Malcolm Schofield

Malcolm Schofield is one of the leading international figures in the field of ancient Greek and Roman philosophy, well known for the breadth of his range of interests within it. These fall within five main areas:

• Presocratic philosophy

He is co-author (with G.S. Kirk and J.E. Raven) of the standard collection of fragments for English-speaking readers The Presocratic Philosophers (Cambridge 1983), translated into many European languages and also Japanese and Chinese. His monograph on Anaxagoras (Cambridge 1980) remains the most widely cited study of this philosopher.

• Plato and Aristotle

He is author of well-known studies on both philosophers, such as Plato: Political Philosophy (Oxford 2006), 'Aristotle on the imagination', in Aristotle on Mind and the Senses, ed. G.E.R.Lloyd & G.E.L.Owen (Cambridge 1978), and 'Ideology and philosophy in Aristotle's theory of slavery', in Aristotles' 'Politik', ed. G.Patzig (Göttingen 1990). A volume of his Plato papers is under preparation, to be entitled: How Plato writes: perspectives and problems.

• Hellenistic philosophy

He has been one of the pioneers in the recent resurgence of interest in this field, helping to found the series of Symposia Hellenistica which have done much to transform the study of later Greek philosophy. He served on the organising committee for many years, and is co-editor of a number of the ensuing collections of papers, including Doubt and Dogmatism (Oxford 1980), the first of the sequence. His own monograph The Stoic Idea of the City (Cambridge 1991; reissued by Chicago 1999) opened up the study of Stoic political philosophy, and remains a foundational study. The Cambridge History of Hellenistic Philosophy, of which he was co-editor, appeared in 1999. His most recent publication in this area is his edition of conference proceedings entitled Aristotle, Plato and Pythagoreanism in the First Century BC (Cambridge 2013), one of the outcomes of a major Arts and Humanities Research Council project he co-directed with David Sedley.

• Political thought

His major area of activity over the last 30 years, beginning with a much-cited paper entitled ‘Euboulia in the Iliad’, Classical Quarterly 1986, and now represented by many important studies on most of the major ancient theorists. As well as the books on Plato and the Stoics already listed, a collection of his papers entitled Saving the City and published by Routledge appeared in 1999. With Christopher Rowe he is editor of The Cambridge History of Greek and Roman Political Thought (Cambridge 2000); an Indonesian version appeared in 2001, and a Chinese version is in preparation. A new English edition of Plato's Laws (prepared jointly with Tom Griffith) appeared from Cambridge in 2016.

• Cicero

His principal area of current activity, with many articles to his name: these include the influential study ‘Cicero’s definition of res publica', in Cicero the Philosopher, ed. J.G.F. Powell (Oxford 1995), and the widely cited ‘Ciceronian dialogue’, in The End of Dialogue in Antiquity, ed. S. Goldhill (Cambridge 2008). He is at present working on Cicero: Political Philosophy, which develops the Carlyle Lectures delivered in Oxford in 2012.

Malcolm Schofield taught at the University of Cambridge for nearly 40 years (1972-2011); he is now Emeritus Professor of Ancient Philosophy, remaining a Fellow of St John’s College. He was elected Fellow of the British Academy in 1997. He was Honorary Secretary of the Classical Association 1989-2003, and its President 2006-7; President of the Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies, 2008-11; and from 2010-16 served as Chair of Council, British School at Athens.

Named visiting lectureships include A.E. Taylor Lecturer, Edinburgh, March 2000; Carlyle Seminars, Oxford, May 2000; C.J.de Vogel Lecturer, Symposium Platonicum, Jerusalem, August 2001; Biggs Resident, Washington University, St Louis, March 2005; Trevor Saunders Lecturer, University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, November 2007; Keeling Lecturer, UCL, March 2011; Whitney J. Oates Fellow, Princeton University, March 2011; Carlyle Lecturer, Oxford, Hilary Term 2012; J.H. Gray Lecturer, Cambridge, Easter Term 2015; Michael Frede Lecturer, British School at Athens, May 2016.