Myles Burnyeat

{{Short description|British scholar of ancient philosophy (1939–2019)}}

{{Infobox academic

|name = Myles Burnyeat

|honorific_suffix = {{post-nominals|country=GBR|CBE|FBA|size=100%}}

|image = File:Myles_Fredric_Burnyeat.jpg

|caption = Myles Burnyeat (1987)

|birth_name = Myles Fredric Burnyeat

|birth_date = 1 January 1939

|birth_place = London, England

|death_date = 20 September 2019 (aged 80)

|death_place =

|discipline = Philosophy

|sub_discipline = Ancient philosophy

|workplaces = {{unbulleted list | Robinson College, Cambridge | All Souls College, Oxford}}

|alma_mater = {{unbulleted list | King's College, Cambridge | University College, London}}

|doctoral_advisor =

|academic_advisors = Bernard Williams

|doctoral_students =

|notable_students = Angie Hobbs

|known_for =

|influences =

|influenced =

|awards =

|signature =

|footnotes =

}}

Myles Fredric Burnyeat {{post-nominals|country=GBR|CBE|FBA}} ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|b|ɜːr|n|j|eɪ|t}}; 1 January 1939 – 20 September 2019) was an English scholar of ancient philosophy.

Early life and education

Myles Burnyeat was born on 1 January 1939 to Peter James Anthony Burnyeat and Cynthia Cherry Warburg.{{Cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/oct/08/myles-burnyeat-obituary|title=Myles Burnyeat obituary|last=Hobbs|first=Angie|date=2019-10-08|work=The Guardian|access-date=2019-10-09|language=en-GB|issn=0261-3077|author-link=Angie Hobbs}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.ukwhoswho.com/view/10.1093/ww/9780199540884.001.0001/ww-9780199540884-e-9542|title=Burnyeat, Myles Fredric, (born 1 Jan. 1939), Senior Research Fellow in Philosophy, All Souls College, Oxford, 1996–2006, now Emeritus Fellow {{!}} WHO'S WHO & WHO WAS WHO|website=www.ukwhoswho.com|language=en|doi=10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.u9542|isbn=978-0-19-954088-4 |access-date=2019-09-22}}{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/whoswho1994annua0000unse/page/278|title=Who's Who 1994 : An Annual Biographical Dictionary|date=1994|location=New York |publisher= St. Martin's Press|isbn=0312105819|pages=[https://archive.org/details/whoswho1994annua0000unse/page/278 278]}} He received his secondary school education at Bryanston School.{{Cite news |last=Obituaries |first=Telegraph |date=2019-10-07 |title=Myles Burnyeat, classicist whose wit and imagination made him a leading scholar of Greek and Roman philosophy – obituary |language=en-GB |work=The Daily Telegraph |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/obituaries/2019/10/07/myles-burnyeat-classicist-whose-wit-imagination-made-leading/ |url-status=usurped |url-access=registration |access-date=2019-10-09 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210125153341/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/obituaries/2019/10/07/myles-burnyeat-classicist-whose-wit-imagination-made-leading/ |archive-date=25 Jan 2021 |issn=0307-1235}}

He completed his National Service (1957–1959) in the Royal Navy, during which time he qualified as a Russian interpreter.{{Cite web|url=https://www.asc.ox.ac.uk/person/179|title=All Souls College Oxford - Myles Burnyeat|website=www.asc.ox.ac.uk|access-date=2019-09-22}} The training for this he completed at the Joint Services School for Linguists at Crail.{{Cite web|url=https://news.st-andrews.ac.uk/archive/laureation-address-professor-myles-burnyeat/|title=Laureation address – Professor Myles Burnyeat|date=2012-11-28|website=news.st-andrews.ac.uk|language=en-GB|access-date=2019-09-22}}

From 1959 to 1963, Burnyeat undertook undergraduate studies in Classics and Philosophy at King's College, Cambridge, where he earned a double first.

Subsequently, between 1963 and 1964, he was a graduate student at University College London. There he was a student under the supervision of Bernard Williams.{{Cite book|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BwRoA_oe4bwC&pg=PR20|title=The Sense of the Past: Essays in the History of Philosophy|last=Williams|first=Bernard|date=2009|publisher=Princeton University Press|isbn=9781400827107|editor-last=Burnyeat|editor-first=Myles|pages=xx|language=en|chapter=Introduction}}

Career

He became an assistant lecturer in philosophy at University College London in 1964, and a lecturer in 1965. In 1978, he was appointed a lecturer in classics at the University of Cambridge, and became a fellow of the new Robinson College, Cambridge, where he remained until 1996.

