Myles Burnyeat
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Myles Fredric Burnyeat (1 January 1939 – 20 September 2019) was an English scholar of
ancient philosophy This page lists some links to ancient philosophy, namely philosophical thought extending as far as early post-classical history (). Overview Genuine philosophical thought, depending upon original individual insights, arose in many culture ...
.


Early life and education

Myles Burnyeat was born on 1 January 1939 to Peter James Anthony Burnyeat and Cynthia Cherry Warburg. He received his secondary school education at
Bryanston School Bryanston School is a public school (English independent day and boarding school for pupils aged 13–18) located next to the village of Bryanston, and near the town of Blandford Forum, in Dorset in South West England. It was founded in 1928. ...
. He completed his
National Service National service is the system of voluntary government service, usually military service. Conscription is mandatory national service. The term ''national service'' comes from the United Kingdom's National Service (Armed Forces) Act 1939. The ...
(1957–1959) in the
Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against ...
, during which time he qualified as a Russian interpreter. The training for this he completed at the
Joint Services School for Linguists The Joint Services School for Linguists (JSSL) was founded in 1951 by the British armed services to provide language training, principally in Russian, and largely to selected conscripts undergoing National Service. The school closed with the en ...
at
Crail Crail (); gd, Cathair Aile) is a former royal burgh, parish and community council area (Royal Burgh of Crail and District) in the East Neuk of Fife, Scotland. The locality has an estimated population of 1,630 (2018). Etymology The name ''C ...
. From 1959 to 1963, Burnyeat undertook undergraduate studies in Classics and Philosophy at
King's College, Cambridge King's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Formally The King's College of Our Lady and Saint Nicholas in Cambridge, the college lies beside the River Cam and faces out onto King's Parade in the centre of the cit ...
, where he earned a
double first The British undergraduate degree classification system is a grading structure for undergraduate degrees or bachelor's degrees and integrated master's degrees in the United Kingdom. The system has been applied (sometimes with significant variati ...
. Subsequently, between 1963 and 1964, he was a graduate student at
University College London , mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £143 million (2020) , budget = ...
. There he was a student under the supervision of
Bernard Williams Sir Bernard Arthur Owen Williams, FBA (21 September 1929 – 10 June 2003) was an English moral philosopher. His publications include ''Problems of the Self'' (1973), ''Ethics and the Limits of Philosophy'' (1985), ''Shame and Necessity'' ...
.


