John Partridge
Associate Professor of Philosophy
Office: Knapton 123
Office Hours: Tu 2:00-3:50 pm or by appt.
Phone: 508.286.3679
Fax: 508.286.3640
Email: jpartrid@wheatoncollege.edu Personal web page
Degrees
Ph.D., M.A. Johns Hopkins University
B.A. College of William and Mary
Research Interests
My main research area is Ancient Philosophy. My recent work centers on Socrates' divine sign and the implications of this peculiar phenomenon on his commitment to reason. I have also worked on Socrates' claim to possess an "art of love" and the efforts by later Platonist and some Stoic readers to link this art to his broader philosophical concerns.
Teaching Interests
"Introduction to Philosophy" (PHIL 101) MWF 9:30-10:20, Meneely 105
"Ancient Philosophy" (PHIL 203) MWF 11:30-12:20, Watson 122
"Aesthetics" (PHIL 236) MW 2:00-3:20, Meneely 105
Student Projects
My Mars Faculty/Student Research Fellow in 2009 was R. Carry Osborne '11; we worked on the Feminist History of Ancient Philosophy. I have directed the senior theses of Maya Milic-Strkalj '08 (Philosophy) "Liberalism as Feminism: Martha Nussbaum's Capabilities Approach" and Julia Felder '06 (Philosophy) "The Ideal of the Moral Law Within: How Rational Beings Find Perfectionism in Imperfect Duties." I have also directed the independent studies of Bernadette Reust '05 (Philosophy) "Corruption: the Mystery of Socrates' Guilt" and Simon Leen '03 (Philosophy) "Nietzsche's Nihilism." Finally, I have served on the senior thesis committees of Gabrielle Kappes '09 (English) "Fashioning a Voice of Her Own: The Poetics of Place in Dorothy Wordsworth's Poetry, Narratives, and Travel Writing," Rachel Moulton '09 (Psychology) "The Experience of the Asexual Identity: A Q-Methodological Study," Paloma Naderi '09 (Philosophy) "Can We Talk About Women As Women? A Philosophical Inquiry into the Feminist Essentialist Debate," Elisabeth Lohmuller '08 (English) The Appearance of Things, Gabrielle Nussbaum '08 (Philosophy) "The Tragedy of the Commons," Jacob Rusczek '07 (Psychology) "The Five-Factor Model of Personality: A History and Evaluation," Heather Mills '06 (Philosophy) "On the Nature of Persons," Julia Whitredge '05 (English) "Turning History into Myth: Easter 1916 through Poetry," Carolyn Wills '05 (Philosophy) "Death and Dying in the Twenty-First Century: An Argument for the Moral Permissibility of Physician-Assisted Suicide and Voluntary Euthanasia," Trishula Oswald '04 (Philosophy) "Responsibility, Choice, and Alternatives: The Presuppositions of Harry Frankfurt's Counterexample," William C. Richards IV '04 (Art History) "Space Sandwich: Liminality & Louis Kahn's Elm Street Dining Hall at Phillips Exeter Academy," Heather Brennan '03 (English) "A Virtuoso of Affectation: Oscar Wilde, Aesthetics and the Importance of a Scandal."
Selected Publications, Creative Work or Performances
"Socrates, Rationality, and the Daimonion," Ancient Philosophy 28/2 (2008): 285-309.
Review of Socrates' Divine Sign: Religion, Practice, and Value in Socratic Philosophy," edd. Pierre Destre/e and Nicholas D. Smith, APEIRON 38/2 (June 2005) in Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2006.07.57
"Plato's Cave and The Matrix" in Philosophers Explore the Matrix, ed. Christopher Grau (Oxford, 2005), 239-57. An earlier online version can be found here
Review of Lorraine Smith Pangle, Aristotle and the Philosophy of Friendship (Cambridge UP, 2003) in Philosophical Inquiry 26/4 (2004): 139-142.
"Socrates' Daimonion in Plato's Phaedrus: the Literary and Philosophical Significance of the Divine Sign," Skepsis 13 & 14 (2002-2003): 75-92.
"Hume's Motivational Naturalism and the Kantian Challenge," Early Modern Philosophy 5. Ed. Stanley Tweyman. (Ann Arbor, Michigan: Caravan Books, 2000), 113-130.
"Socratic Dialectic and the Art of Love: on Phaedrus 276e-277a," Ancient Philosophy 19 (1999): 121-132.