Michael Chase (PhD EPHE, Ve Section, Paris-Sorbonne, 2000) is Senior Researcher at the Centre Jean Pépin (UMR 8230-École normale supérieure) of the CNRS (National Center of Scientific Research), Paris-Villejuif, France, as well as Visiting Professor at the Universidad Panamericana, Mexico City (2019–2021) and Adjunct Professor at the University of Victoria, Canada. He works at the intersection of Greek, Arabic, and Latin philosophy, and has published widely on ancient Greco-Roman philosophy, Greek and Latin Patristics, and medieval Latin and Arabic philosophy. A former student of Pierre Hadot, he has translated a half-dozen of Hadot’s books into English.

Chase’s interests are broad, multicultural, and interdisciplinary. In addition to his work on the thought of Hadot, he is interested in interactions between contemporary science and ancient philosophy, the transmission of Greek philosophy to the Islamicate world, and comparative ancient and contemporary philosophy in general. His current projects include critical editions of two Arabic philosophical texts (Avicenna, Notes on the Theology of Aristotle, and the Arabic translation of Alexander of Aphrodisias, On the Intellect). He is currently working on a monograph on meditation-style methods of attention management in ancient Greek, Islamic, Jewish, Byzantine, and medieval Latin thought.

Projekte

Philosophy and Medicine in Late Antique Alexandria

MEHR

Scientific Questions Then and Now

MEHR

Experience and Rational Demonstration: Sufis vs. Philosophers in Medieval Islam

MEHR

Selected Publications

Chase, John Michael (2023). “Action by Being Alone in the Plotiniana Arabica.” In Contextualizing Premodern Philosophy: Explorations of the Greek, Hebrew, Arabic, and Latin Traditions, ed. K. Krause, L. X. López-Farjeat, and N. A. Oschman, 394–407…

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Chase, John Michael (2022). “Did Socrates Meditate? On Some Traces of Contemplative Practices in Early Greco-Latin Philosophy.” Religions 13 (6, Article 479). https://doi.org/10.3390/rel13060479.

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Chase, John Michael (2022). “Experience and Knowledge among the Greeks: From the Presocratics to Avicenna.” In Premodern Experience of the Natural World in Translation, ed. K. Krause, M. Auxent, and D. Weil, 23–48. New York, NY: Routledge. https:/…

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Chase, John Michael (2021). “Which School of Ancient Greco-Roman Philosophy Is Most Appropriate for Life in a Time of COVID-19?” Eidos. A Journal for Philosophy of Culture 5 (1): 7–31. https://doi.org/10.14394/eidos.jpc.2021.0002.

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Presentations, Talks, & Teaching Activities

“Pierre Hadot and his Conception of Philosophy as a Way of life”

Licenciatura de Filosofía, Universidad Panamericana, Mexico City, Mexico

“Seminario sobre la recepción árabe de la filosofía antigua. Neoplatonica Arabica, la Teología de Aristóteles”

Maestría de Filosofía Antigua, Universidad Panamericana, Mexico City, Mexico

“Pierre Hadot and his Critics on Spiritual Exercises and Cosmic Consciousness: From Ancient Philosophy to Contemporary Neurology”

Invited paper given at the international Workshop “The Meaning of Life: A Metaphysical and Ethical Problem”, Facultad de Filosofía, Universadad Panamericana, Mexico City, Mexico

“Attention in Neoplatonism: From Plato to Porphyry and the Christian Church Fathers”

Invited paper, given to the Research Group on the Philosophy of Life, Kyoto University Graduate School of Advanced Integrated Studies in Human Survivability (Shishu-Kan), Kyoto, Japan

“Des quatre questions aristotéliciennes au tawḥīd: Notes sur les origines de la théologie négative en Islam”

Invited paper, given for the Seminar “L'influence de la religion néoplatonicienne dans les monothéismes. 1. La conception de Dieu. Théologie apophatique”, Institut Rachi, Troyes, France