The Ancient Commentators on Aristotle project began in 1985 under the direction of Richard Sorabji, with Michael Griffin as co-editor from 2013. It aims to translate the principal Greek commentaries on Aristotle into English for the first time (along with a number of related philosophical texts from late antiquity). These commentaries record the scientific, medical, and philosophical achievements of late antiquity, many of which are not currently available in any modern language. The project has been described by The Times newspaper as “a massive scholarly endeavour of the highest importance.”

To date, 100 volumes have been published or sent to press, with a further 23 assigned or under consideration. A number of explanatory volumes have also been published, including a three-volume sourcebook on the philosophy of the ancient commentators (1: Psychology, 2: Physics, 3: Logic and Metaphysics). The proceedings of a recent conference organized by the project have also been published.

Reviews of the Commentators Project

• “A truly breathtaking achievement, with few parallels in the history of scholarly endeavour” (David Sedley, The Times Literary Supplement)
• “One of the great scholarly achievements of our time” (Christopher Taylor, British Journal for the History of Philosophy)
• “The Greek commentators are now being read around the world with an intensity of interest they have not received since they were first written” (Myles Burnyeat, Classical Association News)

Visit the project’s website for updates, personnel, and a list of forthcoming volumes.

I am currently developing a short series of lectures on Greek Philosophy on YouTube, available here. See also Teaching.

I’m grateful to be part of a wonderful working group for dialogue between ancient Platonist and Buddhist philosophical positions, organized by Amber Carpenter (Yale-NUS) and Pierre-Julien Harter (UNM). The project website is below.

Buddhist-Platonist Dialogues brings together thirteen international scholars for philosophical discussion of questions arising from putting Platonist and Buddhist traditions into philosophical conversation with each other. Participants have expertise in one tradition, and a serious interest or familiarity with the other. Since September 2019, the Buddhist-Platonists have met regularly to pool our various expertises, engaging critically with texts and topics as we identify and make more precise points of fruitful philosophical exchange.

• I help to coordinate UBC Jump Start, a multi-day academic orientation for UBC students. 

• I have an ongoing project on empathy and perspective-taking in humanities education.

  • A preliminary report on this project is available here.

  • Several years ago, I began an interdisciplinary Scholarship of Teaching and Learning seed project  and TLEF project at UBC to investigate whether undergraduate humanities coursework influences measures such as cognitive empathy, dogmatism, and the capacity to articulate an opponent's position charitably, and to investigate whether these traits can be treated as learning outcomes and encouraged through different pedagogical techniques.

  • This project is in progress: please contact me with any inquiries.

• Midterm evaluation of teaching: I've been an early "beta tester" of UBC's Midterm Evaluation of Teaching project, which has been very helpful in my classes so far. 

• ePortfolios: I’m an early adopter of the UBC Arts ePortfolio project, which aims to help students present research and work to extra-academic audiences.

• Space for Notes: I've been occasionally co-developing an iPad app for collaborative note-taking in classroom and research settings, and outside. More about 'Space' here.