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 Robinson College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1977, it is one of the newest Oxbridge colleges and is unique in having been intended, from its inception, for both undergraduate and graduate students of b ...
, Cambridge, where he remained until 1996. In 1984, he was elected a Fellow of the British AcademyBritish Academy Fellowship entry
and appointed as the fifth
Laurence Professor of Ancient Philosophy The Laurence Professorship of Ancient Philosophy at Cambridge University was established in 1930 as one of the offices endowed by the bequest of Sir Perceval Maitland Laurence; it is the oldest chair of ancient philosophy in the world. One woman, ...
at Cambridge, a position he held until 1996. Burnyeat served as president of the Mind Association in 1987. 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 The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, a ...
. In 2000 he delivered the British Academy's Master-Mind Lecture. 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. He was president of the Aristotelian Society from 2005 to 2006. In 2007, he was made
CBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...
for his services to scholarship. That same year saw the publication of a ''
Festschrift In academia, a ''Festschrift'' (; plural, ''Festschriften'' ) is a book honoring a respected person, especially an academic, and presented during their lifetime. It generally takes the form of an edited volume, containing contributions from the h ...
'' in his honour: ''Maieusis: Essays in Ancient Philosophy in Honour of Myles Burnyeat''. The same included contributions from, amongst others,
Mary Margaret McCabe Mary Margaret Anne McCabe (born 18 December 1948), known as M. M. McCabe, is emerita professor of ancient philosophy at King's College London. She has written books on Plato and other ancient philosophers, including the pre-Socratics, Socrates ...
and David N. Sedley. In 2012 Burnyeat was awarded an
Honorary Degree An honorary degree is an academic degree for which a university (or other degree-awarding institution) has waived all of the usual requirements. It is also known by the Latin phrases ''honoris causa'' ("for the sake of the honour") or ''ad hon ...
of
Doctor of Letters Doctor of Letters (D.Litt., Litt.D., Latin: ' or ') is a terminal degree in the humanities that, depending on the country, is a higher doctorate after the Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) degree or equivalent to a higher doctorate, such as the Docto ...
by the
University of St. Andrews (Aien aristeuein) , motto_lang = grc , mottoeng = Ever to ExcelorEver to be the Best , established = , type = Public research university Ancient university , endowment ...
. 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 Ruth Sophia Padel FRSL FZS is a British poet, novelist and non-fiction author, known for her poetic explorations of migration, both animal and human, and her involvement with classical music, wildlife conservation and Greece, ancient and modern. ...
, with whom he had a daughter Gwen in 1985. 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. His partner in later life was the musicologist
Margaret Bent Margaret Bent CBE , (born Margaret Hilda Bassington; 23 December 1940) is an English musicologist who specializes in music of the late medieval and Renaissance eras. In particular, she has written extensively on the Old Hall Manuscript, English ...
. Myles Burnyeat died on 20 September 2019 at the age of 80. Concluding her 2012 laureation address, Professor
Sarah Broadie Sarah Jean Broadie (née Waterlow; 3 November 1941 – 8 August 2021) was a British philosopher, a Professor of Moral Philosophy and Wardlaw Professor at the University of St Andrews. Broadie specialised in ancient philosophy, with a particular e ...
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, *''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, *'' The Theaetetus of Plato'' Hackett 1990, *''A Map of Metaphysics Zeta,'' Mathesis Publications, 2001, *''Aristotle's Divine Intellect'', Marquette University Press 2008, *''The Pseudo-Platonic Seventh Letter (Uehiro Series in Practical Ethics)'', (co-author with
Michael Frede Michael Frede (; 31 May 1940 – 11 August 2007) was a prominent scholar of ancient philosophy, described by ''The Telegraph'' as "one of the most important and adventurous scholars of ancient philosophy of recent times." Education and career ...
) Oxford University Press 2015, Essay collections *''Explorations in Ancient and Modern Philosophy'', Vol. 1, Cambridge University Press 2012, *''Explorations in Ancient and Modern Philosophy'', Vol. 2, Cambridge University Press 2012,
''Explorations in Ancient and Modern Philosophy'': Vol. 3
Cambridge University Press 2022
''Explorations in Ancient and Modern Philosophy'': Vol. 4
Cambridge University Press 2022 Works (co-)edited *'' Philosophy As It Is'' (with
Ted Honderich Ted Honderich (born 30 January 1933) is a Canadian-born British professor of philosophy, who was Grote Professor Emeritus of the Philosophy of Mind and Logic, University College London. Biography Honderich was born Edgar Dawn Ross Honderich o ...
) 1979, *'' Doubt and Dogmatism: Studies in Hellenistic Epistemology'' (with Malcolm Schofield;
Jonathan Barnes Jonathan Barnes, FBA (born 26 December 1942 in Wenlock, Shropshire) is an English scholar of Aristotelian and ancient philosophy. Education and career He was educated at the City of London School and Balliol College, Oxford University. He t ...
), 1980 *''Science and Speculation: Studies in Hellenistic Theory and Practice'' (with J. Barnes; J. Brunschwig; M. Schofield) Cambridge University Press 1982, *''The Sceptical Tradition'' (ed.) University of California Press 1983, *''The Original Sceptics: A Controversy'' (with
Michael Frede Michael Frede (; 31 May 1940 – 11 August 2007) was a prominent scholar of ancient philosophy, described by ''The Telegraph'' as "one of the most important and adventurous scholars of ancient philosophy of recent times." Education and career ...
) 1997, 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" Contents
_each_of_which_had_been_previously_published_[in,_respectively
''Doubt_and_Dogmatism:_Studies_in_Hellenistic_Epistemology''_(1980)
_an
''Philosophy_in_History:_Essays_in_the_Historiography_of_Philosophy''_(1984)
_and_can_also_be_found_i
''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,_ *_Heda_Segvic,_''From_Protagoras_to_Aristotle:_Essays_in_Ancient_Moral_Philosophy''_(ed.),_Princeton_University_Press_2008,_ Select_articles/chapters *_iarchive:essaysonphilosop0000unse_e8d1/page/53/mode/1up.html" ;"title="e
Contents
each of which had been previously published [in, respectively
''Doubt and Dogmatism: Studies in Hellenistic Epistemology'' (1980)
an
''Philosophy in History: Essays in the Historiography of Philosophy'' (1984)
and can also be found i
''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, * Heda Segvic, ''From Protagoras to Aristotle: Essays in Ancient Moral Philosophy'' (ed.), Princeton University Press 2008, Select articles/chapters * iarchive:essaysonphilosop0000unse_e8d1/page/53/mode/1up">"Socratic Midwifery, Platonic Inspiration," (1977) reprinted in ''Essays on the Philosophy of Socrates'' (1992)
"Conflicting Appearances"
1979 ''Dawes Hicks Lecture on Philosophy'' for the British Academy.
"The Inaugural Address: Wittgenstein and Augustine De Magistro"
''Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, Supplementary Volumes,'' Vol. 61 (1987)
"The Impiety of Socrates"
''
Ancient Philosophy This page lists some links to ancient philosophy, namely philosophical thought extending as far as early post-classical history (). Overview Genuine philosophical thought, depending upon original individual insights, arose in many culture ...
'' 17 (1):1-12 (1997) *
Culture and Society in Plato’s Republic"
1997 Tanner Lecture
"Plato on why mathematics is good for the soul"
Lecture for the 1998 ''Dawes Hicks Symposia on Philosophy'' for the British Academy
"Plato"
2000 ''Master-Mind Lecture'' for the British Academy
"DE ANIMA II 5"
''
Phronesis ''Phronesis'' ( grc, φρόνησῐς, phrónēsis), translated into English by terms such as prudence, practical virtue and practical wisdom, or, colloquially, sense (as in "good sense", "horse sense") is an ancient Greek word for a type of w ...
,'' Vol. 47, No. 1 (2002)
"Kinesis vs. Energeia: A much-read passage in (but not of) Aristotle's Metaphysics"
',
Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy ''Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy'' is a peer-reviewed academic journal devoted to the study of ancient philosophy. The journal is indexed by PhilPapers and the Philosopher's Index."‘All the World’s a Stage-Painting’: Scenery, Optics, and Greek Epistemology" In: ''Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy'' 52 (2017)


