VITA                                                                                                                                   1   

Scott Austin

 

Department of Philosophy

4237 TAMU

Texas A&M University

College Station, Texas  77843-4237

U.S.A.

Office:  (979) 845-3601

Fax:  (979) 845-0458

Home:  (979) 695-7628

Email:  s-austin@philosophy.tamu.edu

 

Citizenship:  U.S.

 

 

DEGREES

 

B.A. Yale University, summa cum laude with Exceptional Distinction in History, the Arts, and Letters, Distinction in Philosophy, 1974.

 

Ph.D.  The University of Texas at Austin, 1979.  Dissertation:  The Method of Parmenides, supervised by Alexander P.D. Mourelatos.

 

 

WORK           

 

1991-current:  Associate Professor of Philosophy, Texas A&M University

1988-91:  Assistant Professor of Philosophy, Texas A&M University

1979-88:  Assistant Professor of Philosophy, Boston University

 

 

MONOGRAPHS

 

     Parmenides:  Being, Bounds, and Logic.  New Haven:  Yale University Press, 1986.

 

     Parmenides and the History of Dialectic.  Las Vegas:  Parmenides Publishing, 2007.

 

 

ARTICLES AND REVIEWS

 

Review of Daniel Graham, Explaining the Cosmos:  The Ionian Tradition of Scientific Philosophy (Princeton University Press, 2006) in Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews, online at http://ndpr.nd.edu/review.cfm?id=8923

 

 

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Review of Arnold Hermann, To Think Like God:  Pythagoras and Parmenides:  The Origins of Philosophy (Las Vegas, Parmenides Publishing, 2004) in Journal of the History of Philosophy 43(2005), 481-82.  

 

“Parmenides and the History of Dialectic,” Fealsúnacht (Belfast) 2(2001), 1-21.

 

“From Parmenidean to Hegelian Monism” in Andreas Baechli and Klaus Petrus, Monismus (Festschrift Andreas Graeser) (Frankfurt/London:  Ontos Verlag, 2003, pp. 57-62)(Philosophical Analysis, Volume 9).

 

Review of John A. Palmer, Plato’s Reception of Parmenides (Oxford, 1999) in Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 66(2003), 247-49.

 

“Parmenides, Double-Negation, and Dialectic” in Victor Caston and Daniel W. Graham, eds., Presocratic Philosophy:  Essays in Honour of Alexander Mourelatos (Hants:  Ashgate Press, 2002), Chapter 7, pp. 95-99.

 

Review of Karl Popper, The World of Parmenides:  Essays on the Presocratic Enlightenment (London:  Routledge, 1998) in Apeiron 23(2000), 239-46.

 

“Parmenides and the Closure of the West,” American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly 74(2000), 287-301.

 

Review of Robert G. Turnbull, The Parmenides and Plato’s Late Philosophy in Philosophy in Review 19(1999), 73-75.

 

“Parmenides’ Reference,” Classical Quarterly (1990), 266-67.

 

“The Paradox of Socratic Ignorance (How to Know That You Don’t Know,” Philosophical Topics (Essays on Ancient Greek Philosophy) 15(1987), 23-34.

 

“Parmenides and Ultimate Reality” Ultimate Reality and Meaning 7(1984), 220-31.

 

“Genesis and Motion in Parmenides:  B8.12-13” Harvard Studies in Classical Philology 87(1983), 151-68.

 

 

RECENT PRESENTATIONS

 

“Existence and Essence in Parmenides,” paper given at an international conference, “Parménides, venerable y terrible,” held at the Universidad Nacional de San Martin (Buenos Aires), Centro de Estudios de Filosofia Antigua, October 30-November 2, 2007.

 

“Parmenidean Dialectic and Logic,” Departmental Colloquium, Texas A&M Philosophy

Department, February 8, 2007.

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“Representation and Louis Mackey’s Silence” presented October 1, 2005, at the Louis Mackey Memorial Conference, Department of Philosophy, The University of Texas at Austin.

 

“Prometheus Unbound:  The Greek Invention of Reason,” October, 2004, in ASH (Arts, Social Sciences, and Humanities) Colloquium at Clare Hall, University of Cambridge.

 

Commentator on paper by Alexander Mourelatos entitled “Democritus on the Distinction Between Types and Tokens,” 26th Ancient Philosophy Workshop, Texas A&M University, March 29, 2003.

 

Commentator on paper by Kam-Sing Leung entitled “A Virtue Ethical Defense of the Existence of External Reasons for Actions,” Northwest Philosophy Conference, Lewis & Clark College, Portland, Oregon, October 26, 2002.

 

Chaired ancient philosophy session at Central Division meeting of the American Philosophical Association, Chicago, Illinois, April 25, 2002.

 

Commentator on paper by Kevin Durand entitled “Variations on a Theme:  The Art of Rhetoric and Self-Knowledge in Plato’s Phaedrus,” Midsouth Conference, Memphis, February 2000.

 

Commentator on paper by Brenda Larsen entitled “The Philosopher as Neo-Narcissist,”
Northwest Conference, Pacific University, Forest Grove, Oregon, November 2000.

 

Commentator on paper by Charles Kahn, Southwest Annual Ancient Philosophy Conference, Spring 1998.

 

Commentator on paper by William Prior, Arizona Ancient Philosophy Conference, Spring 1997.

 

Commentator on paper by Kirk Sanders, Southwest Annual Ancient Philosophy Conference (held at Texas A&M), Spring 1996.

 

“The Presocratic Antecedents of Aristotle’s Active Intellect” read at the SUNY-Binghamton meeting of the Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy, October 1995.

 

“The Metaphysics of Syntax in Some Ancient Philosophies” read at the Southwest Annual Ancient Philosophy Conference in Boulder, Colorado, Spring 1995.

 

 

 

 

 

 

GRANTS, AWARDS, AND HONORS

 

Elected Life Member, Clare Hall, University of Cambridge, October 2005.

               

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Visiting Fellow, Clare Hall, University of Cambridge, for period August 2004-August 2005.

 

Wells Fargo Honors Advisor Award, 2002-03 (for best undergraduate advisor of the year).

 

Philosophy/Center for Humanities Research Fellow at Texas A&M, 2000-01.

 

Visiting Fellow, Princeton University Philosophy Department, 2/99-8/99.

 

Texas A&M Association of Former Students Distinguished Teaching Award, 1995.

 

Fulbright Fellowship (to Christ’s College, Cambridge, 1983-84).  Dining rights at Christ’s.

 

NEH Summer Stipend, 1984.  Declined.

 

Danforth Fellowship (1975-79).

 

 

CURRENT AND FORMER SERVICE

 

Undergraduate Program Director  (2005-current)

Chair, Undergraduate Program Advisory Committee (2005-current)

Departmental Undergraduate Advisor (1996-2005)

Member, University Fulbright Committee (2006-07)

Member, Faculty Advisory Committee to the Vice-President for Student Affairs (2003-04)

Member, University Committee on Alumni Distinguished Teaching Awards

Member, University Classics Committee (current)

Chair, College of Liberal Arts Academic Standards Committee

Member, College of Liberal Arts Curriculum Committee

Chair, Undergraduate Curriculum Committee (Department)

Chair, Student Relations Committee (Department)

Advisor, Outdoor Recreation Club

Advisor, Philosophy Club (current)

Advisor, Phi Sigma Tau, Iota Chapter (Philosophy Honor Society) (current)