skip to content

Faculty of Classics

 

Research

Ancient science; comparative studies of Greek and Chinese philosophy and science.

Publications

Key publications: 

Polarity and Analogy (C.U.P. 1966)

Aristotle: The Growth and Structure of His Thought (C.U.P. 1968)

Early Greek Science, Thales to Aristotle (Chatto and Windus 1970)

Greek Science After Aristotle (Chatto and Windus 1973)

Hippocratic Writings (Penguin 1978)

(ed. with G.E.L. Owen) Aristotle on the Mind and the Senses (C.U.P. 1978)

Magic, Reason and Experience (C.U.P. 1979)

Science, Folklore and Ideology (C.U.P. 1983)

The Revolutions of Wisdom (University of California Press 1987, his 1984 Sather Lectures)

Demystifying Mentalities (C.U.P. 1990)

Methods and Problems in Greek Science (C.U.P. 1991)

Aristotelian Explorations (C.U.P. 1996)

Adversaries and Authorities: Investigations into Ancient Greek and Chinese Science (1996)

(with Jacques Brunschwig and others) Le Savoir grec: dictionnaire critique (Flammarion 1996; English version, A Guide to Greek Thought. Major Figures and Trends , Harvard U.P. 2000)

(with G. Cambiano and M. Vegetti) 'La Scienza greco-romana', i.537-1044 in Storia della scienza (Rome 2001)

(with Nathan Sivin) The Way and the Word: Science and Medicine in Early China and Greece (Yale U.P. 2002)

The Ambitions of Curiosity: Understanding the World in Ancient Greece and China (C.U.P. 2002)

In the Grip of Disease - Studies in the Greek Imagination (O.U.P. 2003)

Ancient Worlds, Modern Reflections: Philosophical Perspectives on Greek and Chinese Science and Culture (O.U.P. 2004)

The Delusions of Invulnerability (Duckworth 2005)

Principles and practices in ancient Greek and Chinese science (Ashgate 2006)

Cognitive Variations: reflections on the unity and diversity of the human mind (OUP 2007)

Disciplines in the Making: Cross-cultural Perspectives on Elites, Learning and Innovation (OUP 2009)

Being, Humanity and Understanding (Oxford 2012)

The Ideals of Inquiry: An Ancient History (Oxford 2014)

Analogical Investigations: Historical and Cross-cultural Perspectives on Human Reasoning (C.U.P. 2015)

The Ambivalences of Rationality: Ancient and Modern Cross-cultural Explorations (C.U.P. 2018)

Intelligence and Intelligibility: Cross-cultural studies of human cognitive experience (O.U.P. 2020)

Expanding Horizons in the History of Science: the Comparative Approach (C.U.P 2021)

(with Aparecida Vilaça) Of Jaguars and Butterflies: Metalogues on issues in anthropology and philosophy (Berghahn, Oxford 2023)

BOOKS  EDITED INCLUDE

(with Jacques Brunschwig) Le Savoir grec (Flammarion, Paris 1996)

(with G. Cambiano and M. Vegetti) Storia della scienza, vol 1,  sez. 4 La Scienza greco-romana (Roma, Enciclopedia Italiana, 2001)

(with Jingyi Jenny Zhao in collaboration with Qiaosheng Dong) Ancient Greece and China Compared (C.U.P 2028)

(with R. Gagné and S.D. Goldhill) Regimes of Comparatism:Frameworks of Comparison in History, Religion and Anthropology (Brill. Leiden 2019)

(with Aparecida Vilaça) Science in the Forest, Science in the Past (HAU, Journal of Ethnographic Theory, Special Issue, University of Chicago Press, 2019)

(with W. McCarty and Aparecida Vilaça) Science in the Forest, Science in the Past II (Interdisciplinary Science Review, 2021)

(with W. McCarty and Aparecida Vilaça) Science in the Forest, Science in the Past III (Interdisciplinary Science Review, 2024)

Emeritus Professor of Ancient Philosophy and Science
Professor Sir Geoffrey  Lloyd

Contact Details

Needham Research Institute
8 Sylvester Rd
Cambridge
CB3 9AF
01223 311545
Not available for consultancy

Affiliations

Classifications: 

Latest news

Dr Ben Gray, Assistant Professor in Classics (Ancient History)

20 October 2025

The Faculty is delighted to announce the appointment of Dr Ben Gray ( Birkbeck, University of London) as Assistant Professor in Classics (Ancient History) from 1st January 2026.

“Decoding the Desert” and “Middleton’s Architectural Odysseys” now on CUDL

29 September 2025

Two collections from the Faculty Archives, the photographs of archaeologists Richard Norton and Richard Goodchild in Libya, and notebooks of Victorian architect J. H. Middleton, have been digitised and are available to view on the Cambridge University Digital Library. A gift from the family of Professor Joyce Reynolds -...

Cambridge Classics tops Guardian University Guide 2026

15 September 2025

The Faculty has been ranked first in the UK for Classics and Ancient History in the Guardian University Guide 2026 . This reflects our longstanding commitment to academic excellence, rigorous teaching, and student support. The Guardian rankings are based on a range of indicators, including student satisfaction, teaching...

Aldborough study reshapes our view of post-Roman Britain

11 September 2025

A study published today in the journal 'Antiquity' from the Universities of Cambridge and Nottingham has overturned long-held assumptions about Britain’s post-Roman economy. Contrary to the popular belief that industrial activity collapsed after the Romans left around 400 AD, researchers have uncovered compelling evidence...