Curriculum Vitae
Gerald Alan Press
Professor of Philosophy, Hunter College, C.U.N.Y.
Higher Education
University of California, San Diego 1969 – 1974 Ph.D., Philosophy, 1974
University of California, San Diego 1966 – 1969 M.A., Philosophy, 1969
University of California, Berkeley 1962 – 1966 A.B., Philosophy, 1966
Languages: Greek, Latin, Italian (also spoken), French, German, Spanish
Teaching Experience
Hunter College (C.U.N.Y.) 1999 – Professor
Hunter College (C.U.N.Y.) 1993 – 1998 Associate Professor (tenure)
Hunter College (C.U.N.Y.) 1988 – 1993 Associate Professor
Hunter College (C.U.N.Y.) 1985 – 1988 Visiting Assistant Professor
Stanford University 1980 – 1985 Instructor, Western Culture Program
University of California, Riverside 1976 – 1979 Lecturer
Contra Costa College 1975 – 1976 Instructor
Pennsylvania State University 1973 – 1975 Assistant Professor
Grossmont College 1970 – 1973 Instructor
Publications
Books
Editor, The Bloomsbury Companion to Plato. New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 2015. Corrected paperback edition of The Continuum Companion to Plato.
Editor, The Continuum Companion to Plato. London: Continuum International Publishing, 2012; published as e-book 2013.
Plato: A Guide for the Perplexed. London: Continuum, 2007; reprinted 2009, 2010; published as e-book, 2009
Editor, Who Speaks For Plato? Studies in Platonic Anonymity. Savage, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 2000; published as e-book 2009.
Editor, Plato’s Dialogues: New Studies and Interpretations. Savage, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 1993; published as e-book 2010.
Study Guide for James B. Freeman, Thinking Logically. Basic Concepts for Reasoning.Englewood, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1988.
The Development of the Idea of History in Antiquity. Montreal: McGill-Queens University Press, 1982; reprinted 2003; published as e-book 2008.
Chapters
“An Alternative Plato” in Russian translation, in Платоновские Исселедования (Platonic Investigations), edited by Irina Protopopova. Moscow. Vol. III (2015), in press.
“Changing Course in Plato Studies,” pp. 187-96 in Second Sailing: Alternative Perspectives on Plato, edited by Debra Nails and Harold Tarrant. Helsinki: Societas Scientiarum Fennica, 2015.
“The State of the Question in the Study of Plato: 15 Year Update,” in Russian translation, in Платоновский сборник (Platonic Papers), edited by Irina Protopopova. Moscow, 2013. Vol. 1, pp. 48-74.
“History as Story: The Early Roman Empire and the Rhetorical Use of History by the Early Christians.” Reprint of The Development of the Idea of History in Antiquity, ch. 3 in Classical and Medieval Literature Criticism 106 (2008), 160-74.
“Sun and Good from the Perspective of the History of Philosophy,” pp. 237-49 in New Images of Plato. Eds. S. Scolnicov and G. Reale (Sankt Augustin: Academia Verlag, 2002).
“The Elenchos in Charmides 162-175,” pp. 252-65 in Re-Examining the Socratic Elenchos, ed. Gary Alan Scott (University Park: Penn State University Press, 2002)
“The Logic of Attributing Characters’ Views to Plato,” pp. 27-38 in G. Press, ed., Who Speaks for Plato? (2000)
“Plato” in The Columbia History of Western Philosophy (New York: Columbia University Press, 1998), 32-52.
“A Brief Summary of Aristotle’s Writings,” in The Columbia History of Western Philosophy. New York: Columbia University Press, 1998), 72-74.
“Origins of Western Philosophic Thinking,” in The Columbia History of Western Philosophy New York: Columbia University Press, 1998), 1-6.
