Physis: The Study of Nature in the Pre-modern World
Physis (ΦΥΣΙΣ, the Greek word for "nature") is a cross-department group of faculty with interests in the study of nature before 1600. Faculty in Physis advise students who are pursuing Ph.D. or Master's programs in HPS, History, Philosophy, Theology, Medieval Studies, Classics, and English, and offer regular graduate courses in all of these programs. The current faculty in Physis are:
- David Cory (Philosophy; medieval theories of life and nature)
- Therese Cory (Philosophy; medieval theories of mind, cognition, and personhood)
- Felipe Fernández-Armesto (History; global environmental history, global science, technology, and medicine)
- Robert Goulding (PLS; early-modern mathematics and physics; Platonism and mathematics)
- Michelle Karnes (English; late medieval literature, marvels, representation of animals)
- Sean Kelsey (Philosophy; ancient Greek philosophy; Aristotelian natural philosophy)
- Mahan Mirza (Ansari Institute; Islamic science and philosophy)
- Andrew Radde-Gallwitz (PLS; Greek patristics and natural philosophy)
- Evan Ragland (History; early-modern medicine and experimentation)
- Gretchen Reydams-Schils (PLS; Platonic and Stoic traditions of natural philosophy)
- Denis Robichaud (PLS; Renaissance Neoplatonism)
- Wiebke-Marie Stock (Medieval Institute and University of Bonn; ancient Neoplatonism)
- Abraham Winitzer (Theology; ancient Near Eastern science and divination)
Graduate courses taught recently by members of the Physis group include:
- Plato's Timaeus
- Aristotle's Physics
- Ancient and Medieval Notions of the Self
- Topics in Late-Antique Natural Philosophy
- Magic, Causation, and Scientific Explanation
- Demonology in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages
- Neoplatonic Controversies in the Fifteenth Century
- Science and Philosophy in the Ancient Near East
- Mind and Mental Acts in the 13th and 14th Centuries
Physis works closely with the Workshop in Ancient Philosophy and the History of Philosophy Forum.
For more details about graduate study with Physis through any of our cooperating graduate programs, please contact Robert Goulding.
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Assistant Teaching Professor, Philosophy
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Associate Professor, Philosophy
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William P. Reynolds Professor of History
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Associate Professor, Program of Liberal Studies
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Professor, English
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Rev. John A. O'Brien Associate Professor
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Teaching Professor, Ansari-Global Engagement w Religion
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Concurrent Professor, Theology
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Associate Professor, History
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Professor, Program of Liberal Studies
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Concurrent Associate Professor, Romance Languages and Literatures
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Adjunct Assistant Teaching Professor, Medieval Institute
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Associate Professor, Theology