Mary Margaret Anne McCabe (born 18 December 1948), known as M. M. McCabe, is emerita professor of ancient philosophy at

King's College London King's College London (informally King's or KCL) is a public research university located in London, England. King's was established by royal charter in 1829 under the patronage of King George IV and the Duke of Wellington. In 1836, King's ...

. She has written books 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 ...

and other ancient philosophers, including the pre-Socratics,

Socrates Socrates (; ; –399 BC) was a Greek philosopher from Athens who is credited as the founder of Western philosophy and among the first moral philosophers of the ethical tradition of thought. An enigmatic figure, Socrates authored no te ...

and

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 ...

Early life

McCabe was educated at

Oxford High School for Girls Oxford High School is an Independent school (UK), independent day school for girls in Oxford, England. It was founded by the Girls' Day School Trust in 1875, making it the city's oldest girls' school. History Oxford High School was opened on ...

, and then studied at

Newnham College Newnham College is a women's constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college was founded in 1871 by a group organising Lectures for Ladies, members of which included philosopher Henry Sidgwick and suffragist campaigner Millicent ...

University of Cambridge , 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 ...

, taking her

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...

degree in 1970 and her

Doctor of Philosophy A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common Academic degree, degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields ...

degree in 1977 in classics. Her doctoral thesis, ''Plato's Theory of Punishment and Its Antecedents'', formed the basis of her first book, ''Plato on Punishment'', published in 1981.

Academic career

From 1981 to 1990 McCabe was Fellow in Classics at New Hall, University of Cambridge. She joined King's College London in 1990 and retired from her chair in Ancient Philosophy in 2014. She is now Keeling Scholar and Honorary Professor in Philosophy at University College London, and a Bye-Fellow of Newnham College, Cambridge. In 2017 McCabe gave the Sather Lectures at the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

, on the subject of 'Seeing and Saying: Plato on Virtue and Knowledge'. McCabe was president of the

British Philosophical Association The British Philosophical Association (BPA) is a British organisation set up in October 2002 to promote the study of philosophy. Early history During the early 1980s the merging of educational establishments and financial cut-backs meant that so ...

from 2009 to 2012, and president of the

Mind Association The Mind Association is a philosophical society whose purpose is to promote the study of philosophy. The association publishes the journal '' Mind'' quarterly. It was established in 1900 on the death of Henry Sidgwick Henry Sidgwick (; 31 ...

in 2016–2017. In July 2017, McCabe was elected a

Fellow of the British Academy Fellowship of the British Academy (FBA) is an award granted by the British Academy to leading academics for their distinction in the humanities and social sciences. The categories are: # Fellows – scholars resident in the United Kingdom # C ...

(FBA), the United Kingdom's

national academy A national academy is an organizational body, usually operating with state financial support and approval, that co-ordinates scholarly research activities and standards for academic disciplines, most frequently in the sciences but also the humanit ...

for the humanities and social sciences.

Selected works

Books

''Plato on Punishment'' (1981)
''Plato's Individuals'' (1994)
''Plato and His Predecessors: The Dramatisation of Reason'' (2007)
''Platonic Conversations'' (2015)

Edited volumes

''Form and Argument in Late Plato'' (2000), co-edited with Christopher Gill
''Perspectives on Perception: A Collection of Essays'', (2007) co-edited with Mark Textor
''Aristotle and the Stoics Reading Plato'' (2010), co-edited with
Verity Harte Verity Harte is a British philosopher and George A. Saden Professor of Philosophy and Classics at Yale University. Books * '' Plato on Parts and Wholes: the Metaphysics of Structure'', Oxford: Clarendon 2002 * ''Aristotle and the Stoics Reading ...
, R. W. Sharples and
Anne Sheppard Anne Sheppard is professor of ancient philosophy at Royal Holloway, University of London. She studied " Greats", (classics and philosophy), at St Anne's College, Oxford before completing her DPhil at Oxford on the literary theory of the Neoplatoni ...

Articles and book chapters

* 'Silencing the Sophists: The Drama of Plato's ''Euthydemus''' (1998), Proceedings of the Boston Area Colloquium of Ancient Philosophy,Vol. 14, pp. 139–68 * 'Looking inside Charmides' Cloak' (2007), in ''Maieusis'', ed. Dominic Scott, Oxford University Press, pp. 1–19 * 'Escaping One's Own Notice Knowing: Meno's Paradox Again' (2009), in

Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society The Aristotelian Society for the Systematic Study of Philosophy, more generally known as the Aristotelian Society, is a philosophical society in London. History Aristotelian Society was founded at a meeting on 19 April 1880, at 17 Bloomsbury Squar ...

. Vol. 109, 1, pp. 233–256 * 'The Stoic Sage in the Original Position' (2013), in ''Politeia in Greek and Roman Philosophy'', ed. Verity Harte and

Melissa Lane Melissa Lane is a full professor of politics at Princeton University, a position she has held since 2009. Prior to this, she was a Senior Research Fellow of King's College, Cambridge and Associate Director of their Centre for History and Economics. ...

, pp. 251–274 * 'The Unity of Virtue: Plato's Models of Philosophy' (2016), ''Aristotelian Society Supplementary Volume'' 90 (1), pp. 1–25

References

External links

Staff profile at King's College London

an interview with

Philosophy Bites ''Philosophy Bites'' is a podcast series featuring philosophy, philosophers being interviewed for 15–20 minutes on a specific topic. The series, which has been running since 2007, is hosted by Nigel Warburton, freelance lecturer, and David Edmo ...

* {{DEFAULTSORT:McCabe, M. M. British women philosophers Commentators on Plato 20th-century British philosophers 21st-century British philosophers British scholars of ancient Greek philosophy Living people Academics of King's College London Fellows of New Hall, Cambridge Members of the University of Cambridge faculty of classics Fellows of the British Academy 1948 births Women classical scholars British classical scholars