“The Dialogical Mode in Modern Plato Studies,” pp. 1-28 in Plato’s Dialogues: The Dialogical Approach, ed. V. Tejera and R. E. Hart. Lewiston, NY: Edwin Mellen Press,
“Plato’s Dialogues as Enactments,” pp. 133-152 in The Third Way: New Directions in Platonic Studies, ed. F. Gonzalez (Savage, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 1995).
“Principles of Dramatic and Non-Dogmatic Plato Interpretation,” pp. 107-127 in Plato’s Dialogues: New Studies and Interpretations, ed. G. Press (1993).
Articles
“Early, Middle, and Late Platonic Provocation: Comments on Miriam Byrd’s “When the Middle Comes Early,” Proceedings of the Boston Area Colloquium on Ancient Philosophy, 28 (2012), 210-16.
“Digital Transitions,” Journal of the History of Philosophy 50 (2012), 471-76.
“Continuities and Discontinuities in the History of Republic Interpretation,” International Studies in Philosophy 28 (1996), 61-78.
“The State of the Question in the Study of Plato,” Southern Journal of Philosophy 34 (1996), 507-32; reprinted Smith, Nicholas D, ed., Plato: Critical Assessments. London: Routledge, 1998. Vol. I: 309-32; Russian translation in Платоновский сборник (Platonic Papers), edited by Irina Protopopova. Moscow, 2013. Vol. I, pp. 8-47.
“Knowledge as Vision in Plato’s Dialogues,” Journal of Neoplatonic Studies 3 (1995), 61-89.
“Tyconius in Augustine’s De doctrina christiana,” Protocol of the Fifty-Eighth Colloquy, Center for Hermeneutical Studies, Berkeley, California, (1990), 62-66.
“Achieving an Interdisciplinary Context for Philosophy,” Newsletter on Teaching Philosophy 88:3 (1989), 97-99.
“The Place of History in the Teaching of Philosophy,” Newsletter on Teaching Philosophy 88:1 (1988), 60-63.
“The Role of Philosophy in the Transmission of Culture,” Philosophie et Culture. Actes du XVIIe Congres Mondial de Philosophie (Montreal, 1988), Vol. II, pp. 301-304.
“Doctrina in Augustine’s De doctrina christiana,” Philosophy and Rhetoric 17 (1984), 98-120.
“The Content and Argument of Augustine’s De doctrina christiana,” Augustiniana 31 (1981), 165-182.
“The Subject and Structure of Augustine’s De doctrina christiana,” Augustinian Studies 11 (1980), 99-124.
“Philosophy and the Elective System in Higher Education,” Newsletter on Teaching Philosophy, Spring, 1980, 10-11.
“Hellenistic Thinking about Art,” Southern Journal of Philosophy 16 (1978), 235-246.
“History and the Development of the Idea of History in Antiquity,” History and Theory
16 (1977), 280-296.
Reviews
Boys-Stones, George, Dimitri El Murr and Christopher Gill (edd.). The Platonic art of philosophy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2016.05.28.
Thomas Tuozzo, Plato’s Charmides: Positive Elenchus in a Socratic Dialogue. Journal of the History of Philosophy. 51 (2013), 310-11
Catherine Zuckert, Plato’s Philosophers. Journal of the History of Philosophy 50 (2012), 133-135.
Christopher Rowe, Plato and the Art of Philosophical Writing. The Classical Review 59 (2009), 54-56.
Migliori, Maurizio, Linda M. Napolitano Valditara and Davide Del Forno (edd.). Plato ethicus: philosophy is life. Sankt Augustin: Academia Verlag, 2004. Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2008.12.05
Rebecca Benson Cain, Plato’s Use of Philosophical Drama. Philosophy in Review 28.5 (October 2008), 322-24
Plato’s Symposium: Issues in Interpretation and Reception, eds. James Lesher, Debra Nails, and Frisbee Sheffield. Journal of the History of Philosophy 46 (2008), 167-68.
