Biography
I am a Blacker Loewe Research Fellow in Philosophy at Peterhouse, Cambridge. I completed my DPhil in Philosophy at the University of Oxford (2023), which won the Oxford Nicolas Berggruen Prize for Best Doctoral Dissertation in Philosophy, Law & Politics (2024). Prior to my doctorate, I completed a BA at Downing College, Cambridge in Classics (Part IA) and Philosophy (Part II) in 2017, and a Master of Studies in Ancient Philosophy at Worcester College, Oxford in 2018.
I was awarded the 2022 British Journal for the History of Philosophy Beaney Prize for the best contribution to widening the philosophical canon, for my article on Thales in the historiography of philosophy. I have also written about the early Greek philosopher Parmenides, Hellenistic scepticism, the classical Chinese philosopher Zhuangzi, the European reception of Daoism, and Ethiopian philosophy.
Outside of my research I am strongly committed to promoting cross-departmental discussion of marginalized philosophical traditions. During my studies I founded Philiminality, a student-run platform for cross-cultural and interdisciplinary philosophy.
Research
My primary research interests are in ancient Greek and Roman philosophy (especially early Greek philosophy and Hellenistic scepticism), classical Chinese philosophy (especially Daoism), and the global history and historiography of philosophy. I am also interested in the European reception of ancient Greek and Chinese philosophy.
My doctoral thesis looked at the epistemologies of two foundational philosophers in early Greek and classical Chinese philosophy, respectively: Parmenides and Zhuangzi. It also considered the impact of broad historiographical narratives in the history of philosophy on issues in philosophical interpretation of ancient Greek philosophy and Chinese philosophy.
Alongside my work in ancient philosophy and its reception, I am currently working on a book project (with Josh Platzky Miller) challenging the very idea of ‘Western Philosophy’ from philosophical, historical, and historiographical perspectives. I also have ongoing research (with Jonathan Egid) on the Ḥatäta Zärʾa Yaʿǝqob, a philosophical autobiography set in seventeeth-century Ethiopia, and the controversy over its authorship.
Publications
Cantor, Lea and Jonathan Egid. “‘An Ethiopian Lucretius’: Giusto da Urbino and the Origins of the Ḥatäta Zärʾa Yaʿǝqob Controversy”. Journal of the History of Ideas (forthcoming).
Cantor, Lea. “Bad Rulers in Sextus Empiricus and Zhuāngzǐ—and What to Do About Them”. In Patterns of Evil in Ancient Chinese and Greek Philosophy, edited by R. A. H. King and Pavlos Kontos, 48–72. New York: Routledge, 2025. DOI: 10.4324/9781003537793.
Cantor, Lea. “Parmenides and the Centred View”. In Parmenides: New Perspectives, edited by A. G. Long and Barbara Sattler, 73–90. Oxford University Press, 2025. DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780198909118.001.
Cantor, Lea. “Laozi Through the Lens of the White Rose: Resonance or Dissonance?”. Oxford German Studies 52, no. 1 (2023): 62–79. DOI: 10.1080/00787191.2023.2171017.
Cantor, Lea and Josh Platzky Miller. “The Future of the History of Philosophy”. The Philosopher 111, no. 1 (2023): 28–33.
Cantor, Lea. “Thales - the 'first philosopher'? A troubled chapter in the historiography of philosophy”. British Journal for the History of Philosophy 30, no. 5 (2022): 727–750. DOI: 10.1080/09608788.2022.2029347.
Cantor, Lea. “Zhuangzi on ‘happy fish’ and the limits of human knowledge”. British Journal for the History of Philosophy 28, no. 2 (2020): 216–230. DOI: 10.1080/09608788.2019.1667294.
Edited Collections:
Cantor, Lea and Josh Platzky Miller. Special Issue on Eurocentrism and its Critics in the History of Philosophy. British Journal for the History of Philosophy (forthcoming).
Cantor, Lea, Jonathan Egid, and Fasil Merawi (eds.). In Search of Zär’a Ya‛ǝqob: On the History, Philosophy, and Authorship of the Ḥatäta Zär’a Ya‛ǝqob and the Ḥatäta Wäldä Ḥəywät. Boston: De Gruyter, 2024. DOI: 10.1515/9783110725810.
Book Reviews:
Cantor, Lea. “Neglected Classics of Philosophy: Volume 2, edited by Eric Schliesser”. Mind 134, no. 535 (2025): 893–902. DOI: 10.1093/mind/fzae005.
