Dr Sophia M. Connell
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Overview
Overview
Biography
Sophia M. Connell is Senior Lecturer in the Philosophy Department. Before coming to Birkbeck in 2017, Sophia taught philosophy at the University of Cambridge for 15 years. She has been a Fellow and Arts Admissions Tutor at Selwyn College (2015-17), a Philosophy Lecturer at Newnham College (2002-17), a Teaching Associate (2010-11) and Lecturer (2008-9) in the Faculty of Philosophy and was a Research Fellow at both Churchill and St John’s Colleges (1997-2001).
Highlights
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics on happiness and how to live well (2023) and Aristotle's method of biological investigation and the first systematic and thorough study of animals, which was unequalled for almost 2,000 years (2019).
Sophia Connell discusses the Lost Women of Early Analytic Philosophy
https://blog.apaonline.org/2022/09/07/the-lost-women-of-early-analytic-philosophy/
Qualifications
- MPhil, University of Cambridge, 1994
- PhD, University of Cambridge, 1997
Web profiles
Administrative responsibilities
- Undergraduate Lead
Visiting posts
- Lecturer, University of Oslo, 04-2019
Professional activities
Associate Editor (Ancient Philosophy), British Journal for the History of Philosophy.
Editorial Board Member, Studies in History and Philosophy of Science, Springer
Advisory Board, Aristotle Beyond the Academy, Durham University
Advisory Board, Aristoteles Pezographos: Investigating The Style and Language of Aristotle, Dept of Classics and Ancient History, Durham
Advisory Board, Animals in Islamic Philosophy, Ludwig-Maximilians University Munich (2018-23)
Professional memberships
Committee member, British Society for the History of Philosophy
Member, London Centre for Ancient Philosophy
Honours and awards
- Pilkington Prize, University of Cambridge, November 2016
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Research
Research
Research interests
- Ancient Greek Philosophy
- Aristotle's Biology
- Aristotle's Ethics
- Aristotle's Psychology and Philosophy of Mind
- Plato's Political Philosophy
- Animal Cognition (especially in Aristotle)
- History of Analytic Philosophy (especially female figures)
- Mary Midgley
- Alice Ambrose
- Women in Ancient Science, Medicine and Philosophy
Research overview
Sophia works broadly to consolidate and improve philosophical engagement with Aristotle’s biological corpus, particularly the Generation of Animals, Parts of Animals and Historia Animalium. Her work shows how serious engagement with these relatively neglected texts throws new light on many aspects of Aristotle’s philosophy. She is the editor of The Cambridge Companion to Aristotle's Biology (2021). In 2016, her book Aristotle on Female Animals was also published with Cambridge University Press.
Sophia has published work on nutritive soul, the role of nous in embryology and the bodily basis for intellect in Aristotle’s philosophy. Another strand of her research reveals connections between Aristotle’s biology and his ethical and political works. For Aristotle each animal has a way of life that accords with its kind, and makes that animal able to live well. Although humans are also animals, limited by their embodied and mortal condition, they must fulfil their nature through thoughtful and rational engagement in the decisions that will shape their lives. For Aristotle humans are social animals, which means they cannot do well unless they interact successfully with others. Although uniquely placed in the natural world, humans share many features with other animals including sociality, sentience, emotional responsiveness and even certain ways of thinking. These facts impact our responsibilities towards non-human animals. Sophia has published several papers exploring these themes in Aristotle and contemporary Aristotelianism; she is now working on Aristotelian environmental ethics. Sophia is developing research on the female body in ancient philosophical and medico-philosophical texts. Along with this, she has recent research which traces the work of women ancient philosophers and scientists.
Sophia is known for her historiographic work on women in early analytic philosophy. Female figures who worked on philosophical topics in the early part of the last century, have been unfairly marginalised. Archival research reveals the impact of their thought in this period. She has published work on G.E.M. Anscombe, Mary Midgley and Alice Ambrose and co-editing a Special Issue of the British Journal for the History of Philosophy on ‘Lost Voices: Women in Philosophy 1880-1970’ with Frederique Janssen-Lauret (2021). Her current research includes the philosophy of Sophie Bryant, Grace De Laguna and Alice Ambrose.