In 1984, he was elected a Fellow of the British Academy[http://www.britac.ac.uk/fellowship/directory/archive.asp?fellowsID=88 British Academy Fellowship entry] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110606090106/http://www.britac.ac.uk/fellowship/directory/archive.asp?fellowsID=88|date=6 June 2011}} and appointed as the fifth Laurence Professor of Ancient Philosophy at Cambridge, a position he held until 1996.[http://venn.csi.cam.ac.uk/ACAD/lists/aciff.html Cambridge University database] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100614112122/http://venn.csi.cam.ac.uk/ACAD/lists/aciff.html |date=14 June 2010 }} Burnyeat served as president of the Mind Association in 1987.{{Cite web|url=https://www.marquette.edu/mupress/Burnyeat.shtml|title=Burnyeat {{!}} University Press {{!}} Marquette University|website=www.marquette.edu|access-date=2019-09-22}} In 1988 he became a member of the Institut International de Philosophie. In 1992 he was elected as an Honorary Foreign Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.{{Cite web|url=https://www.amacad.org/person/myles-fredric-burnyeat|title=Myles Fredric Burnyeat|website=American Academy of Arts & Sciences|language=en|access-date=2019-09-22}} In 2000 he delivered the British Academy's Master-Mind Lecture.{{cite web|title=Master-Mind Lectures|website=The British Academy|url=https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/events/lectures/listings/master-mind-lectures/}} [https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/documents/2485/111p001.pdf text]

From 1996 until 2006 he was Senior Research Fellow in Philosophy at All Souls College, Oxford. From 2006 he was an Emeritus Fellow at All Souls. From 2006, he would also hold the titles of Emeritus Professor of Ancient Philosophy and of Honorary Fellow at Robinson College.{{Cite web|url=https://www.admin.cam.ac.uk/reporter/2018-19/special/02/|title=Cambridge University Reporter Special No 2 (2018-19) - Fellows of the Colleges|website=www.admin.cam.ac.uk|access-date=2019-09-22}}

He was president of the Aristotelian Society from 2005 to 2006.{{Cite web|url=https://www.aristoteliansociety.org.uk/about/the-council/|title=The Council|date=2012-10-05|website=The Aristotelian Society|language=en-US|access-date=2019-09-22}}

In 2007, he was made CBE for his services to scholarship. That same year saw the publication of a Festschrift in his honour: Maieusis: Essays in Ancient Philosophy in Honour of Myles Burnyeat.{{Cite journal|last=Dillon|first=John|date=2009|title=Review of: Maieusis: Essays in Ancient Philosophy in Honour of Myles Burnyeat|url=http://bmcr.brynmawr.edu/2009/2009-04-78.html|journal=Bryn Mawr Classical Review|issn=1055-7660}} The same included contributions from, amongst others, Mary Margaret McCabe{{Cite journal|last=McCabe|first=Mary Margaret|title=Looking inside Charmides' cloak: seeing oneself and others in Plato's Charmides|url=https://www.academia.edu/2500761|journal=Maeiusis ed. Dominic Scott|language=en}} and David N. Sedley.{{Cite journal|last=Sedley|first=David|title=Equal Sticks and Stones*|url=https://www.academia.edu/4310085|journal=Maieusis|year=2007 |language=en|pages=68–86|doi=10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199289974.003.0004 |isbn=978-0-19-928997-4 }}

In 2012 Burnyeat was awarded an Honorary Degree of Doctor of Letters by the University of St. Andrews.

His first marriage, from 1971 to 1982, was to lecturer in education and Jungian psychoanalyst Jane Elizabeth Buckley, with whom he had a son and daughter. From 1982 until 2000 he was married to the classicist and poet Ruth Padel, with whom he had a daughter Gwen in 1985.{{Cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2009/may/16/ruth-padel-oxford-poetry-professor|title=A life in poetry: Ruth Padel (interview)|last=Crown|first=Sarah|date=2009-05-15|work=The Guardian|access-date=2019-09-22|language=en-GB|issn=0261-3077|quote=she took a teaching post at Birkbeck and met and married Myles Burnyeat, professor of ancient philosophy at Cambridge. In 1985, their daughter, Gwen, was born ...As the writing took off, however, Padel returned to London with her daughter (then five). The family saw one another at weekends, but distance took its toll; Burnyeat and Padel eventually separated, "although we remain very good friends".}}{{Cite news|url=http://women.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/women/families/article5853310.ece|title=Relative Values: Ruth Padel and Gwen Burnyeat|date=2009-03-08|work=The Sunday Times|access-date=2019-09-22|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110615200104/http://women.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/women/families/article5853310.ece|archive-date=15 June 2011|language=en|issn=0956-1382|quote=When Gwen was born, in 1985, I'd just given up a good, solid lecturing job at Birkbeck College to move in with my husband, Miles [Burnyeat]...}} Both marriages ended in divorce.

