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 Philosophy, including the composition and transmission of philosophical texts in antiquity, the emergence of rational thinking, cosmology, atheism, 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