Erik Jensen

• Ancient Greek Philosophy (esp. Aristotle)
• Epistemology 
• Early Modern metaphysics & Kantian ethics

I have a variety of interests within ancient philosophy. I focus on ancient epistemology and its relation to ancient ethics and political philosophy generally, and especially the extent to which Aristotle’s biological works inform the character of his inquiries into ethical obligation in Nicomachean Ethics and Politics. I am likewise interested in the epistemic dimensions of Aristotle's conceptions of phronēsis in Nicomachean Ethics and Politics, and the consequences of its limitations, whatever those ultimately may be, for the eudaimonia of the citizens of the ideal polis. In that context, I am especially interested in the scholarly reception of Aristotle's account of phronēsis in Nicomachean Ethics VI, and his discussion of factional conflict and competing civic interests in Politics III and VII, as well as the discussions in the literature dealing with the general relationship between justice and virtue in Nicomachean Ethics and Politics. Another area of central interest for me is Plato's treatment of the intersections and limits of belief (doxa), knowledge (epistēmē), persuasion (peithō), and teaching (didaskō), and their formulations, primarily in Meno, Theaetetus, Sophist, and Statesman. Within that context, I am interested in Plato’s suggested distinction between a form of persuasion that can bring about belief (pisteutikē peithō) and, perhaps more controversially, a form of persuasion that can teach (didaskalikē peithō), and the implications these relations among persuasion, teaching, and knowledge have for Platonic ethics.