CV

Christopher Shields

Shuster Professor of Philosophy 
Concurrent Professor of Classics
University of Notre Dame

Education

  • Cornell University
    • Ph.D. in Philosophy, 1986
    • M.A. in Philosophy, 1984
  • Brasenose College, University of  Oxford
    • Visiting Graduate, 1984-85
  • Bowling Green State University
    • M.A. in Philosophy, 1981
    • B.A. in English Literature, 1979


Professional Experience

  • Regular Positions

    • University of Notre Dame, 2014-Present
      • George N. Shuster Professor of Philosophy
      • Concurrent Professor of Classics

    • University of Oxford, 2004-2014
      • Professor of Classical Philosophy
      • Fellow of Lady Margaret Hall
      • Chair of the Faculty Board, 2013-2014

    • The University of Colorado at Boulder, 1988-2004
      • Professor, Departments of Philosophy and Classics, 1998-2004
        • Chair, Philosophy, 2003-2004
        • Acting Chair, Classics, 1998-99
        • Associate Professor, Departments of Philosophy and Classics, 1991-98 
        • Assistant Professor, Department of Philosophy, University of Colorado at Boulder 1988-91

    • Colby College, 1986-1988
      • Assistant Professor of Philosophy

  • Visiting and Honorary Positions

    • Honorary Research Fellow, Lady Margaret Hall, University of Oxford, 2014-Present
    • Tang Chun-I Visiting Professorship, Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2013
    • Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, TOPOI Excellence Cluster
      • Senior Fellow, 2013
      • Visiting Scholar, 2012
    • St. Louis University, James Collins Visiting Professorship, 2012

    • University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand, Erskine Visiting Professor, 2003

    • Yale University, Visiting Professor, Department of Philosophy, 2002

    • Cornell University, Visiting Associate Professor, Department of Philosophy, 1997; Visiting Professor 2007

    • Stanford University, Visiting Associate Professor, Department of Philosophy, 1995

    • Visiting Fellow, Corpus Christi College, Oxford, 1992-93

    • University of Arizona, Visiting Assistant Professor, Department of Philosophy, 1985-86


Academic Distinctions and Fellowships

  • John Fell Foundation Research Grant, 2011

  • Alexander von Humboldt-Stiftung Research Fellowship, 2011

  • National Endowment for the Humanities, Director, Summer Seminar (Grant Amount: 88K), 2004

  • Erskine Fellowship, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand, 2003

  • Boulder Faculty Assembly, Teaching Excellence Award, 2003

  • Outstanding Graduate Advisor, University of Colorado at Boulder, 2000

  • University of Colorado Faculty Fellowship, 1992-93

  • University of Colorado Junior Faculty Development Award, 1990

  • Alexander von Humboldt-Stiftung Research Fellowship 1988-89; Research Fellow, Seminar für Klassische Philologie, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität, Mainz

  • Prescott W. Townsend Doctoral Fellowship, 1984-85

  • Cornell Sage Graduate Fellowship, 1984-85

  • Winner of Novus Competition For Younger Scholars, 1983

  • Cornell Sage Graduate Summer Fellowship, 1983

  • Lowell Leland Award, Outstanding English Literature Major, 1979


University and Professional Administration

  • Program Committee, American Philosophcial Association, Cenral Division, 2014-Present
  • Member of the Faculty Board, Facutly of Philosophy, University of Oxford, 2008-2014
    • Chair of the Faculty Board, Michaelmas 2012, AY 2013-2014
  • Chair, Board of Examiners, M. St. in Ancient Philosophy, University of Oxford, 2008-2009, 2010-2011; Member 2008-2014
  • Finance Committee, Lady Margaret Hall, 2009-2014
  • Development Committee, Lady Margaret Hall, 2005-2014
  • Dean, Lady Margaret Hall, 2005-2010
  • Graduate Admission Committee, University of Oxford, 2003-2008
  • PPE Examiner, University of Oxford, 2005-2008
  • Chair, Philosophy Department, The University of Colorado at Boulder, 2003-2004
  • Program Committee, American Philosophical Association, Pacific Division, 2000-2003
  • Program Committee, American Philosophical Association, Central Division, 2003-2004
  • President’s Leadership Program, University of Colorado at Boulder, 2002-2003
  • Graduate School Executive Advisory Committee, The University of Colorado at Boulder, 2000-2003
  • Acting Chair, Classics Department, The University of Colorado at Boulder, 1998-99
  • Member, Arts and Sciences Council, The University of Colorado at Boulder, 1998-2000
  • Member, Arts and Sciences Budget Committee, The University of Colorado at Boulder, 1998-2001
  • Graduate Committee on the Arts and Humanities, The University of Colorado at Boulder, 1998-2000
  • Director of Graduate Studies, Department of Philosophy, The University of Colorado at Boulder, 1991-1995 (designed and implemented new graduate program)
  • Graduate Placement Director, Department of Philosophy, The University of Colorado at Boulder, 1996-2000
  • Member, Classics Department Executive Committee, The University of Colorado at Boulder, 1996-1999
  • Member, Boulder Faculty Assembly, The University of Colorado at Boulder, 1993-97
  • Member, Dean's Committee for Promotion and Tenure, The University of Colorado at Boulder, 1992-1996; 2001-2003