Research Centres and Institutes
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Supervision and teaching
Supervision and teaching
Supervision
I welcome enquiries from prospective PhD students who are interested in undertaking research in any of my areas of research interest
Current doctoral researchers
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GLENDA HALL
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MARYAM JAFAR AGHDAMI KHAMENEH
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SAILEE KHURJEKAR
Doctoral alumni since 2013-14
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ELEANOR ROBSON
Teaching
I regularly teach the following courses:
Philosophy as the Art of Living: Ancient Views
Ancient and Medieval Philosophy
Women in Philosophy
Ethical Traditions
Aristotle's Biology and Ethics
Teaching modules
- The Ethics of Technology and Artificial Intelligence (Level 7) (SC03017S7)
- Research in Practical Philosophy (SSPL158S7)
- Philosophy as the Art of Living: Ancient and Modern Views (SSPL235S4)
- Ethical Traditions (Level 5) (SSPL244S5)
- The Ethics of Life and Death: Humans, Animals and the Environment (Level 5) (SSPL262S5)
- Women in Philosophy (Level 5) (SSPL274S5)
- Ancient and Medieval Philosophy (Level 5) (SSPL281S5)
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Publications
Publications
Article
- Connell, Sophia (2024) Grace De Laguna: why forgotten as a philosopher?. Australasian Philosophical Review 6 (1), pp. 33-38. ISSN 2474-0500.
- Connell, Sophia and Janssen-Lauret, F. (2023) "Bad Philosophy" or "Derivative Philosophy": labels that keep women out of the canon. Metaphilosophy ISSN 1467-9973.
- Connell, Sophia M. (2022) Alice Ambrose and early analytic philosophy. British Journal for the History of Philosophy 30 (2), pp. 312-335. ISSN 0960-8788.
- Connell, Sophia and Janssen-Lauret, F. (2022) Lost voices: on counteracting exclusion of women from histories of contemporary philosophy. British Journal for the History of Philosophy 30 (2), pp. 199-210. ISSN 0960-8788.
- Connell, Sophia (2021) “Nous alone enters from outside”: Aristotelian embryology and early Christian philosophy. Journal of Ancient Philosophy 15 (2), pp. 109-138. ISSN 1981-9471.
- Connell, Sophia M. (2020) Nutritive and sentient soul in Aristotle's Generation of Animals II 5. Phronesis 65 (3), pp. 324-354. ISSN 0031-8868.
- Connell, Sophia M. (2019) Aristotle for the modern Ethicist. Ancient Philosophy Today: Dialogoi 1 (2), pp. 192-214. ISSN 2516-1156.
- Connell, Sophia M. (2019) Nurture and parenting in Aristotelian ethics. Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society 119 (2), pp. 179-200. ISSN 1467-9264.
- Connell, Sophia M. (2018) Parallels between tyrant and philosopher in Plato's Republic. Polis: The Journal for Ancient Greek Political Thought 35 (2), pp. 447-477. ISSN 0142-257X.
- Connell, Sophia M. (2001) Toward an integrated approach to Aristotle as a biological philosopher. The Review of Metaphysics 55 (2), pp. 297-322. ISSN 0034-6632.
- Connell, Sophia M. (2000) Aristotle and Galen on sex difference and reproduction: a new approach to an ancient rivalry. Studies in the History and Philosophy of Science 31 (3), pp. 405-427.
Book
- Connell, Sophia M (2021) Aristotle on women: physiology, psychology, and politics. Elements in Ancient Philosophy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9781108713467. (In Press)
- Connell, Sophia M. (2015) Aristotle on female animals: a study of the generation of animals. Cambridge Classical Studies. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9781316501795.
Book Section
- Connell, Sophia (2025) "A cabinet of many rare secrets": the uses and abuses of Aristotle's Masterpiece. In: Totelin, L. and Perkins, E. (eds.) Tools, Techniques, and Technologies: Essays on Ancient Science and Its Reception in Honour of Liba Taub. Trends in Classics – Pathways of Reception. Berlin, Germany: De Gruyter. ISBN 9783111009940. (In Press)
- Connell, Sophia (2024) How does a living animal come to be from semen? The puzzles of Aristotle’s Generation of Animals II 1-3. In: Lefebvre, D. (ed.) The Science of Life in Aristotle and the Early Peripatos. Philosophia Antiqua. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill. pp. 388-405. ISBN 9789004711723. (In Press)
- Connell, Sophia (2024) The Hippocratic background to Aristotle’s gynaecology. In: Bartos, H. and Vojta, L. (eds.) Aristotle Reads Hippocrates. Studies in Ancient Medicine. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill. ISBN 9789004703537. (In Press)
- Connell, Sophia (2024) Aristotle on women's virtues. In: Brill, S. and McKeen, C. (eds.) The Routledge Handbook of Women and Ancient Greek Philosophy. New York, U.S.: Routledge. pp. 388-405. ISBN 9780367498719.
- Connell, Sophia (2024) Aristotle on memory and emotions in human and non-human animals. In: Kazantzidis, G. and Spatharas, D. (eds.) Memory and Emotions in Antiquity. Trends in Classics - Supplementary Volumes. Berlin, Germany: De Gruyter. pp. 129-152. ISBN 9783111344805.
- Connell, Sophia (2023) Bertrand and Dora Russell on sex, marriage and the rule of fathers. In: Elkind, L.D.C. and Mugar Klein, A. (eds.) Bertrand Russell, Feminism, and Women Philosophers in his Circle. History of Analytic Philosophy. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 9783031330254. (In Press)
- Connell, Sophia (2023) Women’s medical knowledge in Antiquity: beyond midwifery. In: Pello, C. and O'Reilly, K. (eds.) Ancient Women Philosophers: Recovered Ideas and New Perspectives. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. pp. 57-76. ISBN 9781316516188.
- Connell, Sophia (2022) Hybrids in Aristotle’s Generation of Animals. In: Follinger, S. (ed.) Aristotle's Generation of Animals: A Comprehensive Approach. Philosophie der Antike. Berlin, Germany: De Gruyter. pp. 181-208. ISBN 9783110761436.
- Connell, Sophia M. (2021) Thinking bodies: Aristotle on the biological aspects of human cognition. In: Gregoric, P. and Jacob, F. (eds.) Encounters with Aristotelian Philosophy of Mind. London, UK: Routledge. ISBN 9780367439132. (In Press)
- Connell, Sophia M. (2021) Animal cognition in Aristotle. In: Connell, Sophia M. (ed.) The Cambridge Companion to Aristotle's Biology. Cambridge Companions to Philosophy. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9781107197732. (In Press)
- Connell, Sophia M. (2021) Aristotle on generation and hereditary resemblance. In: Connell, Sophia M. (ed.) The Cambridge Companion to Aristotle's Biology. Cambridge Companions to Philosophy. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9781107197732. (In Press)
- Connell, Sophia M. (2021) Frauen. In: Corcilius, K. and Rapp, C. (eds.) Aristoteles-Handbuch: Leben — Werk — Wirkung. Stuttgart, Germany: J.B. Metzler. pp. 243-249. ISBN 9783476057419.
- Connell, Sophia M. (2020) The female contribution to generation and the nutritive soul in Aristotle’s embryology. In: Korobili, G. and Lo Presti, R. (eds.) Nutrition and The Nutritive Soul in Aristotle and Aristotelianism. Topics in Ancient Philosophy. Berlin, Germany: De Gruyter. pp. 63-84. ISBN 9783110689792.
- Connell, Sophia M. (2020) Introduction. In: Connell, Sophia M. (ed.) The Cambridge Companion to Aristotle's Biology. Cambridge Companions to Philosophy. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9781107197732. (In Press)
- Connell, Sophia M. (2018) Aristotle’s explanations of monstrous births and deformities in generation of animals 4.4. In: Falcon, A. and Lefebvre, D. (eds.) Aristotle's Generation of Animals: A Critical Guide. Cambridge Critical Guides. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. pp. 207-223. ISBN 9781107132931.
Conference Item
- Connell, Sophia Margaret Sfendoni-Mentzou, D., ed. Mothering and intelligence in Aristotle’s Biology and Ethics. World Congress “Aristotle 2400 Years”, Thessaloniki, Greece
Other
- Connell, Sophia (2023) Women in philosophy. Oxford Classical Dictionary online: Oxford University Press.
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Business and community
Business and community
Media
I am happy to receive enquiries from the media on the following topics:
- Aristotle's Philosophy
- Alice Ambrose
- History of Analytic Philosophy
- Women in Ancient Greek Science, Medicine and Philosophy
Outreach
Speaker on BBC Radio 4’s In Our Time with Melvyn Bragg on ‘Aristotle’s Biology’ 7th February 2019
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0002cfd
Guest Speaker at the Forum for Philosophy, L.S.E., November 2019 on theme of ‘Aristotle Now’
https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/theforum/aristotle_now/
'Aristotle on Female Animals Etc.' Interviewed by Richard Marshall at 3.16 a.m.
https://www.3-16am.co.uk/articles/aristotle-and-female-animals-etc?c=end-times-series
Keynote Address, 'Women Intellectuals in Antiquity' Conference, Keble College, Oxford: February 2020.