Michail Maiatsky. Platon: penseur du visual. Paris: l’Harmattan, 2005. Journal of the History of Philosophy July, 2007.
Ales Havlicek and Filip Karfik, eds., Plato’s Protagoras. Proceedings of the Third Symposium Platonicum Pragense. Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2006.06.27.
Études Platoniciennes, ed. Jean-François Pradeau. Journal of the History of Philosophy 43 (2005), 483-484.
Roslyn Weiss. Virtue in the Cave: Moral Inquiry in Plato’s Meno. Journal of the History of Philosophy 40 (2002), 535-536
Mark Moes, Plato’s Dialogue Form and the Care of the Soul. Bryn Mawr Classical Review (June 2002, No.43)
Holger Thesleff, Studies in Plato’s Two-Level Model. Bryn Mawr Classical Review (August 2000, No. 22)
Bernard Freydberg, The Play of the Platonic Dialogues. Ancient Philosophy 18 (1998), 477-80
Dee L. Clayman, ed., The Database of Classical Bibliography. Journal of the History of Philosophy 36 (1998), 619.
Edward Schiappa, Protagoras and Logos. Ancient Philosophy 16 (1996), 159-161.
Debra Nails, Agora, Academy, and the Conduct of Philosophy. Bryn Mawr Classical Review (1996), 96-8-1.
James C. Klagge and Nicholas D. Smith, eds., Methods of Interpreting Plato and His Dialogues. JHP 34 (1996), 135-136.
Thomas C. Brickhouse and Nicholas D. Smith, Plato’s Socrates. Review of Metaphysics 48 (1995), 403-405.
James A. Arieti, Interpreting Plato: The Dialogues as Drama. Journal of the History of Philosophy 30 (1992), 292-293.
Philosophy in History, Richard Rorty, et al., eds. Journal of Chinese Philosophy 16 (1992), 235-237.
Richard McKeon, Rhetoric: Essays in Invention and Discovery. Ed. Mark Backman. Ox Bow Press, 1987. Journal of the History of Philosophy 28 (1990), 151-153.
Victorino Tejera, Plato’s Dialogues One by One. Journal of the History of Philosophy 27 (1989), 462-464.
Walter Watson, The Architectonics of Meaning. Journal of the History of Philosophy 26 (1988), 505-507.
J. de Vogel, Rethinking Plato and Platonism. Journal of the History of Philosophy 26 (1988), 311-312.
Aristotle’s Physics Books III and IV, ed. and tr. by E. Hussey. Philosophical Books 26 (1985), 14-16.
Henry Maguire, Art and Eloquence in Byzantium. Philosophy and Rhetoric 18 (1985), 65-66.
Abraham Edel, Aristotle and His Philosophy. Philosophical Books 25 (1984), 11-13.
Daniel J. Wilson, Arthur O. Lovejoy and the Quest for Intelligibility. Journal of theHistory of Philosophy 25 (1983), 254-255.
George A. Kennedy, Classical Rhetoric and its Christian and Secular Traditions. Journal of the History of Philosophy 21 (1983), 111-113.
Samuel J. IJsseling, Rhetoric and Philosophy in Conflict. Journal of the History of Philosophy 18 (1980), 110-11.
Contributor
Article “Charmides” in Gerald A. Press, ed., Continuum Companion to Plato. London: Continuum International Publishing, 2012. Pp. 41-43.
Article “Anonymity” in Gerald A. Press, ed., Continuum Companion to Plato. London: Continuum International Publishing, 2012. Pp. 101-103.
Article “History” in Gerald A. Press, ed., Continuum Companion to Plato. London: Continuum International Publishing, 2012. Pp. 107-8.
Article “Plato” in Malti-Douglas, Fedwa, ed. Encyclopedia of Sex and Gender. Detroit: Macmillan Reference, 2007. Vol. 3, pp. 1160-1162.
