Julia Annas

{{Infobox philosopher

| region = Western philosophy

| era = Contemporary philosophy

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| birth_date = {{Birth date and age|df=y|1946|6|13}}

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| school_tradition = Virtue ethics

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| influences = Aristotle{{·}}Plato{{·}}Sextus Empiricus{{·}}Cicero{{·}}Seneca{{·}}Epicurus{{·}}Philodemus{{·}}Philippa Foot{{·}}Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

| alma_mater = Oxford University

| institutions = University of Arizona

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Julia Elizabeth Annas (born 1946{{cite web|title=Book of Members, 1780–2010: Chapter A|url=http://www.amacad.org/publications/BookofMembers/ChapterA.pdf|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110505162230/http://www.amacad.org/publications/BookofMembers/ChapterA.pdf|archive-date=5 May 2011|accessdate=19 April 2011|website=American Academy of Arts and Sciences}}) 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.{{Cite web|date=2019-07-16|title=Julia Annas|url=https://philosophy.arizona.edu/people/julia-annas|website=philosophy.arizona.edu}}

Education and career

Annas graduated from Oxford University in 1968 with a B.A. and from Harvard University with an A.M. (1970) and a Ph.D. (1972).{{Cite web|title=Julia Elizabeth Annas CV|url=http://www.u.arizona.edu/~jannas/CVJAcurrent.pdf|website=u.arizona.edu|access-date=7 February 2021|archive-date=1 June 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120601185809/http://www.u.arizona.edu/~jannas/CVJAcurrent.pdf|url-status=dead}} She was a Fellow 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 from one year as a professor at Columbia University.

She specializes in the study of ancient Greek philosophy, including ethics, psychology, and epistemology. She is the founder and former editor of the annual journal Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy.{{cite book| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DmNNb_rcX1YC&q=Julia+Annas+oxford| title=Oxford studies in ancient philosophy, Volume 20| editor=Julia Annas| publisher=Oxford University Press| year= 2001| isbn= 978-0-19-924225-2 | first=David | last=Sedley}} 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 in 1992 and a member of the American Philosophical Society in 2013.{{cite web|title=Newly Elected - April 2013|url=https://www.amphilsoc.org/members/electedApril2013|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20140403002431/https://www.amphilsoc.org/members/electedApril2013|archivedate=3 April 2014|accessdate=18 March 2014|website=American Philosophical Society}} She is also a member of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters.{{cite web|url=https://www.dnva.no/medlemmer/52|title=Utenlandske medlemmer|publisher=Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters|language=no|access-date=4 July 2021}}

Philosophical work

Julia Annas has advocated ethics based on character, building on ideas attributed to Greek philosopher Aristotle and making them relevant for contemporary moral discourse.{{Cite book|last=Annas|first=Julia|url=https://philpapers.org/rec/ANNIV|title=Intelligent Virtue|date=2011|publisher=Oxford University Press|via=philpapers.org}} She has argued that being virtuous involves "practical reasoning"{{Cite journal|last=Annas|first=Julia|date=2008|title=The Phenomenology of Virtue|url=https://philpapers.org/rec/ANNTPO|journal=Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences|volume=7|issue=1|pages=21–34|doi=10.1007/s11097-007-9068-9|s2cid=143852245|via=philpapers.org|url-access=subscription}} 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)
{{cite book| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KRfwSjk3fBcC&q=Julia+Annas| title=The Morality of Happiness| year= 1993| publisher=Oxford University Press | first=Julia | last=Annas | isbn=978-0-19-509652-1}} (reprint 1995, {{ISBN|978-0-19-509652-1}})
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, Statesman (Cambridge, 1995), with Robin Waterfield.
Sextus Empiricus, Outlines of Scepticism (Cambridge, 1994), with Jonathan Barnes.
Aristotle, 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

[http://www.u.arizona.edu/~jannas/ Profile] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100714052154/http://www.u.arizona.edu/~jannas/ |date=14 July 2010 }} at University of Arizona

Category:1946 births

Category:21st-century American philosophers

Category:Philosophers from Arizona

Category:British women philosophers

Category:Harvard University alumni

Category:British scholars of ancient Greek philosophy

Category:University of Arizona faculty

Category:Columbia University faculty

Category:Living people

Category:Fellows of St Hugh's College, Oxford

Category:Alumni of the University of Oxford

Category:Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences