I am an Assistant Professor in Philosophy at Georgia State University. I received my PhD from the Classics and Philosophy Combined Program at Yale University (2018).
​
I specialize in ancient philosophy and am particularly interested in issues that lie at the intersection of ancient ethics and epistemology. My research investigates ancient accounts of ethical development and the relationship between virtue and knowledge. My current projects offer a novel explanation of why ancient philosophers think knowledge is central to being good and shed new light on how these figures conceptualized the process of developing other-oriented ethical concern. My main focus is on the treatment of these issues in the dialogues of Plato and in the Stoics. Other philosophical interests include contemporary philosophy of education, ethics, and early modern philosophy.
​​
From 2024-2025, I will be on leave from GSU for a Humboldt Research Fellowship at Universität Heidelberg (sponsored by Prof. Dr. Philipp Brüllmann).
​
Upcoming Presentations
[10/24] Ancient Philosophy Colloquium | Ruhr-Universität Bochum
[11/13/24] Ancient Philosophy Seminar | Universität Heidelberg
[11/27/24] Ancient Philosophy Seminar | Universität Heidelberg
[01/25] Workshop on Seneca’s De Beneficiis | Cambridge and Universität Heidelberg (hosted by Heidelberg)
[02/25] Ancient Philosophy Colloquium | Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
[03/25] Workshop in Ancient Philosophy | Oxford
[04/25] Colloquium für Ancient Philosophy | Université Fribourg​
Research
A note: My last name combines two names without a hyphen. If you cite me, please do so as follows: "Piñeros Glasscock, Allison. ---etc.----"
​
Published Articles | Other Publications | Completed Works / Commissioned Works-in-Progress | Dissertation ​​
Published Articles
4. (forthcoming) “Loving Learning: Plato’s philosophical dogs and the education of the guardians”, in Rereading Plato’s Republic, eds. Mary Margaret McCabe and Simon Trépanier, Edinburgh University Press.
Develops a new account of the early education of the guardians in the Republic. Shows that this education targets the philosophical element of the guardian soul and not merely the spirited element.
​
3. (2023) “Giving Gifts and Making Friends: Seneca’s De beneficiis on how to expand one’s sphere of ethical concern” Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy 62: 261-292.
I argue that, for Seneca, (a) benefaction is a joint activity (i.e. an activity with multiple participants working in relation to one another) and that (b) it is intrinsically oriented towards the good. The special nature of benefaction makes it a powerful means of developing ethical concern for others.
[link to penultimate version] [https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780192885180.003.0007]
​
2. (2021) “Owning Virtue: The Meno on Virtue, Knowledge, and True Opinion” Phronesis 66 (3): 249-273.
Defends a novel account of why, at the end of the Meno, Socrates suggests that genuine virtue is knowledge. Argues that, for Socrates, being virtuous requires being responsible for the correctness of one’s actions and only a knower has this kind of ownership of action.
[link to penultimate version] [https://doi.org/10.1163/15685284-BJA10043]
​
1. (2020) “The Discipline of Virtue: Knowledge and the Unity of the Virtues in the Protagoras” Ancient Philosophy 40 (1): 41-65.
Identifies a false assumption that underlies standard interpretations of the Unity Thesis and offers a new interpretation according to which the virtues are unified insofar as they are each constituted by the same kind of psychological power: knowledge.
[link to penultimate version] [https://doi.org/10.5840/ancientphil20204013]
Other Publications
2. (online first: 2024) [Extended critical review] Plato’s Phaedo: Forms, Death, and the Philosophical Life by David Ebrey, Cambridge: CUP, 2023 in Mind. [https://doi.org/10.1093/mind/fzae002]
1. (2022) [Review] Explorations in Ancient and Modern Philosophy v.4 by Myles Burnyeat, Cambridge: CUP, 2022, in Review of Metaphysics 76 (2): 345-346. [https://doi.org/10.1353/rvm.2022.0069 ]
Completed Works/Commissioned Works-in-Progress
Article: A paper on altruism and self-sufficiency in Stoicism. [under review]
Commissioned book chapter: with Juan Piñeros Glasscock, [On Plato’s Influence on Ryle], in The Rylean Mind, ed. Matt Dougherty, Routledge.
Commissioned book review: Seneca: The Literary Philosopher by Margaret Graver, Cambridge: CUP, 2023, for Archiv für Geschichte der Philosophie.
Dissertation
Learning Virtue: The Value of Knowledge and Philosophical Inquiry in Four Platonic Dialogues
Throughout Plato’s dialogues, Socrates is portrayed as having an unwavering commitment to the value of philosophical inquiry. Socrates thinks that philosophy and knowledge (in particular, knowledge of what virtue is) play an important role in becoming a virtuous and happy person. But what kind of role do they play? And what kind of value do they have? The central claim of my dissertation is that, for Socrates, philosophical inquiry and knowledge have both instrumental and final value. Philosophical inquiry, especially inquiry into the nature of virtue, is a means to virtue and happiness insofar as it provides one with a conceptualization of the kind of person one aims to become and helps guide one’s actions toward that end. But, in addition, philosophical inquiry and knowledge are constitutive of the virtuous and happy life. Virtuous action consists in doing philosophy, and the genuinely happy person will be the one who has acquired the knowledge at which philosophy aims through her philosophizing. One implication of my view is that the truly virtuous person must know what knowledge is. This suggests that Plato’s epistemological investigations are in the service of the project of becoming good.
Teaching
I have had the privilege of working with students in a variety of learning communities, including Georgia State University, the University of Toronto, Yale University, and Fairfield University.
​
I think excellence in research and excellence in teaching go hand in hand. The idea for my dissertation grew out of a discussion I had with students about Plato’s Meno, and, more recently, my work on the Stoics has been spurred on by interactions with graduates and undergraduates in my Stoicism course. I view the classroom not only as a space where my students learn, but as a place where I learn—a place where my own assumptions are challenged in conversation with other thinkers.
​
Below you can find sample syllabi and some examples of assignments and in-class exercises.
Syllabi for courses taught as sole instructor
-
Plato's Epistemology (MA seminar, Georgia State University, Fall 2020)
-
Ancient Philosophy (Undergrad, GSU, Spring 2024)
-
Stoicism (Undergrad, GSU, Spring 2024)
Sample assignments and in-class exercises
-
Guidance for commenting (handout for graduate students on writing comments for a conference presentation)
-
Guided Philosophical Analysis (a worksheet to guide analysis and in-class discussion of Aristotle's argument for the highest good)
-
Game Review Session (teams of students compete to get the most answers right in an in-class final exam review)
[pictured: some students from my Intro to Philosophy of Education, June 2017.On the final day of class, I asked them to create a mind map to the course that covered the questions and topics we had discussed during our seminars. Here is one group posing with their creation. Shared with permission.]