopy, home brewing and Australian Rules Football.