Publications

Books

  • Virtue, Happiness, and Knowledge, edd. with D. Brink and S. Sauvé Meyer (Oxford University Press: 2018)

  • History of the Philosophy of Mind, six vols. edd. with Rebecca Copenhaver (Routledge: 2018)

  • Aristotle's De Anima, translated with introduction and notes (Oxford University Press: 2016)

  • The Philosophy of Thomas Aquinas, with Robert Pasnau, 2nd, revised edition (Oxford University Press: 2016); first edition (Westview Press: 2003)

  • The Oxford Handbook of Aristotle ed. (Oxford University Press: 2012);  paperback edition, 2014

  • Ancient Philosophy: A Contemporary Introduction (Routledge: 2011) [A revised and substantially expanded edition of Classical Philosophy: A Contemporary Introduction]
    • Chinese Edition, 2015
  • Aristotle (Routledge: 2007; reprinted with corrections 2008; 2nd edition, revised and expanded, 2014) 
  • Classical Philosophy: A Contemporary Introduction (Routledge: 2003)

  • Blackwell Guide to Ancient Philosophy,  ed. (Blackwell Publishers: 2002)
    • Chinese Edition, 2009

  • Order in Multiplicity: Homonymy in the Philosophy of Aristotle (Oxford University Press: 1999; paperback edition, 2001)


Articles

Where possible, articles may be accessed online by clicking on the bold text at the end of the entry.   In some cases, the links are to offprints, in others to uncorrected galley proofs.  In a few cases, the links lead to pay sites requiring personal or institutinal licenses.  Access is granted for personal use only: reproduction in any form is prohibited wihtout the express consent of the author and publisher.  



  • “Hylomorphic Offices,” Ancient Philosophy Today: DIALOGOI 1.2 (2019), 215–236

  • “Theories of Mind in the Hellenistic Period,” in A History of Mind and Body in Late Antiquity edd. A. Marmodoro and S. Cartwright (Cambridge University Press: 2018), 32-51

  • “A Series of Goods,” in Virtue, Happiness., and Knowledge, edd. D. Brink, S. Meyer, and C. Shields (Oxford University Press: 2018), 129-148

  • “A Fetish for Fixity?” in Plato’s Symposium: a Critical Guide, edd. P. Destrée and Z. Giannopoulou (Cambridge University Press: 2017), 160-175

  • “What Organisms Once Were and Might Yet Be,” Philosophy and Theory in Biology, Special Issue on Organisms 9:7 (2017) edd. A. Ferner and T. Pradeu, 1-14  Available here. 

  • “The Young Dogs of Eristic: Dialectic and Eristic in the Early Academy,” in Strategies of Polemics in Greek and Roman Philosophy, ed. Naly Thaler (Brill Publishers: 2016), 31-54

  • “Aristotle’s Requisite of Self-Knowledge,” in Self-Knowledge, ed. Ursula Renz (Oxford Universty Press: 2016), 44-60

  • “The Science of Soul in Aristotle’s Ethics,’ in Bridging the Gap between Aristotle’s Science and Ethics, edd. K. M. Nielsen and D. Henry (Cambridge University Press: 2015), 232-253

  • “Fractured Goodness: the Summum Bonum in Aristotle,” in The Highest Good in Aristotle and Kant, edd. R. Bader and J. Aufderheide (Oxford University Press: 2015), 83-111   Available here. 

