Corinne Gartner
Associate Professor of Philosophy
Works on ancient Greek philosophy, with emphasis on ancient ethics and moral psychology.
I have broad research interests within ancient philosophy, though most of my work concentrates on topics in ancient ethics and moral psychology. Because these topics were, for ancient thinkers, not cleanly divorced from their metaphysical and epistemological commitments, I consider ancient ethical views from within the framework of a thinker’s system.
A number of my projects explore Aristotle’s accounts of friendship in both the Nicomachean Ethics and the Eudemian Ethics. I am particularly interested in the Socratically inspired puzzles that Aristotle raises about friendship, including a puzzle about how virtuous agents can be friends, given that (a) virtuous agents are self-sufficient, and (b) agents who are self-sufficient, by definition, need nothing, and so will not need friends.
I also enjoy thinking about both Plato and later Hellenistic philosophers (stoics, skeptics, Epicureans). I completed a project on psychic conflict in Seneca’s De Ira and have a project in progress on what memory could not be for Lucretius, who expressly countenances the possibility of palingenesis in the context of arguing that death is nothing to us. The latter project investigates why a future instantiation of me would not possess my memories, given that Lucretius is an atomist.
I teach courses in ancient philosophy and value theory. Some recent seminar topics in ancient philosophy include: Ancient Theories of Pleasure, Plato’s Republic, and Ancient Skepticisms. Within value theory, I have taught Introduction to Moral Philosophy, Normative Ethics, Ethics in Action, and I regularly channel my previous pre-med self in teaching Medical Ethics.
When I am not pondering Aristotle’s views about friends, I can often be found with my own friends.
Education
- B.A., Stanford University
- M.A., Stanford University
- Ph.D., Princeton University
Current and upcoming courses
Medical Ethics
PHIL249
This applied ethics course will examine some central problems at the interface of medicine and ethics and explore some of the social and ethical implications of current advances in biomedical research and technology. Topics discussed will include: drawing the distinction between genetic therapy and genetic enhancement; the permissibility of the practice of genetic screening and selective abortion; the status and interests of individuals at the margins of agency, such as infants, children and dementia patients; decisions about prolonging life and hastening death; and controversies about the use of memory-dampening drugs. Throughout, several key ethical themes will unify the course, including: the conditions for personhood and what we owe to persons; the value of autonomy and the right to make decisions about one's own body; and the importance of well-being and the purpose of medicine.
-
We all have friends and we tend to regard friendship as an important good. This seminar undertakes a philosophical examination of the nature and value of friendship. Two main questions will animate the course: What is a friend? And, why are friends valuable? We will examine different types of friendships and the features that characterize and sustain them. Many philosophers have argued that the best kind of friendship is one in which the friend is loved for her own sake; we will investigate whether this is truly possible or whether all friendships are ultimately instrumental. We'll also examine how the partiality inherent in friendship conflicts with the demands of standard moral theories. Finally, drawing on examples from literature and film, we will consider whether one has to be a good person in order to be a good friend.