Mary Louise Gill is the David Benedict Professor of Classics and Philosophy at

Brown University Brown University is a private research university in Providence, Rhode Island. Brown is the seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, founded in 1764 as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providenc ...

. Her work primarily focuses on

Plato Plato ( ; grc-gre, Πλάτων ; 428/427 or 424/423 – 348/347 BC) was a Greek philosopher born in Athens during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. He founded the Platonist school of thought and the Academy, the first institution ...

Aristotle Aristotle (; grc-gre, Ἀριστοτέλης ''Aristotélēs'', ; 384–322 BC) was a Greek philosopher and polymath during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. Taught by Plato, he was the founder of the Peripatetic school of phil ...

, and other (primarily Greek) ancient philosophers.

Education and career

Gill received a bachelor's in religion in 1972 from

Barnard College Barnard College of Columbia University is a private women's liberal arts college in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1889 by a group of women led by young student activist Annie Nathan Meyer, who petitioned Columbia ...

and a master's in religion from

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

in 1974. She received a second bachelor's from

Cambridge University , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

in classics and ancient philosophy in 1976, and a master's and doctorate in classics and ancient philosophy from Cambridge, both in 1981. Gill was an instructor of classics at the

University of Pittsburgh The University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) is a public state-related research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The university is composed of 17 undergraduate and graduate schools and colleges at its urban Pittsburgh campus, home to the universit ...

from 1979 to 1981 before accepting an appointment as Assistant Professor of Classics and Philosophy there from 1981 to 1988. She was promoted to associate professor in 1988, full professor in 1994, and chaired the department from 1994 to 1997. Gill moved from Pittsburgh to

as a professor of philosophy and classics in 2001, and was appointed the David Benedict Professor of Classics and Philosophy in 2013. In addition to her permanent appointments, Gill has also held a variety of visiting positions, including at

Dartmouth College Dartmouth College (; ) is a private research university in Hanover, New Hampshire. Established in 1769 by Eleazar Wheelock, it is one of the nine colonial colleges chartered before the American Revolution. Although founded to educate Native A ...

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...

UC Davis The University of California, Davis (UC Davis, UCD, or Davis) is a public land-grant research university near Davis, California. Named a Public Ivy, it is the northernmost of the ten campuses of the University of California system. The institut ...

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

, and the

University of Paris , image_name = Coat of arms of the University of Paris.svg , image_size = 150px , caption = Coat of Arms , latin_name = Universitas magistrorum et scholarium Parisiensis , motto = ''Hic et ubique terrarum'' (Latin) , mottoeng = Here and a ...

. She has previously served as the Chair of the Faculty of Brown University, the Chair of Classics at the

, and on the editorial boards of numerous journals and books.

Philosophical work

Gill's work primarily focuses on

ancient Greek philosophy Ancient Greek philosophy arose in the 6th century BC, marking the end of the Greek Dark Ages. Greek philosophy continued throughout the Hellenistic period and the period in which Greece and most Greek-inhabited lands were part of the Roman Empire ...

, especially

and

. She has authored two books and one extensive introduction - ''Aristotle on Substance: The Paradox of Unity'' (1991), the long introduction to ''Plato: Parmenides'' (1994,) and ''Philosophos: Plato's Missing Dialogue'' (2012.) ''Aristotle on Substance: The Paradox of Unity'' attempts to resolve the problem posed by the juxtaposition of Aristotle's requirement that primary substances have conceptual unity with the composite nature of living organisms. In ''Philosophos: Plato's Missing Dialogue'', Gill attempts to explain the absence of the ''Philosopher'', a dialogue which Plato repeatedly mentions in '' Theaetetus'', ''

Sophist A sophist ( el, σοφιστής, sophistes) was a teacher in ancient Greece in the fifth and fourth centuries BC. Sophists specialized in one or more subject areas, such as philosophy, rhetoric, music, athletics, and mathematics. They taught ' ...

'', and ''

Statesman A statesman or stateswoman typically is a politician who has had a long and respected political career at the national or international level. Statesman or Statesmen may also refer to: Newspapers United States * ''The Statesman'' (Oregon), a n ...

'', but which no record exists of Plato actually having written. Previous suggestions for the absence of the ''Philosopher'' include a lack of time in Plato's later years, it forming one of Plato's unwritten doctrines, or it being unnecessary because the ''Sophist'' had included much of its intended content. Gill suggests a fourth alternative - that Plato intentionally avoided writing the ''Philosopher'' with the intent that someone who had read well ''Theaetetus'', ''Sophist'', and ''Statesman'' could use the pedagogical clues contained in those dialogues to reconstruct the missing ''Philosopher'' (while becoming philosophers themselves in the process.) Gill's explanation of the ''Philosopher'' has been criticized for relying excessively on the assumption that all of Plato's later philosophy was strongly Aristotelian, but her close analyses of many of the significant passages in the three dialogues her book covers has been lauded as well worthwhile.

Publications

* ''Aristotle on substance : the paradox of unity'', 1989 * ''Self-motion : from Aristotle to Newton'', 1994 * ''A companion to ancient philosophy'', 2005 * ''Philosophos : Plato's missing dialogue'', 2010 * ''Self-Motion'', 2017

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gill, Mary Louise 21st-century American philosophers Alumni of the University of Cambridge American women philosophers Brown University faculty Living people American scholars of ancient Greek philosophy Women classical scholars Year of birth missing (living people) American classical scholars 20th-century American non-fiction writers 21st-century American non-fiction writers 20th-century American women writers 21st-century American women writers