From the winter of 2002 until her death in the spring of 2003 he was married to the scholar of ancient philosophy Heda Segvic, whose essays he prepared for posthumous publication.{{Cite book|title=From Protagoras to Aristotle : essays in ancient moral philosophy|last1=Segvic|first1=Heda|last2=Brittain|first2=Charles|date=2009|publisher=Princeton University Press|others=Burnyeat, Myles|isbn=9781400835553|location=Princeton, NJ|pages=xi|chapter=Introduction|oclc=828425151|quote=Myles Burnyeat, whom she had come to know through his visiting appointments in the Pittsburgh department ... took her to England, cared for her through the extraordinary pain of her illness, and finally allowed her to find the happiness that had eluded her in America. (They were married in the winter of 2002.) She died in Cambridge in the early spring of 2003... The cause of her death was chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy, a disease of the nervous system, compounded by undiagnosed multiple sclerosis.|chapter-url=http://assets.press.princeton.edu/chapters/i8802.pdf}}{{Cite book|url=https://press.princeton.edu/titles/8802.html|title=From Protagoras to Aristotle|publisher=Princeton University Press|date=14 December 2008 |isbn=9780691131238 |language=en|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160622204732/http://press.princeton.edu/chapters/i8802.html|archive-date=22 June 2016|access-date=2019-09-22 |last1=Segvic |first1=Heda }} His partner in later life was the musicologist Margaret Bent.

Myles Burnyeat died on 20 September 2019 at the age of 80.{{Cite news|url=https://www.classics.cam.ac.uk/news/myles-burnyeat|title=Myles Burnyeat — Faculty of Classics|date=2019-09-23|access-date=2019-09-24|language=en}}

Concluding her 2012 laureation address, Professor Sarah Broadie noted of Burnyeat that:

"Above all, he is a paradigm to philosophers and classicists for combining formidable learning with first hand engagement in philosophy’s own concerns: principally its concerns with ethics and epistemology. His writings on the ancients take issue with such moderns as Russell, Moore, Wittgenstein, Descartes, Berkeley, and for that matter Ronald Dworkin. The aim – in which he has set and achieved the highest standards – isn’t simply to compare different specimens of the genus ‘philosopher’, but to open us up to the transformative toing and froing of philosophy as an on-going enterprise."

Publications

= Monographs (co-)authored =

Notes on Book Zeta of Aristotle's Metaphysics being the record by Myles Burnyeat and others of a seminar held in London, 1975–1979, Oxford: Sub-faculty of Philosophy, 1979, {{ISBN|9780905740171|}}{{Cite journal|last=Irwin|first=T. H.|date=1983|editor-last=Burnyeat|editor-first=Myles|title=Book Zeta of Aristotle's Metaphysics|journal=The Classical Review|volume=33|issue=2|pages=234–236|issn=0009-840X|jstor=3063960|doi=10.1017/S0009840X00111734|s2cid=246880138 }}
Notes on Books Eta and Theta of Aristotle's Metaphysics, being the record by Myles Burnyeat and others of a seminar held in London, 1979–1982, Oxford: Sub-faculty of Philosophy, 1984, {{ISBN|0-905740-27-0}}
The Theaetetus of Plato Hackett 1990, {{ISBN|0-87220-159-7}}{{Cite journal|last=Bussanich|first=John|date=1992|title=Review of The Theaetetus of Plato|journal=The Classical World|volume=86|issue=1|pages=42–43|doi=10.2307/4351209|issn=0009-8418|jstor=4351209}}
A Map of Metaphysics Zeta, Mathesis Publications, 2001, {{ISBN|0-935225-03-X}}{{Cite journal|last1=Menn|first1=Stephen|author-link=Stephen Menn|last2=Mathesis Publications, Inc.|date=2011|title=On Myles Burnyeat's Map of Metaphysics Zeta|url=https://www.philosophie.hu-berlin.de/de/lehrbereiche/antike/mitarbeiter/menn/burnyeat.pdf|journal=Ancient Philosophy|volume=31|issue=1|pages=161–202|doi=10.5840/ancientphil20113119|issn=0740-2007}}{{Cite journal|last=Gill|first=Mary Louise|date=2005|editor-last=Burnyeat|editor-first=Myles|title=Myles Burnyeat's Map of Metaphysics Zeta|journal=The Philosophical Quarterly|volume=55|issue=218|pages=114–121|issn=0031-8094|jstor=3542775|doi=10.1111/j.0031-8094.2005.00391.x}}
Aristotle's Divine Intellect, Marquette University Press 2008, {{ISBN|0-87462-175-5}}
The Pseudo-Platonic Seventh Letter (Uehiro Series in Practical Ethics), (co-author with Michael Frede) Oxford University Press 2015, {{ISBN|9780198733652|}}{{Cite journal|last=Price|first=A. W.|date=2016|title=The Pseudo-Platonic Seventh Letter By Myles Burnyeat and Michael Frede (ed. Dominic Scott) Oxford University Press, 2015, pp. xv + 224, £30 ISBN 978-0-19-873365-2|url=https://eprints.bbk.ac.uk/14579/3/14579.pdf|journal=Philosophy|language=en|volume=91|issue=3|pages=450–453|doi=10.1017/S0031819116000188|s2cid=171010874 |issn=0031-8191}}{{Cite journal|last=Kahn|first=Charles H.|author-link=Charles H. Kahn|date=2015-11-09|title=Review of The Pseudo-Platonic Seventh Letter|url=https://ndpr.nd.edu/news/the-pseudo-platonic-seventh-letter/|journal=Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews|issn=1538-1617}}

