Christopher Paone
Lecturer
Christopher Paone is lecturer in the Philosophy and Humanistic Studies Department. He served as the Constantine S. and Marie C. Macricostas Endowed Scholar in Hellenic and Modern Greek Studies from 2018 to 2020. He earned his Ph.D. in philosophy from Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, Illinois. His research and teaching focus on the philosophies of India and of ancient Greece, as well as moral and political philosophy. Besides teaching and research, he enjoys board games and good coffee.
Recent Research
Lives of Pleasure: A Comparative Essay on Cārvāka and Epicurean Ethics
Philosophy East and West 72 (4). 2022.
A long-lived and lively tradition of materialist philosophers flourished in classical India and in classical Greece. Due to the condition of their texts, however, they do not often receive close study. This essay compares the views of the classical Indian materialists, the Cārvākas, and the classical Greek materialists, the Epicureans. The first section introduces their philosophies. The second outlines their doctrines of empiricism and materialism. The third and fourth turn to two comparative topics in Cārvāka and Epicurean ethics: their views on eliminating irrational fears caused by superstition and their understanding of pleasure as the goal of human action and life.
Diogenes the Cynic on Law and World Citizenship
Polis: The Journal for Ancient Greek Political Thought 35 (2). 2018.
Against the traditional reading of Cynic cosmopolitanism, this essay advances the thesis that Diogenes’ world citizenship is a positive claim supported by philosophical argument and philosophical example. Evidence in favor of this thesis is a new interpretation of Diogenes’ syllogistic argument concerning law (nomos) (D.L. 6.72). Important to the argument are an understanding of Diogenes’ philanthropic character and his moral imperative to ‘re-stamp the currency’. Whereas Socrates understands his care as attached specially to Athens, Diogenes’ philosophical mission and form of care attach not to his native Sinope but to all humanity. An important result is that Diogenes’ Cynicism provides an ancient example of cosmopolitanism that is philanthropic, minimalistic, experimental, and utopian.
Recent Teaching
Spring 2023
– Health Care Ethics (PHI 223)
– Ethics in Computing (PHI 227)
Fall 2022
– Ethics in Computing (PHI 227)
Spring 2022
– Advanced Interdisciplinary Studies (HUM 451)
Spring 2021
– Introduction to Interdisciplinary Studies (HUM 151)
– Immigration Rights and Wrongs (HUM 223)
Fall 2020
– Introduction to Interdisciplinary Studies (HUM 151)
– Advanced Interdisciplinary Studies (HUM 451)
Spring 2020
– Introduction to Interdisciplinary Studies (HUM 151)
– Heroes and Homecomings (HUM 198)
Fall 2019
– Philosophy of Happiness (PHI 106)
– Philosophies of Love and Friendship (PHI 262)
Spring 2019
– Alexander the Great and the Hellenistic Age (HUM 298)
– Refugees: Ancient and Modern (HUM 398)
Fall 2018
– The Greek Experience (HUM 114)
– Love in Western Civilization (HUM 263)
Spring 2018
– Health Care Ethics (PHI 223)
– Philosophies of Love and Friendship (PHI 262)
Fall 2017
– The Greek Experience (HUM 114)
– Philosophy of Law and Legal Theory (PHI 229)
Spring 2017
– Moral Issues in Modern Society (HUM 110)