The Columbia World of Quotations, print and CD-ROM (New York: Columbia University Press, 1996). Contributions in ancient philosophy.
Other Professional Activities
- Editorial Work
Editor, The Continuum Guide to Plato. 2008-2011.
Editor, Journal of the History of Philosophy (1998 – 2003).
Editor for Ancient Philosophy, Columbia History of Western Philosophy (Columbia University Press), 1994 – 1996.
Book Review Editor, Journal of the History of Philosophy, 1990 – 1997.
- Consultations
Continuum, International Publishers. Book proposal referee, 2012.
Cambridge University Press. Manuscript referee, 2011.
International Journal of the Platonic Tradition. Manuscript referee, 2011
Social Sciences and Research Council of Canada. External assessor of research propsal, 2011.
Cambridge University Press. Manuscript referee, 2009.
Continuum, International Publishers. Book proposal referee, 2009.
Classical World. Manuscript referee 2006
Catholic University of America Press. Book manuscript referee, 2006.
Kristeller-Popkin Travel Fellowships given by the Journal of the History of Philosophy.
Member of applicant selection committee, 2005-present.
Penn State University Press. Manuscript referee, 2004.
Pacific Philosophical Quarterly. Manuscript referee, 2003.
OneWorld Publications (England). Manuscript referee, 2003 – 2004.
Israel Science Foundation, grant application referee, 1999.
Finnish Society of Sciences and Letters, Commentationes Humanarum Litterarum,
Manuscript referee, 1998.
State University of New York Press. Manuscript referee, 1996 – 2000.
Journal of Ethics. Manuscript referee, 1996.
Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, grant referee, 1995.
Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. Manuscript referee, 1993 – 2005.
Ancient Philosophy. Manuscript referee, 1994 – present.
Glassboro State College, Glassboro, New Jersey. Consultant on general education curriculum revision. April, 1988.
Rhetorica. Manuscript referee, 1985 – 1993.
McGill-Queens University Press. Manuscript referee, 1983
Journal of the History of Philosophy. Manuscript referee 1975 – present
Philosophy and Rhetoric. Manuscript referee, 1973 – 1975
- M.A. and Ph.D. Committees
Mateo Duque, “Acting Out: Socratic Mimesis,” 2016
James Snyder, “Marsilio Ficino’s Theory of Prime Matter,” Ph. D. candidate, CUNY Graduate Center
Carol Dunn, “Plato’s Theory of Ideas,” M.A. candidate, CUNY Graduate Center
- External Promotion and Tenure Evaluations
Catholic University of America, 2014
University of Missour, 2012
University of Sydney. 2012
University of Ottawa, 2010
University of Haifa, 2009
University of Sydney, 2005
Brooklyn College, CUNY 2005
University of Pennsylvania, 2000
University of Washington, 1999
Mary Washington College, 1997
Colby College, 1996
Skidmore College, 1996, 2003
- Grants, Awards
Presidential Travel Award, Hunter College, 2006 – 16.
PSC-CUNY Research Grant, 2009-2010
PSC-CUNY Creative Incentive Award. Hunter College, 1993.
George N. Shuster Research Grant. Hunter College, 1992
Fulbright Junior Research Fellowship. Rome, Italy. 1984
National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Stipend. Rome, Italy. 1983
Andrew Mellon Fellowship in Early Christian Humanism. Catholic University of America. 1979 – 1980
Dean’s Research Grant. University of California, Riverside. 1978 – 1979
F. Talks, Lectures
- Invited
“An Alternative Plato.” Plenary address. 23rd Annual Conference of the Russian Plato Society in St. Petersburg, June 24, 2015
Commentator, Miriam Byrd, “When Middle Comes Early,” Boston Area Colloquium on Ancient Philosophy, March 22, 2012
Commentator, Jennifer Ingle, Intellectual Courtage: The Lesson of the Laches” and John Wolfe, “Aretê and Physics: The Lesson of the Timaeus,” Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy, New York, NY, October 2010.