  • “Virtual Presence: Psychic Mereology in Francisco Suárez,” Partitioning the Soul: Ancient Medieval, and Early Modern Debates, edd. K. Corcilius and D. Perler (W. de Gruyter: 2014), 199-219

  • “First Philosophy First: Aristotle and the Practice of Metaphysics,” in The Routledge Companion to Ancient Philosophy, edd. F. Sheffield and J. Warren (Routledge: 2014), 332-346

  • “Francisco Suárez,” with Daniel Schwartz, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, ed. E. Zalta (2014)   Available here.

  • “The Phainomenological Method in Aristotle’s Metaphysics,” in Aristotle on Method and Metaphysics, ed. E. Feser (Palgrave Macmillan: 2013), 7-27

  • “The Grounds of Logos: the Interweaving of Forms,” in Reason and Analysis in Ancient Greek Philosophy, edd. F. Miller and G. Anagnostopoulos (Springer Verlag: 2013), 211-230  Available here. 

  • “On Behalf of Cognitive Qualia,” in Cognitive Phenomenology, edd. T. Bayne and M. Montague (Oxford University Press: 2012), 215-235   Available here. 

  • “The Dialectic of Life,” Synthese 185 (2012), 103-124   Available here.

  • “The Unity of Soul in Suárez,” in De Anima Acta, ed. R. Friedman (Leiden, Brill: 2012), 355-378

  • “Being qua Being,” in The Oxford Handbook of Aristotle, ed. C. Shields (Oxford University Press: 2012), 343-371   Available here.

  • “Aristotle’s Philosophical Life and Works,” in The Oxford Handbook of Aristotle, ed. C. Shields (Oxford University Press: 2012), 3-16

  • “Shadows of Beings,” in The Philosophy of Suárez, edd. H. Lagerlund and B. Hill (Oxford University Press: 2012), 57-74

  • “The Reality of Substantial Form: Suárez, Metaphysical Disputations XV,” in Interpreting Suárez: Critical Readings, ed. D. Schwartz (Cambridge University Press: 2012), 39-61

  • “Die Seele,” in Beiträge zur Aristotelischen Handlungstheorie, edd. C. Rapp and K. Corcilius (Stuttgart, Franz Steiner Verlag: 2011), 313-323

  • “Plato’s Divided Soul,” in The Cambridge Companion to Plato’s Republic, ed. M. McPherran (Cambridge University Press: 2010), 147-170; reprinted in Partitioning the Soul: Ancient Medieval, and Early Modern Debates, edd. K. Corcilius and D. Perler (W. de Gruyter: 2014), 15-38

  • “Perfecting Pleasures: the Metaphysics of Pleasure in Nicomachean Ethics x,” in Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics: A Critical Guide, ed. J. Miller (Cambridge University Press: 2011), 191-210

  • “Goodness is Meant in Many Ways,” in Grundlagen der Antiken Ethik/Foundations of Ancient Ethics, edd. G. Rudebusch and J. Hardy (Vandenhoek: 2010), 185-199

  • “The Aristotelian Psychê ,” The Blackwell Guide to Aristotle, ed. G. Anagnostopoulos (Blackwell: 2010), 292-309

  • “The Priority of Soul in Aristotle’s De Anima: Mistaking Categories?” in Body and Soul in Ancient Philosophy, edd. D. Frede and B. Reis (Berlin, De Gruyter: 2009), 156-168

  • “An Approach to Aristotelian Actuality,” in Mind, Method and Morality: Essays in Honour of Anthony Kenny, edd. P. Hacker and J. Cottingham (Oxford University Press: 2009), 68-93

  • “Aristotle,” Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy,  E. Zalta ed. 2008, revised 2014   Available here. 

  • “Substance and Life in Aristotle,” Apeiron 41 (2008), 129-151

  • “The Peculiar Motion of Aristotelian Souls,” Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society Supplementary Volume LXXXI (2007), 1-23

  • “Forcing Goodness in Plato’s Republic,” Social Philosophy and Policy (2007), 21-39

  • "Unified Agency and Akrasia in Plato's Republic," in Akrasia in Ancient Philosophy, edd. C. Bobonich and P. Destrée (Brill: 2006), 117-140

  • “Surpassing in Dignity and Power: the Metaphysics of Goodness in Plato's Republic,” Philosophical Inquiry XXX (2008), 1-17

  • “Plato and Aristotle in the Academy: an Aristotelian Criticism of Platonic Forms,” in The Oxford Handbook on Plato, ed. G. Fine (Oxford: 2008), 504-526

  • “Plato’s Challenge,” in The Blackwell Guide to Plato’s Republic (Blackwell: 2006), ed. G. Santas, 63-83

  • “Aristotle: Psychology,” Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, ed. E. Zalta  Available here. 

