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 land-grant research university in Tucson, Arizona. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, it was the first university in the Arizona Territory. T ...

Education and career

Annas graduated from

Oxford University Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to th ...

in 1968 with a B.A. and from

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...

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

Fellow A fellow is a concept whose exact meaning depends on context. In learned or professional societies, it refers to a privileged member who is specially elected in recognition of their work and achievements. Within the context of higher education ...

and Tutor at St Hugh's College, Oxford for fifteen years before joining the faculty at the University of Arizona in 1986, where she taught until her retirement, apart for one year as a professor at

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

. She specializes in the study of ancient

Greek philosophy Ancient Greek philosophy arose in the 6th century BC, marking the end of the Greek Dark Ages. Greek philosophy continued throughout the Hellenistic period and the period in which Greece and most Greek-inhabited lands were part of the Roman Empi ...

, including ethics,

psychology Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Psychology includes the study of conscious and unconscious phenomena, including feelings and thoughts. It is an academic discipline of immense scope, crossing the boundaries between ...

, and

epistemology Epistemology (; ), or the theory of knowledge, is the branch of philosophy concerned with knowledge. Epistemology is considered a major subfield of philosophy, along with other major subfields such as ethics, logic, and metaphysics. Epis ...

. She was elected a Fellow of the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) 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, a ...

in 1992 and a member of the

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS), founded in 1743 in Philadelphia, is a scholarly organization that promotes knowledge in the sciences and humanities through research, professional meetings, publications, library resources, and communit ...

in 2013. 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 is a member of the

Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters ( no, Det Norske Videnskaps-Akademi, 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 Unive ...

Philosophical work

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

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece 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 ...

philosopher

Aristotle Aristotle (; grc-gre, Ἀριστοτέλης ''Aristotélēs'', ; 384–322 BC) was a Greek philosopher and polymath during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. Taught by Plato, he was the founder of the Peripatetic school of ph ...

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 Jonathan Barnes, FBA (born 26 December 1942 in Wenlock, Shropshire) is an English scholar of Aristotelian and ancient philosophy. Education and career He was educated at the City of London School and Balliol College, Oxford University. He t ...

*''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 ( ; grc-gre, Πλάτων ; 428/427 or 424/423 – 348/347 BC) was a Greek philosopher born in Athens during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. He founded the Platonist school of thought and the Academy, the first institution ...

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

Robin Waterfield Robin Anthony Herschel Waterfield (born 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 first clas ...

. *

Sextus Empiricus Sextus Empiricus ( grc-gre, Σέξτος Ἐμπειρικός, ; ) was a Greek Pyrrhonist philosopher and Empiric school physician. His philosophical works are the most complete surviving account of ancient Greek and Roman Pyrrhonism, and bec ...

, ''Outlines of Scepticism'' (Cambridge, 1994), with

. *

, ''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

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{{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 21st-century American women Members of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters Members of the American Philosophical Society Women classical scholars