Kouloumentas Stavros

Stavros Kouloumentas is Associate Professor of Ancient Philosophy. He completed his doctoral thesis at the Faculty of Classics of the University of Cambridge, working on the development of a cosmological pattern of early Greek philosophy: the depiction of the cosmos as an orderly system whose equilibrium can be illustrated by projecting socio-political concepts, especially justice and equality, onto a larger scale. He has participated in two international interdisciplinary projects for four years at the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (“Medicine of the Mind, Philosophy of the Body: Discourses of Health and Well-Being in the Ancient World”) and the Centre Léon Robin, Université Paris IV-Sorbonne (“Religions et sociétés dans le monde méditerranéen: rationalité et religion”). He has also carried out independent post-doctoral research at academic institutes of USA (Center for Hellenic Studies-Harvard University, University of Texas at Austin, University of Cincinnati) and United Kingdom (University of Oxford) and has lectured at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, University of Crete, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Open University of Cyprus, and University of Ioannina. His research interests cover a wide range of topics pertaining to ancient Greek thought, including the emergence of rational thinking, cosmogony and cosmology, atheism and its criticism, and the interconnection between philosophy and medicine.

skouloumentas@upatras.gr

https://lastamp.academia.edu/StavrosKouloumentas

Education

1998-2003: BA in Philosophy and Pedagogics. School of Philosophy and Pedagogics, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki; Major: Philosophy.

2003-4: MPhil in Classics (Ancient Philosophy). Faculty of Classics, St John’s College, University of Cambridge (supervisor: David Sedley).

2004-10: PhD in Ancient Philosophy. Faculty of Classics, St John’s College, University of Cambridge. Thesis: “The Conception of Cosmic Justice in Early Greek Philosophy” (supervisor: Malcolm Schofield).

Publications

Books

• Alcmaeon of Croton: Testimonies and Fragments (Cambridge Classical Texts and Commentaries). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, in press.

Edited volumes

• Φιλοσοφία και ιατρική στην αρχαία Ελλάδα: μέθοδοι και προβλήματα (Αncient Scientific Literature-Studies 4). Heraklion: Crete University Press (2023), pp. 384 (co-edited with Stasinos Stavrianeas).
• Stoic Presocratics-Presocratic Stoics: Studies in the Stoic Reception of Early Greek Philosophy (Philosophie hellénistique et romaine-Hellenistic and Roman Philosophy 17). Turnhout: Brepols, in press (co-edited with Christian Vassallo and Michele Alessandrelli).

Translations

• Sedley, D. Ο δημιουργισμός και οι επικριτές του στην αρχαιότητα, edited by Chloe Balla. Athens: National Bank of Greece Cultural Foundation (2023), pp. 496. Originally published as Creationism and Its Critics in Antiquity. Berkeley, Los Angeles, London: University of California Press (2007).

Recent articles

• “Alcmaeon and His Addressees: Revisiting the Incipit”, in P. Bouras-Vallianatos and S. Xenophontos (eds.), Greek Medical Literature and Its Readers: From Hippocrates to Islam and Byzantium. London, New York: Routledge (2018), 7-29.
• “Prodicus on the Rise of Civilization: Religion, Agriculture, and Culture Heroes”, Philosophie antique 18 (2018), 127-152.
• “Heraclitus and the Medical Theorists on the Circle”, Dialogues d’histoire ancienne 44.2 (2018), 43-63.
• “Aristotle on Alcmaeon in Relation to Pythagoras: An addendum in Metaphysics Alpha?”, in P. Golitsis and K. Ierodiakonou (eds.), Aristotle and His Commentators: Studies in Memory of Paraskevi Kotzia (Commentaria in Aristotelem Graeca et Byzantina 7). Berlin: De Gruyter (2019), 49-67.
• “O Αλκμαίων και η εγκεφαλοκεντρική θεωρία στον Φαίδωνα”, Nεύσις 27-28 (2020), 45-65.
• “Tracing the Origins of Beings: Cosmogony and Anthropogony in On Flesh”, in D. Manetti, L. Perilli and A. Roselli (eds.), Ippocrate e gli altri: XVI colloquio internazionale ippocratico, Roma, 27-28 ottobre 2018. Rome: Publications de l’École française de Rome (2022), 73-88.
• “Της Αγάπης αίματα: αναζητώντας την ενότητα του εμπεδόκλειου έργου”, Φιλοσοφία 52 (2022), 335-358.
• “On Ancient Medicine and Aristotle on the Structure and Function of Bodily Parts”, in H. Bartoš and V. Linka (eds.), Aristotle Reads Hippocrates (Studies in Ancient Medicine 59). Leiden, Boston: Brill (2024), 100-125 (co-authored with Stasinos Stavrianeas).
• “Parmenides’ daimon and the Souls: Cosmology and Eschatology”, Mnemosyne, in press.
• “Cleanthes on the Origin of the Conception of the God: The Presocratic, Socratic, and Aristotelian Background”, in C. Vassallo, M. Alessandrelli and S. Kouloumentas (eds.), Stoic Presocratics-Presocratic Stoics: Studies in the Stoic Reception of Early Greek Philosophy (Philosophie hellénistique et romaine-Hellenistic and Roman Philosophy 17). Turnhout: Brepols, in press.

Research interests

• Ancient Philosophy
• Ancient Science

Research fellowships

• Alexander von Humboldt Stiftung, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, 2012-5.
• Fernard Braudel-IFER, Centre Léon Robin, CNRS/Université Paris IV-Sorbonne, 2015-6.
• Center for Hellenic Studies, Washington DC, Harvard University, 2015-6.
• Gregory Vlastos Archive Fund, University of Texas at Austin, 2015-6.
• Centenary Bursary, The British School at Athens, University of Oxford, 2016-7.
• Margo Tytus, University of Cincinnati, 2017-8.
• Hellenic Foundation for Research and Innovation, University of Patras, 2019-22.

Research projects in progress

• Aristotle’s Ouevre, vol. 10: History of Animals V-X. Translation, Introduction, Commentary. Society for the Study of Human Sciences (directed by Gerasimos Kouzelis, Vassilis Kalfas and Pantelis Bassakos).
• The New von Arnim Project-APATHES (Assessing Philosophical Authors and Texts from Herculaneum and elsewhere on Early Stoicism: Insights into Ancient Logic, Physics and Ethics towards a New von Arnim), Europen Research Council, University of Turin (directed by Christian Vassallo).

Courses (2024-5)

• Ancient Greek Literature and Language II (undergraduate, WS).
• Laboratory of Philosophical Texts I: Ancient Philosophy (undergraduate, WS).
• Ancient Greek Philosophy I: The Cosmos, the Gods and Human Beings (postgraduate, WS).
• Mechanical and Teleological Explanations from the Presocratics to the Stoics (undergraduate, SS).
• Early Greek Philosophy: The Cosmological Debate (postgraduate, SS).

Office hours

• Thursday 17.00-19.00
• Friday 13.00-14.00
• By appointment via email