Luke Lea is a Ph.D. candidate in the Classical Studies program, specializing in ancient Greek philosophy, with a particular focus on the ethics and psychology of Plato and the Early Greek Philosophers.
His dissertation studies the ethical thought of the sophist Antiphon, its relation to Book II of Plato’s Republic, and the implications of this connection for the remainder of the Republic. It argues that in Republic II, Glaucon and Adeimantus challenge Socrates to defend justice in the face of an immoralist argument largely inspired by Antiphon’s theories about nature, convention, and what is advantageous for human beings. Appreciation of Antiphon’s thought helps us understand Socrates’ task in the Republic: to show that justice is good by nature for the individual human being.
Luke wrote his M.A. thesis on Epicurean epistemology. It argues that Epicurus does not differentiate sense-perception from belief either by their form or by their content, but by the fact that sense-perception limits itself to immediate, present-tense reports of the world, while belief extrapolates from present-tense sense-perceptions toward implicit predictions about future-tense and hypothetical sense-perceptions.
In addition to ancient philosophy, Luke maintains interests in ethics, metaethics, and diverse periods in the history of philosophy.
Luke holds a B.A. from St. John’s College in Santa Fe, New Mexico and an M.A. in Classics from the University of New Mexico. He has presented papers on Plato, Antiphon, Epicurus, Aristophanes, and other topics at the annual meetings of the APA (Eastern Division), SCS, CAMWS, and ACLA, and at international conferences in Hamburg, London, and Milan. Email Luke Lea.