Julia Elizabeth Annas (born 1946) is a British philosopher who has taught in the United States for the last quarter-century. She is Regents Professor of Philosophy Emerita at the

University of Arizona The University of Arizona (Arizona, U of A, UArizona, or UA) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Tucson, Arizona, United States. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, it ...

Education and career

Annas graduated from

Oxford University The University of Oxford is a collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the second-oldest continuously operating u ...

in 1968 with a B.A. and from

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

with an A.M. (1970) and a Ph.D. (1972). She was a

Fellow A fellow is a title and form of address for distinguished, learned, or skilled individuals in academia, medicine, research, and industry. The exact meaning of the term differs in each field. In learned society, learned or professional society, p ...

and Tutor at

St Hugh's College, Oxford St Hugh's College is a Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent college of the University of Oxford. It is located on a site on St Margaret's Road, to the north of the city centre. It was founded in 1886 by Elizabeth Wordsworth as a ...

for fifteen years before joining the faculty at the University of Arizona in 1986, where she taught until her retirement, apart from one year as a professor at

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

. She specializes in the study of ancient

Greek philosophy Ancient Greek philosophy arose in the 6th century BC. Philosophy was used to make sense of the world using reason. It dealt with a wide variety of subjects, including astronomy, epistemology, mathematics, political philosophy, ethics, metaphysic ...

, including ethics,

psychology Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Its subject matter includes the behavior of humans and nonhumans, both consciousness, conscious and Unconscious mind, unconscious phenomena, and mental processes such as thoughts, feel ...

, and

epistemology Epistemology is the branch of philosophy that examines the nature, origin, and limits of knowledge. Also called "the theory of knowledge", it explores different types of knowledge, such as propositional knowledge about facts, practical knowle ...

. She is the founder and former editor of the annual journal '' Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy''. She is married to Hume scholar David Owen, also a professor of philosophy at the University of Arizona. She was elected a Fellow of the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (The Academy) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and other ...

in 1992 and a member of the

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS) is an American scholarly organization and learned society founded in 1743 in Philadelphia that promotes knowledge in the humanities and natural sciences through research, professional meetings, publicat ...

in 2013. She is also a member of the

Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters (, DNVA) is a learned society based in Oslo, Norway. Its purpose is to support the advancement of science and scholarship in Norway. History The Royal Frederick University in Christiania was establis ...

Philosophical work

Julia Annas has advocated ethics based on character, building on ideas attributed to

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

philosopher

Aristotle Aristotle (; 384–322 BC) was an Ancient Greek philosophy, Ancient Greek philosopher and polymath. His writings cover a broad range of subjects spanning the natural sciences, philosophy, linguistics, economics, politics, psychology, a ...

and making them relevant for contemporary moral discourse. She has argued that being virtuous involves "practical reasoning" which can be compared to the "exercising of a practical skill". Hence, she argues, rather than relating virtues to rules, principles, or an end goal, Annas says, first, people should ask how they can improve their moral "skills".

Selected publications

Books

*''Virtue and Law in Plato and Beyond'' (Oxford, 2017) *''Intelligent Virtue'' (Oxford, 2011) *''Plato: A Very Short Introduction'' (Oxford, 2003) *''Ancient Philosophy: A Very Short Introduction'' (Oxford, 2000) *''Voices of Ancient Philosophy: An Introductory Reader'' (Oxford, 2000) *''Platonic Ethics, Old and New'' (Cornell, 1999) * (reprint 1995, ) *''Hellenistic Philosophy of Mind'' (California, 1992) *''The Modes of Scepticism'' (Cambridge, 1985), with Jonathan Barnes *''An Introduction to Plato's Republic'' (Oxford, 1981) *''Aristotle's Metaphysics, Books M and N, translated with introduction and notes'' (Oxford, 1976)

Translations

Plato Plato ( ; Greek language, Greek: , ; born BC, died 348/347 BC) was an ancient Greek philosopher of the Classical Greece, Classical period who is considered a foundational thinker in Western philosophy and an innovator of the writte ...

, ''Statesman'' (Cambridge, 1995), with

Robin Waterfield Robin Anthony Herschel Waterfield (born 6 August 1952) is a British classical scholar, translator, editor, and writer of children's fiction. Career Waterfield was born in 1952, and studied Classics at Manchester University, where he achieved a f ...

. *

Sextus Empiricus Sextus Empiricus (, ; ) was a Greek Pyrrhonist philosopher and Empiric school physician with Roman citizenship. His philosophical works are the most complete surviving account of ancient Greek and Roman Pyrrhonism, and because of the argument ...

, ''Outlines of Scepticism'' (Cambridge, 1994), with Jonathan Barnes. *

, ''Aristotle's Metaphysics Books M and N'' (Oxford, 1976).

Articles

*"What are Plato's "Middle" Dialogues in the Middle Of?" (Harvard University Press, 2002) *"Democritus and Eudaimonism" (Presocratic Philosophy: Essays in Honour of Alex Mourelatos, edited by Victor Caston and Daniel Graham, Ashgate, Aldershot, 2002) *"Aristotle and Kant on Morality and Practical Reasoning" (Aristotle, Kant & The Stoics,ed. S. Ergstrom and J. Whiting, Cambridge 1996) *"Virtue and Eudaimonism" (Virtue and Vice, ed. E. Paul, J. Jaul and F. Miller, Cambridge, 1998) *"Prudence and Morality in Ancient and Modern Ethics" (Ethics, January 1995) *"Epicurus on Agency" (Passions and Perceptions, Cambridge, 1993) *"The Good Life and the Good Lives of Others" (The Good Life and the Human Good, Cambridge, 1992) *"Plato the Sceptic" (Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy, Supp. Vol., 1992). *"Plato's Myths of Judgement" (Phronesis Vol. 27 No. 2, 1982; pp. 119–143).

References

External links

Profile
at

{{DEFAULTSORT:Annas, Julia 1946 births 21st-century American philosophers Philosophers from Arizona British women philosophers Harvard University alumni British scholars of ancient Greek philosophy University of Arizona faculty Columbia University faculty Living people Fellows of St Hugh's College, Oxford Alumni of the University of Oxford Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences American women philosophers British philosophers 20th-century American philosophers British ethicists Virtue ethicists American ethicists Greek–English translators 20th-century American women academics 21st-century American women academics 21st-century American academics Members of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters members of the American Philosophical Society British women classical scholars Plato scholars