Paul Shorey (August 3, 1857 – April 24, 1934) was an American classical scholar.

Biography

Shorey was born at

Davenport, Iowa Davenport ( ) is a city in Scott County, Iowa, United States, and its county seat. It is situated along the Mississippi River on the eastern border of the state. Davenport had a population of 101,724 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 cen ...

. After graduating from

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

in 1878, he studied in

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Athens Athens ( ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Greece, largest city of Greece. A significant coastal urban area in the Mediterranean, Athens is also the capital of the Attica (region), Attica region and is the southe ...

, and

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(Ph.D., 1884). He was a professor at several institutions from 1885 onward. Professor Shorey served at

Bryn Mawr College Bryn Mawr College ( ; Welsh language, Welsh: ) is a Private college, private Women's colleges in the United States, women's Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, United States. Founded as a ...

(1885–92), then principally at the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, or UChi) is a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its main campus is in the Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, Chic ...

. In 1901-02 he was professor in the American School of Classical Studies at

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, and in 1913-14 he was Roosevelt Lecturer in the

University of Berlin The Humboldt University of Berlin (, abbreviated HU Berlin) is a public research university in the central borough of Mitte in Berlin, Germany. The university was established by Frederick William III on the initiative of Wilhelm von Humbol ...

. Professor Shorey was made a member of the National Institute of Arts and Letters. From 1908 he was managing editor of ''Classical Philology''. Shorey was elected to 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 1920. He died in

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in 1934. After his death, one of many articles published about him asserted that he knew all 15,693 lines of the ''

Iliad The ''Iliad'' (; , ; ) is one of two major Ancient Greek epic poems attributed to Homer. It is one of the oldest extant works of literature still widely read by modern audiences. As with the ''Odyssey'', the poem is divided into 24 books and ...

'' by heart.

The Roosevelt Lectureship

The Roosevelt Lecturership involved giving a series of public lectures. In these, Shorey addressed American culture and literature. Besides the public lectures, however, the Roosevelt Lecturer was required to give a seminar in his own special field of study. As a notable Platonic scholar, Shorey naturally offered to conduct a seminar on Plato. He had not reckoned on the views of American scholarship held by the principal German classicist, Ulrich von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff, who held sway in Berlin. Wilamowitz had no intention of allowing Shorey any scope on Plato:

In a letter to Diels of 8 May 1912 ... he wrote that he considered it 'grotesque that the editor of a Chicago journal be brought to Berlin to teach us philology'. ... Wilamowitz could not of course know that Shorey would later refer to his ''Platon'' as a 'historical novel' (''What Plato Said'' 1933 p2.), but could have been aware that in a 1911 article in the ''Nation'' ... Shorey had named him in a list of German scholars whose 'big ambitious books ... cannot be trusted' (392). Wilamowitz was no more receptive to Shorey's next suggestion, of Pindar, since the two differed on metrical questions. In the end, permission was given for a seminar on the ''De Anima''.

As Sprague points out, Wilamowitz had not reckoned on Shorey's view that 'Aristotle is a Platonist ''au fond.Sprague: 208 In the seminar he explained the relevance, in his view, of Plato's ''Theaetetus'', ''Phaedo'', ''Republic'', ''Euthydemus'', ''Sophist''. ''Politicus'', ''Meno'', and ''Philebus'' to a full and exact understanding of ''De Anima''. Sprague comments: 'I am afraid I find it irresistible to remark that Wilamowitz did not really succeed in preventing Shorey from giving a Plato seminar'.

Writing

Books * ''De Platonis Idearum Doctrina.'' Munich: Theodor Askermann, 1884.
''The Assault on Humanism.''
Boston: Atlantic Monthly Company, 1917.
''The Unity of Plato's Thought''
Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1903. * ''Sophocles.'' Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1931. * ''What Plato Said''. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1933. * ''Platonism, Ancient and Modern.'' Berkeley, Calif.: University of California Press, 1938.
''Selected Papers,''
2 Vols. New York: Garland Pub., 1980. * ''The Roosevelt Lectures of Paul Shorey: (1913–1914).'' Hildesheim: G. Olms Verlag, 1995. Translations * An edition of

Horace Quintus Horatius Flaccus (; 8 December 65 BC – 27 November 8 BC), Suetonius, Life of Horace commonly known in the English-speaking world as Horace (), was the leading Roman lyric poet during the time of Augustus (also known as Octavian). Th ...

