Biography
James was an undergraduate student in Classics at Clare College, where he took the Intensive Greek course. He stayed at Clare for his postgraduate work before spending two years as a Research Fellow at Magdalene College. He moved to Corpus Christi College on his appointment to a university position in 2001. He has been Director of Studies in both Philosophy and Classics
Full CV (pdf format)
PhilPeople Profile: https://philpeople.org/profiles/james-warren
Research
Ancient Greek and Roman philosophy.
Publications
Books
Political Unity in Plato and Aristotle (under contract with O.U.P.)
Cicero's Tusculan Disputations (joint editor with Charles Brittain, C.U.P. 2025)
Regret. A Study in Ancient Moral Psychology (O.U.P 2021)
Body and Soul in Hellenistic Philosophy (joint editor with Brad Inwood, C.U.P. 2020)
Authors and Authorities in Ancient Philosophy (joint editor with Jenny Bryan and Robert Wardy, C.U.P. 2018)
The Pleasures of Reason in Plato, Aristotle, and the Hellenistic Hedonists (C.U.P. 2014)
The Routledge Companion to Ancient Philosophy (with F. C. C. Sheffield, Routledge 2014)
The Cambridge Companion to Epicureanism (C.U.P. 2009)
Presocratics (Acumen and Univ. California Press 2007, now Routledge)
Facing Death: Epicurus and his Critics (O.U.P. 2004)
Epicurus and Democritean Ethics: an Archaeology of Ataraxia (C.U.P. 2002)
Forthcoming (drafts available on request)
"Leontius, Odysseus, and self-reproach" in Phronesis
"Sidgwick and the Grotes on Plato's Republic: a dialogue" in The Cambridge Classical Journal
"The Cynics and nature" in P. Destrée and A. Kachuck eds. The Cambridge Companion to the Cynics
"Epicurean political philosophy" in C. Atack ed. The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Greek Political Thought
In progress (drafts available on request)
"You knew he was mortal"
"Owning and sharing in Seneca De Beneficiis 7"
Some recent articles:
"Introducing the Tusculans" in C. Brittain and J. Warren eds. Cicero's Tusculan Disputations, Cambridge, CUP: 1-11
"Pain, shame, and manliness in Tusculan Disputations 2" in C. Brittain and J. Warren eds. Cicero's Tusculan Disputations, Cambridge, CUP: 79-101
“Epicureans on freedom and responsibility” in N. Powers and J. Klein eds. The Oxford Handbook of Hellenistic Philosophy, Oxford, OUP: 144-62
"Early learning in Plato Republic 7" in G. Betegh and V. Tsouna eds. (2024) Conceptualising Concepts in Greek Philosophy, Cambridge, CUP: 56-73
"Forms of agreement in Plato's Crito", Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society 123 (2023): 26–50
“Death” in M. Garani, D. Konstan, G. Reydams-Schils eds. (2023) The Oxford Handbook of Roman Philosophy, Oxford, OUP : 429 – 41
“Memory, anticipation, pleasure” in M. Hampson and F. Leigh eds. (2022) Psychology and Value in Plato, Aristotle, and Hellenistic Philosophy, Oxford, OUP: 141 – 69
“Cato’s integritas” in Philosophie antique 22 (2022): 9 – 37
“Socrates, Justice” in Sellers, M., Kirste, S. (eds) Encyclopedia of the Philosophy of Law and Social Philosophy. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6730-0_938-1
“Socrates and the symmetry argument” in A. G. Long ed. (2021) Immortality in Ancient Philosophy (C.U.P.): 143-60
"Philonides (2): Epicurean Philosopher" in The Oxford Classical Dictionary: https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780199381135.013.5010
“Epicureans on hidden beliefs” in F. Leigh ed. (2020) Self-Knowledge in Ancient Philosophy (O.U.P.): 171-86
“Protagoras and Gorgias” in G. Fine ed. (2019) The Oxford Handbook of Plato (2nd edition), Oxford, OUP: 141-59
