Draft:Gerard Naddaf

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Gerard Naddaf (b. North Syndey, Nova Scotia, 6 December 1950) is a Canadian philosopher and historian of ideas. Naddaf is a professor emeritus of philosophy at York University, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and specializes in ancient Greek philosophy and, in particular, Plato and early Greek philosophy.

While Naddaf's work exhibits a multidisciplinary approach, he has a special interest in the correlation between biology and culture, and in the evolution of consciousness. More precisely, Naddaf explores in his work what he calls reflective self-consciousness, which is due to cultural factors proper to ancient Greece.

Naddaf may be best know for his book The Greek Concept of Nature (2005), which has been translated into both French and Chinese and is widely cited. Naddaf's work places a special emphasis on the concept of nature or physis (see below) and the origins of the radical new way of thinking that characterizes Western philosophy: the notion that we should never be bound to the uncritical acceptance of a particular position.

Education

Naddaf's studies in philosophy began in 1975 at the Université Paul-Valéry in Montpellier, France. He graduated from the École Pratiques des Hautes Etudes in Paris in 1980 and completed his doctorate (Summa cum laude) at the Sorbonne in Paris in 1986. Both degrees were under the supervision of Pierre Hadot and Luc Brisson.

On returning to Canada from France in 1987, he was awarded a two-year SSHRC post-doctoral fellowship, which he took up in Classics at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. Afterwards, in 1988, Naddaf took up a position in the Department of Philosophy at York University in Toronto, Ontario, where he remained until his retirement in 2020. Naddaf then returned home to Nova Scotia.

Academic work and writing

Naddaf's most recent work, Making Sense of Myth, explores what Ronald Polansky says is "the indispensable role of myth and storytelling in human life and society by way of an interview-cum-memoir, tracing the life and intellectual trajectory of Luc Brisson, one of the most prominent philosophers of his generation." The afterword written by Naddaf draws the book into "a biography of humanity in the world at large and narrows to locate the emergence of storytelling: myth as a feature of society."

Myth, as Naddaf understands it, comprises stories that give us our identity. As such, myths are the creators of the self, of one's identity, and maybe as old as language itself. The notion of individuality is thus a kind of mirage; it's as if the self does not exist independent of one's larger group or community. Essential and inescapable, myth offers a guide for living, forming the core of belonging and group identity. Naddaf notes that in the contemporary world, the melting pot and multiculturalism could be seen as experiments in myths of tolerance.

Otherwise, Naddaf traces myth as a sociobiological phenomenon and shows how the influence of culture on the human psyche led to a new kind of consciousness that culminated with a new type of Homo: Homo philosophicus with which the birth of philosophy and the famous clash between myth and reason begin. Homo philosophicus is a theme in several of Naddaf’s previous works and talks.

In The Greek Concept of Nature (2005), Naddaf utilizes historical, mythological, and linguistic perspectives to reconstruct the origin and evolution of the Greek concept of physis. Usually translated as nature, physis has been decisive for both the early history of philosophy and its subsequent development. Naddaf demonstrates that for the early Greek philosophers, the fundamental and etymological meaning of the word physis refers to the whole process of birth to maturity; the word is not meant to be static. Naddaf goes on to reveal that the famous expression Peri physeos (On nature) connected with the philosophers’ works refers to the origin and growth of the universe from beginning to end.

This process, however, not only consisted of a rational theory of the world, but also a theory to explain the origin of mankind and of the city/society.

Naddaf reveals that this three-part schema (cosmogony, anthropogony, politogony) preserved the same tripartite structure as the older mythological narratives before them that appealed to supernatural causes such as we find in the Babylonian creation story or in the Book of Genesis. Such narratives are myths of return. They intended to bring a people back to the memory of their ancestors when these events occurred for the first time. Through ritualized narratives, the people understood how and why the present world order emerged along with their role and place within the myth behind this order. From this perspective, there is a persistence of a literary genre that continues well past the early Greek philosophers as it is also found in later philosophers such as Plato, and, indeed, for those looking for a meaning in the contemporary world such as living in conformity with nature.

For a succinct summary of Naddaf's thesis, see Pierre Hadot, What is Ancient Philosophy (2004).

Naddaf served as President of the Canadian Philosophical Association in 2005 and was the Chair of the Philosophy Department at York University from 1999 to 2004.

Works

Authored and co-authored books

• Naddaf, Gerard (2024). Making Sense of Myth: Conversations with Luc Brisson. Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press.
• Naddaf, Gerard (2005). The Greek Concept of Nature. Albany: State University of New York Press.
• Naddaf, Gerard; Couprie, Dirk L.; Hahn, Robert (2003). Anaximander in Context: New Studies in the Origins of Greek Philosophy. Albany: State University of New York Press.
• Naddaf, Gerard (translator, editor, and co-author); Brisson, Luc (author) (1998). Plato the Myth Maker. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
• Naddaf, Gerard (1992). L'origen et l'évolution du concept Grec de phusis. Lewston: Edwin Mellen Press.

Articles and book chapters

• “Discovering φύσις: Reductive Materialism, the Emergence of Reflexivity, and the First Secular Theories of Everything” in Studies in Ancient Greek Philosophy in Honor of Professor Anthony Preus (ed. David Spitzer), London: Routledge, 2023, 18–36.
• “Revisiting the Religion of the Early Greek Philosophers, and Socrates’ Contribution to the Controversy,” in Ápeiron. Estudios de filosofía, monográfico «Presocráticos», no. 11, 2019, 65–97.
• “Poetic Myths of the Afterlife: Plato’s Last Song,” in Reflections on Plato’s Poetics: Essays from Beijing (edited by Rick Benitez and Keping Wang), Academic Printing & Publishing: Berrima Glen Berrima NSW, 2016, 111-136.
• “Philosophic and poetic inspiration in the Republic,” in Dialogues on Plato’s Politeia (Republic). Selected Papers from the Ninth Symposium Platonicum (Noburu Notomi and Luc Brisson, eds.), Sankt Augustin: Academia Verlag, 2012, 188-193.
• “Allegory and the Origins of Philosophy,” in W. Wians (ed), Logos and Mythos: Philosophical Essays on Greek Literature, Albany: SUNY Press, 2009, 99-131.
• “What is Presocratic philosophy?” Ancient Philosophy 26 (1) 2006, 161-179.
• “Literacy and Poetic Performance in Plato’s Laws,” Ancient Philosophy 20 (4) 2000, 339-350.
• “On the Origin of Anaximander’s Cosmological Model,” Journal of the History of Ideas 59 (1) 1998, 1-28.
• “Lefkowitz and the Afrocentric Question,” Philosophy of the Social Sciences 28 (3) 1998, 451-470.
• “The Atlantis Myth: An Introduction to Plato's Later Philosophy of History,” Phoenix 48 (3), 1994, 189-209.
• “Plato: The Creator of Natural Theology,” International Studies in Philosophy 36 (1) 2004, 129-150.