  • “Learning about Plato from Aristotle,” in The Blackwell Companion to the Philosophy of Plato (Blackwell: 2006), ed. H. Benson, 403-417

  • "Simple Souls," in Essays on Plato's Psychology (Rowan and Littlefield: 2001), ed. E. Wagner, pp.  137-156 Available here.

  • “Um Problem a Respeito de Substância e Relativo em Aristóteles,” Cadernos De História e Filosofia de Ciência 3, vol. 13 (2003), 157-176

  • “The Logos of ‘Logos’: Theaetetus 206c-210b” Apeiron 32 (1999), 107-24

  • “Philosophy of Language: the Ancient Period,” Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy (London: 1998), ed. E. L. Craig,  356-361

  • “Intentionality and Isomorphism in Aristotle,” Proceedings of the Boston Area Colloquium in Ancient Philosophy  XI (1995), edd. J. Cleary and W. Wians, 307-330  Available here. 

  • “The Subjecthood of Souls and Some Other Forms: A Response to Granger,” Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy XIII (1995), 161-176

  • “The Stoic Lekton,” in Hellenistic Philosophy (Athens: 1994), ed. K. Boudouris,  137-148

  • “Mind and Motion in Aristotle,” in Self Movers (Princeton University Press: 1994), edd. M. L. Gill and J. G. Lennox, pp. 117-133  Available here. 

  • “Socrates among the Skeptics,” in The Socratic Movement (Cornell University Press: 1994), ed. Paul A. Vander Waerdt, pp. 341-366

  • “The Truth Evaluability of Stoic Phantasiai: Adversus Mathematicos VII 242-46,” Journal of the History of Philosophy 31 (1993), pp. 325-347 Available here.

  • “Some Recent Approaches to Aristotle's De Anima,” in Aristotle's De Anima II and III, Second Edition, translated with Introduction and Notes by D. W. Hamlyn (Oxford University Press: 1993), 257-281   Available here. 

  • "The Homonymy of the Body in Aristotle," Archiv für Geschichte der Philosophie (1993), 1-30

  • “Aristotle on the Generation of Form,” History of Philosophy Quarterly Vol. 7 (1990), 367-390

  • “The First Functionalist,” in Essays on the Historical Foundations of Cognitive Science (Kluwer: 1990), ed. J.-C. Smith, 19-33 Available here. 

  • “Soul as Subject in Aristotle's De Anima,” Classical Quarterly, Vol. N.S. XXXVIII (1988), 140-149; reprinted in The University of Dayton Review: Selected Aristotle Symposium Proceedings Vol. XIX (1989), 135-46; and in Readings in Ancient Greek Philosophy vol. v (Albany, New York: 1992), pp. 231-245

  • “Soul and Body in Aristotle,” Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy Vol. VI (1988), 103-137; reprinted in Classical Philosophy VII: Aristotle's Metaphysics, ed. T. Irwin (Garland: 1995),  209-243  Available here. 

  • “Commentary on Kosman.,” (The Role of Lambda in Aristotle's Metaphysics) Proceedings of the Boston Area Colloquium in Ancient Philosophy, Vol. III (1987), ed. John Cleary, 189-201

  • “Leibniz's Doctrine of the Striving Possibles,” Journal of the History of Philosophy, Vol. XXIV (1986), 343-357; reprinted in Leibniz: Critical and Interpretive Essays (Garland: 1995), ed. R. Sleigh

  • “Body and Soul in Aquinas's Summa Contra Gentiles II,” Studies in Early Europe (Ball State University Press: 1984), ed. R. Wires, 16-23


Reviews and Critical Notices

  • Lesher, J. H., ed., From Inquiry to Demonstrative Knowledge: New Essays on Aristotle’s Posterior Analytics (Academic Printing and Publishing: 2011), in Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews, March, 2011 (online: here)

  • Crivelli, Paolo, Aristotle on Truth (Cambridge: 2005); in The Philosophical Review 119 (2010), 243-246

  • Gregoric, Pavel, Aristotle on the Common Sense (Oxford: 2007); in Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews, August, 2009 (online: here)

  • Smith, Barry, ed., Questions of Taste (Signal Books: 2006); in The Times Literary Supplement, 28 November 2007. Available here.

