View Profile

Dr Phillip Horky

(email at phillip.horky@durham.ac.uk)

Areas of Doctoral Supervision

Ancient Philosophy, especially the Presocratics, Plato, and the Early Academy, and Intellectual History in the ancient Near East and Greece.

Current PhD Student

Nicolò Benzi: Philosophy in Verse: Early Greek Poetry and the Expression of Philosophical Thought

Biography

Phillip Sidney Horky (PhD Classics, University of Southern California) is Lecturer in Classics. His research focuses on ancient philosophy, especially in its literary, historical, and intellectual contexts. In addition to recent articles on ancient Persia and the Early Academy, Theophrastus' Metaphysics, and Hellenistic ethics in ancient Italy, he has recently published a monograph, Plato and Pythagoreanism, on the importance of mathematical Pythagoreanism for the development of Plato's philosophy (Oxford University Press, 2013). He is also working on two monograph projects. The first project is a diachronic study of the interactions among intellectual communities of the Greco-Roman world and the Near East, currently called Cultural Transmission in Ancient Philosophy. The second project, tentatively entitled How We Read Plato: Critical Responses to Platonic Questions, explores ancient and modern exegetical approaches to key philosophical issues that arise out of Plato's dialogues. Other current and future article projects concern the philosophical history of ancient Magna Graecia, Sicily, and Samnium; the Hellenistic writings associated with Pythagoras and the Pythagoreans; and Aristotle's fragments on the Pythagoreans. Publications can be found on his Academia.edu web page.

Before coming to Durham, Dr. Horky taught at Stanford University and at Claremont McKenna College. For the academic year 2010-11, he was a Residential Fellow at Harvard University's Center for Hellenic Studies. 

Dr. Horky also runs workofmemory, a blog with occasional thoughts on ancient philosophy, classics, and intellectual history. From 2012-15, Dr. Horky is a Member of the Council of the Hellenic Society, and he is on the editorial board of the Journal of Hellenic Studies. 

For the academic year 2012-13, Dr. Horky is Director of the Postgraduate Taught MA Programmes in the Department of Classics and Ancient History.

Research Interests

• Ancient Philosophy
• Intellectual History
• Greece and the Near East
• Greek Literature
• Magna Grecia

Publications

Books: authored

• Horky, Phillip Sidney. (2013). Plato and Pythagoreanism. Oxford University Press.

Books: reviews

• Horky, Phillip Sidney. (2013). Review of Graham, Daniel W. The Texts of Early Greek Philosophy: The Complete Fragments and Selected Testimonies of the Major Presocratics. Two Volumes (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010). American Journal of Philology 134: 149-155.
• Horky, Phillip Sidney. (2012). Review of Brisson, Luc and Segonds, Alain Philippe. Jamblique, Vie de Pythagore. 2e tirage revu et corrigé. First Edition Published 1996 (Paris: Les Belles Lettres, 2011). Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2012.09.23
• Horky, Phillip Sidney. (2011). Review of Frede, D. and Reis, B. (eds.). Body and Soul in Ancient Philosophy (Berlin/New York: Walter de Gruyter, 2009). Journal of Hellenic Studies 131: 263-264.
• Horky, Phillip Sidney. (2010). Review of Nichols, Mary P. Socrates on Friendship and Community: Reflections on Plato's Symposium, Phaedrus, and Lysis (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007). Classical Bulletin 86(1): 156-158.
• Horky, Phillip Sidney. (2008). Review of Herrmann, Fritz-Gregor. Words & Ideas: The Roots of Plato's Philosophy (Swansea: The Classical Press of Wales). Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2008.08.14.

Journal papers: academic

• Horky, Phillip Sidney. (Forthcoming) (2013). Theophrastus on Platonic and "Pythagorean" Imitation. Classical Quarterly 63(2).
• Horky, Phillip Sidney. (2011). Herennius Pontius: the Construction of a Samnite Philosopher. Classical Antiquity 30(1): 119-147.
• Horky, Phillip Sidney (2011). On the Phylogenetics of Wisdom: A Response to Alexis Pinchard, Les langues de sagesse dans la Grèce et l'Inde anciennes. Antiquorum Philosophia 5: 149-163.
• Horky, Phillip Sidney. (2009). Persian Cosmos and Greek Philosophy: Plato's Associates and the Zoroastrian Magoi. Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy 37: 47-103.
• Horky, Phillip Sidney. (2006). The Imprint of the Soul: Psychosomatic Affection in Plato, Gorgias, and the "Orphic" Gold Tablets. Mouseion: Journal of the Classical Association of Canada 6(3): 371-386.