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University of Tennessee Department of Classics

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J. Clerk Shaw

I graduated with a Ph.D. from Washington University in St. Louis and joined the department in August 2007.

Research Interests

I specialize in ancient philosophy, and I am particularly interested in ancient ethics and its connections with ancient psychology, epistemology, and science. Most of my current research focuses on how differences between Plato and Epicurus in the latter areas inform their divergent views of the relationship between pleasure and the good.

Recent, representative publications

  • "Socrates and the True Political Craft," forthcoming in Classical Philology

Recent Presentations

  • "The Greatest and Most Decisive of the Overthrows," Arizona Colloquium in Ancient Philosophy, February 2008.

  • “Socrates and Coherent Desire: Gorgias 466b-468e” (with Eric Brown), Arizona Colloquium in Ancient Philosophy, February 2007.

  • “Socrates and the True Political Craft,” American Philosophical Association, Central Division, Chicago, April 2004.

Teaching Interests

Ancient philosophy; history of philosophy generally; practical philosophy (including topics within the purview of ethics, metaethics, and action theory).

J. Clerk Shaw

Contact Information

J. Clerk Shaw
Assistant Professor
806 McClung Tower
Knoxville, TN 37996-0480

Phone: 865-974-3255
Fax: 865-974-3509

Email: jshaw15@utk.edu