Commentator, P. C. Smith, “Poetic and Pictorial Images in Homer and Virgil,” Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy, New York, NY, October 2006
Commentator, participating in Author-Meets-Critics panel on J. Angelo Corlett, Interpreting
Plato’s Dialogues. American philosophical Association, Pacific Division Meeting, Portland, OR, March 2006.
“Plato’s Literary-Philosophical Enacments,” C.U.N.Y. Graduate Center, Comparative Literature Program, March 2005
“Sun and Good from the Perspective of the History of Philosophy,” International Plato Centre, Gaflei, International Academy of Philosophy, Gaflei Liechtenstein, September 8, 2000
“Plato’s Dialogues as History, Philosophy, and Poetry,” Yale University, October 1997
“The Character of Critias in Plato’s Charmides,” Vassar College, February 1997
“The Crisis in Contemporary Platonic Studies.” United States Military Academy, February, 1995; Hunter College, November 1996; C.U.N.Y. Graduate Center, March, 1997
“Plato in the Core Curriculum.” Farleigh Dickinson University, May 1991
“The Roman Debt to Greek Thought.” Manhattan College, November, 1990
“Tyconius in Augustine’s De doctrina christiana”. Graduate Theological Union and the University of California at Berkeley, October 1988
“Freedom and Folk Dance.” UNESCO International Organization for Folk Art Congress. Larissa, Greece, July 1987
Commentator on C. T. Powell, “Why Aristotle Has No Philosophy of History”. American Philosophical Association Eastern Division Meeting. December 1985
“Philosophy that Matters”. Panelist on Jacob Needleman, The Heart of Philosophy. American Philosophical Association Pacific Division Meeting, March 1985
“Paul Henry as Teacher”. Memorial Meeting in Honor of Paul Henry, S.J. American Philosophical Association Eastern Division Meeting, December, 1984
- Refereed
“What is the Subject of Meno 86d-100b?,” accepted for presentation at the VII Symposium Platonicum of the International Plato Society, University of Würzburg, July 2004.
“The Elenchos with Critias in the Charmides 162-175,” International Plato Society, Toronto,
August 1998.
“The Political Dimension of Plato’s Charmides,” International Association for Greek Philosophy, Samos, Greece, July, 1996
“Contradictions in Plato’s Dialogues.” American Philosophical Association, Pacific Division, Portland, OR, March 1992
“The Role of Philosophy in the Transmission of Culture.” XVII World Congress of Philosophy, Montreal, August, 1983
F. Talks, Lectures
- Invited
“Equivocal Critics of Non-Dogmatism,” Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy, Fordham University, October 2007
“The Elenchos in the Charmides, 162 – 175,” Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy, Binghamton University, October 1997
“The Logic of the Mouthpiece Theory,” Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy, Binghamton University, October, 1996
“Technical and Non-Technical Philosophy in Plato’s Dialogues, Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy, Binghamton University, October, 1995
“Knowledge as Vision in Plato’s Dialogues,” Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy, Binghamton University, October, 1994
“Anti-Platonism and Neo-Platonism in the History of Republic Interpretation,” Hunter College, 1994
“Plato’s Dialogues as Enactments,” Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy, Binghamton University, 1993
“Principles of Dramatic and Non-Dogmatic Interpretation of Plato’s Dialogues”, Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy, New York, October 1991
“A Dramatic and Non-Doctrinal Interpretation of Plato’s Crito,” New Jersey Regional Philosophy Association, Rutgers University, November 1991
“Aristotle and the Myth of Pre-Socratic Philosophy.” Hunter College. Spring, 1989
Freedom and Tradition.” Hunter College. Spring, 1987
“The Problem of Value and the Task of Philosophy.” Hunter College. Spring, 1986
“Early Christianity and Classical Rhetoric.” Lehigh University. March, 1983
“Contexts and Consequences of The Development of Idea of History in Antiquity.”
