Darren M Gardner Visiting Scholar [email protected] Dartmouth College 646-594-4969

June 2018: Visiting Scholar. Dartmouth College. Hanover, NH.

Sept 2017: Lecturer of , Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam

Jan 2016: PhD: Philosophy New School for Social Research. New York, NY. Dec 2009: M.A: Philosophy New School for Social Research. New York, NY. May 1998: BA: History of Philosophy, History of Math and Science St. John’s College, Annapolis, Md.

Area of specialty: Ancient Philosophy, (esp. ’s ) Areas of competency: History of Philosophy; Early-Modern Philosophy of Music

Dissertation: “Exercise and Insight: Gymnastics in Plato’s ” (Dmitri Nikulin Philosophy, New School, director; Cinzia Arruzza, Philosophy, New School; Phillip Mitsis, Classics, NYU; Mitchell Miller, Philosophy Emeritus, Vassar College)

In Plato’s Parmenides, the young is famously unable to defend his notion of forms under the cross-examination of Parmenides. Socrates, however, is offered advice: exercise. This dissertation examines Plato’s Parmenides as an explicitly pedagogical enterprise, presenting an advanced dialectical training for students. Socrates here is an exemplar of a philosophical student, not yet a mature master. Plato offers the student of the dialogue exercise [gymnastike], as a means to prepare him or her to critically re- evaluate Socrates’ depiction of forms. I show, contrary to dominant readings of the dialogue, that the hypotheses help the student to overcome the problems of an immature notion of forms, one that still attributes to forms qualities that are only proper to sensible or perceivable things. The student is asked to consider “one” [hen], the subject of the hypotheses, through a web of mutually contradictory characterizations. In some of the hypotheses the “one” is given attributes proper to space and time, while in others it is given attributes that imply that it transcends space and time. To keep the “one” in mind under both sets of attributes at once, it is necessary to learn to conceive it abstractly, and this kind of abstract thinking is prerequisite for the deeper conception of forms that the immature young Socrates needs. For in freeing him from relying on characterizations fit for spatiotemporal things, it puts him, and students of the dialogue, in position to think forms in their pure intelligibility. The exercises are in this way a prerequisite training for a more mature conception of forms that will do justice to their difference in kind from and priority to sensible or perceivable things.

Languages: Ancient Greek (proficient), Latin, French, and Dutch (working proficiency)

Awards: NSSR Teaching Fellow* 2013-2014, 2014-2015 New School Dissertation fellowship* 2013-2014 Levinson Fellowship,* 2012 (* notes a highly competitive award)

Publications

Articles and Reviews: “The Ambiguity of the ‘One’ in Plato’s Parmenides.” Methexis: Volume 30, Issue 1, 2018. “Comments on Horan.” Proceedings of the Boston Area Colloquium of Ancient Philosophy. (Forthcoming 2018) Review: Imperial Plato, Ryan Fowler. Classical Journal. Classical Association of the Middle West and South. CJ-Online, 2017.12.01 Review: A Study of Dialectics in Plato’s Parmenides, Eric Sanday. Graduate Faculty Philosophy Journal. V. 36 No. 2. 2015. New York.

Invited Papers: “The Many and the Question of Cosmos: The Significance of Hypothesis 3 in Plato’s Parmenides.” The Société d’Etudes Platoniciennes, Ecole Normale Supérieure de la rue d’Ulm (Paris). May, 2018. “Hypotheses on Both Sides: A Reply to Horan.” Boston Area Colloquium on Ancient Philosophy. Boston College. September, 2107. “Plato’s Lysis: The Educational Aporia of Desire.” University College, Groningen Spring 2017. “From the Agora to the Gymnasium: Philosophical Training at Plato’s Palestra” CRASIS Ancient World Seminar, University of Groningen. January, 2017. “A reconsideration of the One” Society for Classical Studies Annual Meeting, Toronto. January, 2017. “Productive Aporia: Contradiction in Plato’s Parmenides” Department of Philosophy, University of Groningen. February, 2016. “Aporia and Insight in Plato’s Parmenides” History of Philosophy Colloquium, University of Utrecht. May, 2016. “Attic Tragedy as Philosophy.” NYU Core Program. Spring, 2014

“Politics through Reception Theory: The Greek legacy.” NYU, Fall 2014

“Insight and Diairesis in Plato’s Sophist” The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy, Fordham University, NY. October, 2011. “Mousike in Plato’s Ion” The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy, Fordham University, NY. October, 2010. “Forms and the Compresence of Opposites” University of Groningen, Fall 2016

In Development: Exercise and Insight: Gymnastic in Plato’s Parmenides [Manuscript]

“Rethinking the Quarrel de Buffon: Music as an Enlightenment Enterprise.”

Other Writings: The Graduate Faculty Philosophy Journal’s Archive on Plato. http://blogs.newschool.edu/graduate-faculty-philosophy-journal/2017/06/02/the-gfpj- archive-on-plato-darren-gardner/

Professional experience:

Lecturer Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam: Fall 2017 Courses designed and taught: • Ancient and Medieval Philosophy Eugene Lang College, The New School: Fall 2013-2015 Courses designed and taught: • Enlightenment and Counter Enlightenment: Music and Philosophy • Plato’s (advanced undergraduate seminar) • Philosophy 1: Ancient Philosophy NYU: Core Curriculum Program. Fall 2013 & Fall 2014 Courses taught: • Expressive culture: Theater NYU: Department of Classics. Spring 2013 • Invited Guest Lecturer for Peter Meineck Spring 2014 City College, CUNY: Department of Philosophy: Spring 2012, Fall 2012 Course designed and taught: • Introduction to Philosophy: Ethics and Epistemology

Teaching Assistant: Classical Mythology. Prof. Peter Meineck, Department of Classics, NYU. Spring 2013 Expressive Culture: Theater. Prof Meineck. NYU Fall 2013, 2014

Professional Woodworker: I am a traditionally trained furniture maker. I work primarily on custom hand-made furniture. My woodworking experiences inform my interest in the connection of craftsmanship and training to self-cultivation and individual development. www.brooklyncraftsman.com

Teaching Interests: I enjoy research and teaching in the field of Ancient Philosophy and the History of Philosophy. Additionally, I use interdisciplinary teaching models, incorporating such traditions as Ancient Greek and Latin literature with Reception Theory, Art, and Contemporary Culture.

References: Dmitri Nikulin: Professor of Philosophy & Director of Undergraduate Studies, New School for Social Research. [email protected] Peter Meineck: Clinical Professor of Classics. New York University. [email protected] Mitch Miller: Professor of Philosophy [Emeritus] Vassar College, NY. [email protected] Phillip Mitsis: Alexander S. Onassis Professor of Hellenic Culture and Civilization New York University. [email protected] Cinzia Arruzza: Assistant Professor of Philosophy. New School for Social Research. [email protected]