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Michael Chase

Visiting Senior Research Fellow (Jan 2024–Dec 2024)

Michael Chase (PhD EPHE, Ve Section, Paris-Sorbonne, 2000) is Senior Researcher at the Centre Jean Pépin (UMR 8230-École normale supérieure) of the CNRS (National Center of Scientific Research), Paris-Villejuif, France, as well as Visiting Professor at the Universidad Panamericana, Mexico City (2019–2021) and Adjunct Professor at the University of Victoria, Canada. He works at the intersection of Greek, Arabic, and Latin philosophy, and has published widely on ancient Greco-Roman philosophy, Greek and Latin Patristics, and medieval Latin and Arabic philosophy. A former student of Pierre Hadot, he has translated a half-dozen of Hadot’s books into English.

Chase’s interests are broad, multicultural, and interdisciplinary. In addition to his work on the thought of Hadot, he is interested in interactions between contemporary science and ancient philosophy, the transmission of Greek philosophy to the Islamicate world, and comparative ancient and contemporary philosophy in general. His current projects include critical editions of two Arabic philosophical texts (Avicenna, Notes on the Theology of Aristotle, and the Arabic translation of Alexander of Aphrodisias, On the Intellect). He is currently working on a monograph on meditation-style methods of attention management in ancient Greek, Islamic, Jewish, Byzantine, and medieval Latin thought.

Projects

Philosophy and Medicine in Late Antique Alexandria

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Scientific Questions Then and Now

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Experience and Rational Demonstration: Sufis vs. Philosophers in Medieval Islam

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Selected Publications

Chase, John Michael (2024). “Calcidius Syriacus? On Some Implications of the Close Parallels Between Porphyry’s ‘On Principles and Matter’, and Calcidius’ ‘Commentary on the Timaeus.’” In Porphyry in Syriac: The Treatise “On Principles and Matter”…

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Chase, John Michael (2024). “Pierre Hadot and His Critics on Spiritual Exercises and Cosmic Consciousness: From Ancient Philosophy to Contemporary Neurology.” In Hadot and Foucault on Ancient Philosophy: Critical Assessments, ed. M. Faustino and H…

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Chase, John Michael (2023). “The Scientific Epistemology of al-Naẓẓām.” In Cause and Explanation in Ancient Philosophy, ed. A. Ross and D. Vázquez, 208–223. New York, NY: Routledge.

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Chase, John Michael (2023). “Action by Being Alone in the Plotiniana Arabica.” In Contextualizing Premodern Philosophy: Explorations of the Greek, Hebrew, Arabic, and Latin Traditions, ed. K. Krause, L. X. López-Farjeat, and N. A. Oschman, 394–407…

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Presentations, Talks, & Teaching Activities

“Pierre Hadot and his Conception of Philosophy as a Way of life”

Licenciatura de Filosofía, Universidad Panamericana, Mexico City, Mexico

“Seminario sobre la recepción árabe de la filosofía antigua. Neoplatonica Arabica, la Teología de Aristóteles”

Maestría de Filosofía Antigua, Universidad Panamericana, Mexico City, Mexico

“Pierre Hadot and his Critics on Spiritual Exercises and Cosmic Consciousness: From Ancient Philosophy to Contemporary Neurology”

Invited paper given at the international Workshop “The Meaning of Life: A Metaphysical and Ethical Problem”, Facultad de Filosofía, Universadad Panamericana, Mexico City, Mexico

“Attention in Neoplatonism: From Plato to Porphyry and the Christian Church Fathers”

Invited paper, given to the Research Group on the Philosophy of Life, Kyoto University Graduate School of Advanced Integrated Studies in Human Survivability (Shishu-Kan), Kyoto, Japan

“Des quatre questions aristotéliciennes au tawḥīd: Notes sur les origines de la théologie négative en Islam”

Invited paper, given for the Seminar “L'influence de la religion néoplatonicienne dans les monothéismes. 1. La conception de Dieu. Théologie apophatique”, Institut Rachi, Troyes, France