'
''Odes and Epodes''
(1898; revised, with Laing, 1910). * * Selected articles
"The Odyssey in Rhythmic English Prose,"
''The Dial,'' Vol. V, May 1884/April 1885.
"Hartmann's Philosophy of the Unconscious,"
''The Dial,'' Vol. V, May 1884/April 1885.
"The Pagan Christ,"
''The Dial,'' Vol. VII, May 1886/April 1887.
"Jevon's History of Greek Literature,"
''The Dial,'' Vol. VII, May 1886/April 1887.
"The Science of Thought,"
''The Dial,'' Vol. VIII, May 1887/April 1888.
"On the Track of Ulysses,"
''The Dial,'' Vol. VIII, May 1887/April 1888.
"Max Müller's Biographies of Words,"
''The Dial,'' Vol. VIII, May 1887/April 1888.
"Erdmann's History of Philosophy,"
''The Classical Review,'' Vol. IV, 1890.
"A Word with Tennyson Dissenters,"
''The Dial,'' Vol. XIV, January/June 1893.
"Plato and Platonism,"
''The Dial,'' Vol. XIV, January/June 1893.
"The Homeric Question Once More,"
''The Dial,'' Vol. XV, July/December 1893.
"An Evolutionist's Alarm,"
''The Dial,'' Vol. XV, July/December 1893.
"Spencer on the Principles of Beneficence,"
''The Dial,'' Vol. XV, July/December 1893.
"Greek Poetry and Life,"
''The Dial,'' Vol. XVI, January/June 1894.
"The Idea of Good in Plato's Republic."
In: ''Studies in Classical Philology,'' Vol. I, The University of Chicago Press, 1895.
"To Ancient Greek through Modern? No!,"
''The Forum,'' Vol. XVIII, 1895.
"Can We Revive the Olympic Games?,"
''The Forum,'' Vol. XIX, 1895.
"Paris Commune of 1871,"
''The Dial,'' Vol. XX, January/June 1896.
"Present Conditions of Literary Production,"
''The Atlantic Monthly,'' Vol. LXXVIII, 1896.
"Discipline vs. Dissipation in Secondary Education,"
''School Review,'' Vol. V, 1897.
"A New Classical Dictionary,"
''The Dial,'' Vol. XXII, January/June 1897.
"The Monuments and Antiquities of Greece,"
''The Dial,'' Vol. XXIV, January/June 1898.
"Plato."
In: ''Philosophers and Scientists,'' Vol. I, Doubleday & McClure Company, 1899.
"The Successors of Homer,"
''The Dial,'' Vol. XXVI, January/June 1899.
"Religion in Greek Literature,"
''The Dial,'' Vol. XXVII, July/December 1899.
"History of Modern Philosophy,"
''The Dial,'' Vol. XXIX, July/December 1900.
"Plato, Lucretius and Epicurus,"
''Harvard Studies in Classical Philology,'' Vol. XII, 1901.
"Science of Meaning,"
''The Dial,'' Vol. XXX, January/June 1901.
"An Historian of Ideas,"
''The Dial,'' Vol. XXX, January/June 1901.
"The Greek Thinkers and their Environment,"
''The Dial,'' Vol. XXXI, July/December 1901.
"Philology and Classical Philology,"
''The Classical Journal,'' Vol. I, No. 6, May 1906.
"The Influence of the Classics on American Literature,"
''The Chautauquan,'' Vol. XLIII, 1906.
"Discipline in Modern Education,"
''The Bookman,'' Vol. XXIII, 1906.
"Mr. Lang's Homeric Queries,"
''The Dial,'' Vol. XLII, January/June 1907.
"Benjamin Jowett, Teacher, Platonist and Scholar,"
''The Chautauquan'', Vol. XLVI, 1907.
"A Dramatic Historian,"
''The Dial,'' Vol. XLIII, July/December 1907.
"The Equivocations of Pragmatism,"
''The Dial,'' Vol. XLIII, July/December 1907.
"Relations of Classical Literature to Other Branches of Learning,"
''International Congress of Arts and Science,'' Vol. VI, 1908.
"The Spirit of the University of Chicago,"
''The University of Chicago Magazine,'' Vol. I, No. 6, April 1909.
"The Poet of Science,"
''The Dial,'' Vol. XLVI, January/June 1909.
"Spelling Reform in Extremis,"
''The Dial,'' Vol. XLVII, July/December 1909.
"Mill Revealed in his Letters,"
''The Dial,'' Vol. XLVIII, January/June 1910.
"The Case for the Classics,"
''The School Review,'' Vol. XVIII, No. 9, 1910.
"Talks on Character and Temperament,"
''The Dial,'' Vol. XLIX, July/December 1910.
"American Scholarship,"
''Educational Review,'' Vol. XLII, June/December 1911.
"The Study of Greek Literature."
In: ''Greek Literature,'' The Columbia University Press, 1912.
"The Place of the Languages and Literatures in the College Curriculum."
In ''The American College,'' Henry Holt and Company, 1915. * "The Bigotry of the New Education," ''The Nation,'' Vol. CV, 1917.
"The Assault on Humanism,"Part II
''The Atlantic Monthly,'' Vols. CXIX/CXX, 1917.
"Fifty Years of Classical Studies in America,"
''Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association,'' Vol. L, 1919.
"A Note on Herodotus,"
''Classical Philology,'' Vol. XV, 1920. Other publications *