= Essay collections =

Explorations in Ancient and Modern Philosophy, Vol. 1, Cambridge University Press 2012, {{ISBN|0-521-75072-5}}{{Cite journal|last=Barney|first=Rachel|date=2013-10-13|title=Review of Explorations in Ancient and Modern Philosophy, Volumes 1-2|url=https://ndpr.nd.edu/news/explorations-in-ancient-and-modern-philosophy-volumes-1-2/|journal=Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews|issn=1538-1617}}{{Cite journal|last=Inwood|first=Brad|date=2013|title=Review of: Explorations in Ancient and Modern Philosophy. (2 vols.)|url=http://bmcr.brynmawr.edu/2013/2013-02-33.html|journal=Bryn Mawr Classical Review|issn=1055-7660}}
Explorations in Ancient and Modern Philosophy, Vol. 2, Cambridge University Press 2012, {{ISBN|0-521-75073-3}}
[https://www.cambridge.org/gb/academic/subjects/classical-studies/ancient-philosophy/explorations-ancient-and-modern-philosophy-volume-3 Explorations in Ancient and Modern Philosophy: Vol. 3], Cambridge University Press 2022{{Cite web |date=2022-01-06 |title=Ancient freedoms and modern insights – Myles Burnyeat's public philosophy {{!}} FifteenEightyFour {{!}} Cambridge University Press |url=http://www.cambridgeblog.org/2022/01/ancient-freedoms-and-modern-insights-myles-burnyeats-public-philosophy/ |access-date=2022-05-12 |language=en-US}}
[https://www.cambridge.org/us/academic/subjects/classical-studies/ancient-philosophy/explorations-ancient-and-modern-philosophy-volume-4 Explorations in Ancient and Modern Philosophy: Vol. 4], Cambridge University Press 2022