  • Gerson, Lloyd, Aristotle and Other Platonists (Cornell: 2005); in The Times Literary Supplement, 22 July 2005, 25

  • Fine, Gail, Plato on Knowledge and Forms (Oxford: 2003); in Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews, August, 2005 (online: here)

  • Harte, V., Plato on Parts and Wholes (Oxford: 2002); in the Philosophical Review 114 (2005),273-277

  • Madigan, A., Aristotle’s Metaphysics Books B and K 1-2, trans. and commentary (Oxford: 1999); in The Philosophical Review 112 (2003), pp. 253-255

  • Frede, Michael and Charles, David edd. Aristotle’s Metaphysics Lambda (Oxford: 2000); in Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews, May, 2002 (online: here)

  • Hankinson, R. J., Cause and Explanation in Ancient Greek Thought (Oxford: 1998); in The Times Literary Supplement, 3 May 2002, 26

  • Cooper, John, Reason and Emotion: Essays on Ancient Moral Psychology and Ethical Theory, (Princeton: 1999); in Classical Journal (forthcoming) 

  • Freudenthal, Gad, Aristotle’s Theory of Material Substance: Heat and Pneuma, Form and Soul (Oxford: 1995); in The Philosophical Review 106 (1997), 632-635

  • Fine, Gail, On Ideas (Oxford: 1993); in Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy XIII (1995), 269-281

  • Currie, Gregory, An Ontology of Art (Edinburgh: 1989); in The Australasian Journal of Philosophy 73 (1995), 293-300

  • Malcolm, John, Plato on the Self-Predication of Forms (Oxford: 1991); in Ancient Philosophy  15 (1995), 203-211

  • Gill, Mary Louise, Aristotle on Substance: the Paradox of Unity (Princeton: 1989); in The Philosophical Review  101 (1992), 840-844

  • Everson, Stephen, ed, Companions to Ancient Thought 1: Epistemology (Cambridge: 1990); in Ancient Philosophy 14 (1994), 209-216

  • Lawson-Tancred, Hugh, Aristotle: De Anima, trans. with Introduction and Notes (Middlesex: 1986); in Ancient Philosophy XII (1992), 202-205

  • Wedin, Michael V., Mind and Imagination in Aristotle (New Haven: 1988); in The Philosophical Review 101 (1992), 202-205

  • Devereux, Daniel, and Pellegrin, Piere edd., Biologie, Logique et Métaphysique chez Aristote (Paris: 1991); in Canadian Philosophical Reviews 12 (1992), 20-22

  • Cleary, John J., Aristotle on the Many Senses of Priority (Carbondale: 1988); in Classical Review XLII (1992), 209-210

  • Irwin, Terence, Aristotle's First Principles (Oxford: 1988); in Classical World  84 (1991), 329-330 

  • Evans, J. D. G., Aristotle (New York: 1987); in The Philosophical Review  XCIX (1990), 443-447

  • Lear, Jonathan, Aristotle: the Desire to Understand (Cambridge: 1988); in Philosophical Books 30 (1989), 137-140

  • Modrak, D. K. W., Aristotle: The Power of Perception (Chicago: 1987); in Classical World 82 (1988), 61-62


Editorial

  • General Editor, with B. Copenhaver and M. Timmons, of the Oxford Guides to Philosophy Series
  • Section Editor, History of Philosophy, Philosophy Compass
  • Editor, Aristotle, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

Referee

Articles

  • Phronesis; Ancient Philosophy; Apeiron, Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy; The Philosophical Review; The Australasian Journal of Philosophy; Transactions of the American Philological Association; Philosophy and Phenomenological Research; Philosophical Research; Classical Philology; Archiv für Geschichte der Philosophie; Proceedings of the Boston Area Colloquium in Ancient Philosophy; Mind; Dialectica; Journal of the History of Philosophy; Ancient Philosophy; British Journal for the History of Philosophy; Journal of Hellenic Studies; Philosophical Quarterly; Philosophical Studies, Philosophers’ Imprint. 

Books

  • Oxford University Press,  Cambridge University Press, Edinburgh University Press, Wadsworth, Routledge, Palgrave Macmillan
  • Referee for the National Endowment for the Humanities
  • Referee for the Fulbright Commission
  • Referee for the Swiss National Science Foundation

Areas of Specialisation

  • Ancient Philosophy, Metaphysics

Areas of Competence

  • Philosophy of Mind, Medieval Philosophy, Philosophy and Literature

Citizenship

  • Dual National: United Kingdom and United States


© Christopher Shields 2014