“Epicurus on the false belief that sense-impressions conflict” in Philosophie antique 19 (2019): 7-28
“Truth, beauty, purity, and pleasure: Philebus 50e–53c” in P. Dimas, R. E. Jones, and G. R. Lear eds. Plato’s Philebus: A Philosophical Discussion, Oxford, OUP: 184-201
“Demetrius of Laconia and Epicurus On the Telos (Us. 68)” in J. Bryan, R. Wardy and J. Warren eds. (2018) Authors and Authorities in Ancient Philosophy, Cambridge, CUP: 202–21
“Damascius on Aristotle and Theophrastus on Plato on false pleasure” in Revue de Philosophie ancienne 36 (2018): 105-29
“Plato” in S. Golob and J. Timmermann eds. (2018) The Cambridge History of Moral Philosophy, Cambridge, CUP: 28–41
“Epicurean pleasure in Cicero’s De Finibus” in J. Annas and G. Betegh eds. (2016) Cicero’s De Finibus. Philosophical Perspectives, Cambridge, CUP: 41–76
"The bloom of youth", Apeiron 48 (2015): 327-45 [online here]
“Coming-to-be and passing-away” in K. Algra and K. Ierodiakonou eds. (2015) Sextus Empiricus and Ancient Physics, Cambridge, CUP: 365-402
“Precursors of Pyrrhonism: DL 9.67–73” in K. Vogt ed. (2015) Pyrrhonian Skepticism in Diogenes Laertius (SAPERE 25), Mohr-Siebeck, Göttingen: 105–122
“Epicurus and the unity of the virtues” in B. Collette-Dučić and S. Delcomminette eds. (2014) Unité et origine des vertus dans la philosophie de l’Antiquité, Ousia/Vrin: 213-36
“The Symmetry Problem” in Stephen Luper ed. (2014) The Cambridge Companion to Life and Death, Cambridge, CUP: 165-80
“Epicureans and Cyrenaics on pleasure as a pathos” in Stéphane Marchand and Francesco Verde (eds.)(2013) Épicurisme et Scepticisme, Rome: Sapienza Università Editrice: 127-45
“Comparing lives in Plato, Laws V” in Phronesis 58 (2013): 319-56 [pdf]
“The harm of death in Cicero’s first Tusculan Disputation” in J. Stacey Taylor ed. (2013) The Metaphysics and Ethics of Death, Oxford, OUP: 44–70
“Gods and men in Xenophanes” in V. Harte and M. Lane eds. (2013) Politieia in Greek and Roman Philosophy (Festschrift for Malcolm Schofield), Cambridge, CUP: 294–312
“Foreword” to W. K. C. Guthrie, The Greek Philosophers: from Thales to Aristotle, London, Routledge
“What god didn’t know: Sextus Empiricus AM 9.162–6” in D. Machuca ed. (2011) New Essays on Ancient Pyrrhonism, Leiden, Brill: 41-68. [pdf]
“Socrates and the Patients: Republic IX, 583C-585A” in Phronesis 56 (2011) 113-37 [online here]
“Aristotle on Speusippus on Eudoxus on pleasure” in Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy 36 (2009): 249-81 [pdf offprint here]
Teaching and Supervisions
Ancient philosophy, from the Presocratics to Hellenistic and Roman Philosophy.
He has supervised or co-supervised PhD students working on topics including:
Philosophy in Cicero's letters; the metaphysics of Philolaus and Plato's Philebus; Plato's Alcibiades I; the origins of community in Plato's Republic and Lucretius 5; Aristotle on being and the one; the Stoic response to the Academic parallaxia argument; Lucretius and the philosophy of attention; Aristotle on thumos; the Ath. Pol. and Aristotle's ethical and political philosophy; the legal status of the Epicurean school; Aristotle on nature and change; Proclus on Aristotle on Plato on motion; Lucretius' Epicurus; Presocratic uses of artefact analogies; Soul and body in Plato's Phaedo; Plato on imagination
Other Professional Activities
James is the series editor of Elements in Ancient Philosophy, published by Cambridge University Press. Prospective authors are encouraged to contact him about proposals for volumes.