References


Further reading

*
British Academy The British Academy is the United Kingdom's national academy for the humanities and the social sciences. It was established in 1902 and received its royal charter in the same year. It is now a fellowship of more than 1,000 leading scholars spa ...
br>memoir
of Burnyeat by Malcolm Schofield (2021) *''Maieusis: Essays in Ancient Philosophy in Honour of Myles Burnyeat'', edited by Dominic Scott, Oxford University Press 2007,


External links


Myles Burnyeat on Plato
BBC Television interview by
Bryan Magee Bryan Edgar Magee (; 12 April 1930 – 26 July 2019) was a British philosopher, broadcaster, politician and author, best known for bringing philosophy to a popular audience. Early life Born of working-class parents in Hoxton, London, in 1930, w ...
for '' The Great Philosophers'' (1987)
Myles Burnyeat on Aristotle on Happiness
podcast interview for '' Philosophy Bites'' (2007)
Myles Burnyeat lectures
for UCTV (2012) *
Modes of philosophizing: A round table debate"
with
Jonathan Barnes Jonathan Barnes, FBA (born 26 December 1942 in Wenlock, Shropshire) is an English scholar of Aristotelian and ancient philosophy. Education and career He was educated at the City of London School and Balliol College, Oxford University. He t ...
,
Raymond Geuss Raymond Geuss, FBA (; born 1946) is a political philosopher and scholar of 19th and 20th century European philosophy. He is currently Emeritus Professor in the Faculty of Philosophy, University of Cambridge. Geuss is primarily known for three ...
and
Barry Stroud Barry Stroud (; 18 May 1935 – 9 August 2019) was a Canadian philosopher and professor at the University of California, Berkeley. Known especially for his work on philosophical skepticism, he wrote about David Hume, Ludwig Wittgenstein, the metap ...
for '' Cogito'' (2008)

{{DEFAULTSORT:Burnyeat, Myles 1939 births 2019 deaths Academics of University College London Alumni of King's College, Cambridge Alumni of University College London Analytic philosophers Aristotelian philosophers British scholars of ancient Greek philosophy Commanders of the Order of the British Empire English classical scholars English philosophers Fellows of All Souls College, Oxford Fellows of Robinson College, Cambridge Fellows of the British Academy Members of the University of Cambridge faculty of classics People educated at Bryanston School Philosophers of education Philosophers of history Presidents of the Aristotelian Society Laurence Professors of Ancient Philosophy