= Works (co-)edited =

Philosophy As It Is (with Ted Honderich) 1979, {{ISBN|0-14-022136-0}}
Doubt and Dogmatism: Studies in Hellenistic Epistemology (with Malcolm Schofield; Jonathan Barnes), 1980 {{ISBN|978-0198246015|}}Selected papers presented at a conference held at Oriel College in 1978. Included in the same is Burnyeat's "Can the Skeptic Live His Skepticism?"
Science and Speculation: Studies in Hellenistic Theory and Practice (with J. Barnes; J. Brunschwig; M. Schofield) Cambridge University Press 1982, {{ISBN|0-521-02218-5}}{{Cite journal|last=Emlyn Jones|first=Chris|date=1984|title=Science and Speculation: Studies in Hellenistic Theory and Practice. Edited by J. Barnes, J. Brunschwig, M. Burnyeat, and M. Schofield. Cambridge U.P. and Editions de la Maison des Sciences de l'Homme, Paris, 1982. Pp. xxvii + 351. £25.00.|journal=Greece and Rome|language=en|volume=31|issue=1|pages=83|doi=10.1017/S0017383500027959|s2cid=163124372 |issn=0017-3835}}
The Sceptical Tradition (ed.) University of California Press 1983, {{ISBN|0-520-04795-8}}To which Burnyeat contributed [https://www.scribd.com/doc/160848706/Burnyeat-Intro-Skeptical-Tradition an introduction] and "Can the skeptic live his skepticism?" [previously published in [https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/5410415 Doubt and Dogmatism: Studies in Hellenistic Epistemology(1980)]]
The Original Sceptics: A Controversy (with Michael Frede) 1997, {{ISBN|0-87220-347-6}}Burnyeat also being the author of 2 of this works' 5 chapters: 2. "Can the Sceptic Live His Scepticism?" and 4. "The Sceptic in His Place and Time" [see [http://web.flu.cas.cz/scan/323506048.pdf Contents]] each of which had been previously published [in, respectively, [https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/5410415 Doubt and Dogmatism: Studies in Hellenistic Epistemology (1980)], and [https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/philosophy-in-history/9A982FAF4F202E31E9DDE2CB5BB4368F Philosophy in History: Essays in the Historiography of Philosophy (1984)]] and can also be found in [https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/explorations-in-ancient-and-modern-philosophy/D2485206843AD315830C8CED512CA780 Explorations in Ancient and Modern Philosophy (v. 1)] (2012)
Bernard Williams, The Sense of the Past. Essays in the History of Philosophy, (ed. with introduction) Princeton University Press 2007, {{ISBN|9781400827107|}}
Heda Segvic, From Protagoras to Aristotle: Essays in Ancient Moral Philosophy (ed.), Princeton University Press 2008, {{ISBN|0-691-13123-6}}

= Select articles/chapters =

"Socratic Midwifery, Platonic Inspiration," (1977) reprinted in Essays on the Philosophy of Socrates (1992)
[https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/pubs/proc/files/65p069.pdf?_ga=2.139112432.2127542050.1569127412-199998888.1568661323 "Conflicting Appearances"] 1979 Dawes Hicks Lecture on Philosophy for the British Academy.
[https://cpb-us-w2.wpmucdn.com/voices.uchicago.edu/dist/9/177/files/2007/10/Burnyeat-Wittgenstein-and-Augustine-De-Magistro.pdf "The Inaugural Address: Wittgenstein and Augustine De Magistro"] Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, Supplementary Volumes, Vol. 61 (1987)
[https://learning.hccs.edu/faculty/nathan.poage/phil1301/secondary-sources-on-plato/burnyeat-the-impiety-of-socrates/view "The Impiety of Socrates"] Ancient Philosophy 17 (1):1-12 (1997)
"[https://tannerlectures.utah.edu/_resources/documents/a-to-z/b/Burnyeat99.pdf Culture and Society in Plato’s Republic"] 1997 Tanner Lecture
[https://philarchive.org/archive/burpow "Plato on why mathematics is good for the soul"] Lecture for the 1998 Dawes Hicks Symposia on Philosophy for the British Academy
[https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/pubs/proc/files/111p001.pdf?_ga=2.239356480.2127542050.1569127412-199998888.1568661323 "Plato"] 2000 Master-Mind Lecture for the British Academy
[https://web.archive.org/web/20170517140256/http://esztetika.elte.hu/baranyistvan/files/2012/02/burnyeat_deanima_perception.pdf "DE ANIMA II 5"] Phronesis, Vol. 47, No. 1 (2002)
"Platonism in the Bible: Numenius of Apamea on Exodus and Eternity" In: Salles, Ricardo (ed.) Metaphysics, Soul, and Ethics in Ancient Thought: Themes from the work of Richard Sorabji (2005)
[http://ancphil.lsa.umich.edu/-/downloads/osap/34-Burnyeat.pdf "Kinesis vs. Energeia: A much-read passage in (but not of) Aristotle's Metaphysics"], Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy 34 (2008)
"‘All the World’s a Stage-Painting’: Scenery, Optics, and Greek Epistemology" In: Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy 52 (2017)

References

External links

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3A6vwV7ZZo Myles Burnyeat on Plato] BBC Television interview by Bryan Magee for The Great Philosophers (1987)
[https://philosophybites.com/2007/11/miles-burnyeat.html Myles Burnyeat on Aristotle on Happiness] podcast interview for Philosophy Bites (2007)
[https://www.uctv.tv/speakers/Myles-Burnyeat-108202 Myles Burnyeat lectures] for UCTV (2012)
"[https://www.eurozine.com/modes-of-philosophizing/ Modes of philosophizing: A round table debate"] with Jonathan Barnes, Raymond Geuss and Barry Stroud for Cogito (2008)