Professor Emeritus of Classics Anthony Long specializes in ancient Greek and Roman philosophy. His book Greek Models of Mind and Self (Harvard, 2015) offers a wide-ranging study of Greek notions of mind and human selfhood from Homer through Plotinus.  Long anchors his discussions in questions of recurrent and universal interest – What happens to us when we die? How is the mind or soul related to the body? Are we responsible for our own happiness?  Can we achieve autonomy?  He asks when and how these questions emerged in ancient Greece and shows that Greek thinkers’ modeling of the mind gave us metaphors that we still live by, such as the rule of reason or enslavement to passion.  Long also interrogates the less familiar Greek notion of the intellect’s divinity, and asks what that might mean for us.

After an introduction by James Porter (Rhetoric), Long will speak briefly about his work and then open the floor for discussion.