Assistant Professor of Classics and Philosophy
The University of British Columbia
Dept of Classical, Near Eastern & Religious Studies
Department of Philosophy

1866 Main Mall — C227
Vancouver, BC
Canada V6T 1Z1

email: michael.griffin@ubc.ca

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Areas of Research: Ancient Greek & Roman philosophy, especially Neoplatonism and the Greek commentators on Plato and Aristotle; Greek language and literature; educational technology

I study the philosophers of the ancient Graeco-Roman world, especially the vibrant intellectual and literary traditions that emerged around the works of Plato and Aristotle following their own lives and during the rise of the Roman Empire. My special focus has been the legacy of ancient logic and dialectical practice, leading to my doctoral work reconstructing the earliest commentaries on Aristotle's Categories – a seminal treatise whose influence has crept into our everyday speech. I am currently interested in the development of semantics at the intersection of metaphysics and grammar in the first surviving commentaries on Plato and Aristotle, culminating in the philosophy of Plotinus (c. 204/5-270 CE) and the later Neoplatonists, and in the legacy of the Platonic Socrates in later antiquity.

• CV and papers
• Course webpages (UBC login required)