Lehigh University. March, 1983
“Cicero’s Alternative Version of the History of Ancient Thought.” Fourth Biennial
Convention, Intl. Society for the History of Rhetoric, Florence, Italy, June, 1983
“Doctrina in Augustine’s De doctrina christiana.” Third Biennial Convention,
International Society for the History of Rhetoric, Madison, April, 1981
“Philosophy as Art.” University of Redlands. April, 1979
“Philosophy, Rhetoric, and the Educated Man.” California State College, San
Bernardino. March, 1977
“Speakers of Words and Doers of Deeds: The Cultural Bases of Ancient Greek Art.” San
Francisco Art Institute. Fall, 1976
“Conquest and Assimilation: The Cultural Bases of Hellenistic and Roman Art.” San Francisco Art Institute. Fall, 1976
“History and the Development of the Idea of History in Antiquity.” Pennsylvania State
University. Spring, 1974
Membership in Professional Societies
American Philosophical Association, Eastern Division
International Association for Greek Philosophy
International Plato Society
Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy
Administrative Service and Experience
- Extra-collegiate
Member, Editorial Board, Платоновский сборник (Platonic Papers) (Russian publication), 2013 – present.
Member, Editorial Board, Polis. The Journal for Ancient Greek Political Thought, 2011 –
Member, Editorial Board, Dilthey International Yearbook of Human Sciences, 2007 – 2011.
Advisor to Student Philosophy Journal, Aurora. CUNY Graduate Center, 2005 – 2006.
Administrative Service and Experience
- Extra-collegiate
Treasurer, Journal of the History of Philosophy, Inc., 2003 – 15.
CUNY University Committee on Research Awards, Philosophy Liaison, 1999-2002
Co-Organizer, New York City International Conference on the History of Philosophy and
Religion, Hunter College, May 1997, May 1998.
Organized programs on Plato’s Dialogues for Annual SAGP conferences, October, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2007
Co-Chair, “The Uses of the Republic,” interdisciplinary conference on Plato’s Republic;
Hunter College, March 22-24, 1994
Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy (SAGP), Program Committee, 1991 – 2000
- Collegiate
College of Arts and Sciences, Dean Search Committee, 2014 – 15
Chair, Thomas Hunter Honors Program, February 2014 – present
Senate Select Committee on Honors, February 2014 – present
Acting Chair, Thomas Hunter Honors Program, August 2013 – January 2014
Acting Co-Chair, Thomas Hunter Honors Program, August 2012 – January 2013, August 2013- January 2013
Curriculum Committee, College of Arts and Sciences, 2010 – 2012
Dean’s Academic Integrity Panel, 2005 – 2006
Presidential Committee on Honors and Graduate Admissions, 1999 – 2000
Presidential Scholarship Review Committee, 1996 – 1998.
Thomas Hunter Honors Program. Designed new curriculum for First-Year Colloquium;
Applicant Interview Comm., 1988 – present; Member, Council on Honors, 1990 – present. Outcomes Assessment Director, 2004-2005
Divisional Curriculum Committee 1988 – 1998; Steering Committee 1993 – 1998; Chair
1995-1996.
Member of the Hunter College Senate, 1987 – 1998.
- Departmental
Ad hoc Grade Appeal Committee, Spring 2013
Advising Committee, 2010 – 2012
Administrative Service and Experience
- Departmental
Curriculum Committee, 1988 – 1990, 2012-13
Phi Sigma Tau Committee, 2004 – 2005, 2011-12
Personnel and Budget Committee, 2014- present, 2007 – 09, 1992 – 2004
Major Advisor, 1991 – present
Department Secretary, 1990 – 1994
Committee on Departmental Honors, 1990 – 2011
Major Program Revision Committee, 1989 – 1990
Colloquium Committee, 1986 – 1987
Adviser to Student Philosophy Club, 1985 – 1993