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's translation o
''The Iliad''
of

Homer Homer (; , ; possibly born ) was an Ancient Greece, Ancient Greek poet who is credited as the author of the ''Iliad'' and the ''Odyssey'', two epic poems that are foundational works of ancient Greek literature. Despite doubts about his autho ...

, with an introduction and notes by Paul Shorey, 1899.
"Herodotus."
In: ''The New International Encyclopædia,'' Vol. X, Dodd, Mead & Company, 1906, pp. 14–15.
"Homer."
In: ''The New International Encyclopædia,'' Vol. X, Dodd, Mead & Company, 1906, pp. 166–168.
"Pindar."
In: ''The New International Encyclopædia,'' Vol. XVI, Dodd, Mead & Company, 1906, pp. 31–32.
"Plato."
In: ''The New International Encyclopædia,'' Vol. XVI, Dodd, Mead & Company, 1906, 101–104. * Marion Mills Miller (ed.)
''The Classics, Greek and Latim,''
with an introduction by Paul Shorey, 1909.

Legacy

A house in University of Chicago College housing is named in Shorey's honor. Shorey House was located in Pierce Tower until that building's demolition in 2013 and is now located in International House. Shorey's student, Harold F. Cherniss, was a well-known historian of ancient philosophy at the

Institute for Advanced Study The Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) is an independent center for theoretical research and intellectual inquiry located in Princeton, New Jersey. It has served as the academic home of internationally preeminent scholars, including Albert Ein ...

in Princeton and defended Shorey's unitarian interpretation of Plato in several influential books. Shorey's views thus became a central theme of later debates over Plato and Aristotle.

Notes

References

External links

* * * *
Works by Paul Shorey
at

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Works by Paul Shorey
at

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Paul Shorey Letters
at Newberry Library
Sather Professor PortraitsGuide to the Paul Shorey Papers 1865-1934
at th
University of Chicago Special Collections Research Center
{{DEFAULTSORT:Shorey, Paul American classical scholars Shorey, Paul. Harvard University alumni Shorey, Paaul Shorey, Paaul Classical scholars of Bryn Mawr College Classical scholars of the University of Chicago Scholars of ancient Greek literature American scholars of ancient Greek philosophy Plato scholars Members of the American Philosophical Society