James Lesher received his Ph. D. from the University of Rochester and taught at the University of Maryland before joining the UNC department in the fall of 2007. He has held research fellowships at Harvard University (1971-72), Princeton University (1974-75), the Center for Hellenic Studies (1982-83), and the National Humanities Center (2004-2005).

Lesher has written or edited four books on ancient Greek philosophy: Xenophanes of Colophon (Toronto U. P., 1992). The Greek Philosophers: Greek Texts with Notes and Commentary (Duckworth/Bristol Classical Press, 1998), Plato's Symposium: Issues in Interpretation and Reception, co-edited with Debra Nails and Frisbee Sheffield (Center for Hellenic Studies/Harvard U. P., 2006), and Essays on Aristotle's Posterior Analytics: Papers from the 2009 Duke-UNC-Chapel Hill Conference (forthcoming as a special issue of the journal Apeiron). He is also the author of more than sixty articles on topics relating to ancient Greek philosophy; among them: ‘Gnôsis and Epistêmê in Socrates' Dream in the Theaetetus,' The Journal of Hellenic Studies (l969); ‘Danto on Knowledge as a Relation,' Analysis (l970); ‘Aristotle on Form, Substance, and Universals: A Dilemma,’ Phronesis (1971); ‘The Meaning of Nous in the Posterior Analytics,’ Phronesis (1973); 'Genetic Explanations of Religious Belief,' Philosophical Studies (l975); ‘Perceiving and Knowing in the Iliad and Odyssey,’ Phronesis (1981); ‘Socrates' Disavowal of Knowledge,’ Journal of the History of Philosophy (1987); ‘The Emergence of Philosophical Interest in Cognition,’ Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy (1994); ‘Mind's Knowledge and Powers of Control in Anaxagoras DK B12,’ Phronesis (1995); ‘Early Interest in Knowledge’ in The Cambridge Companion to Early Greek Philosophy (Cambridge, 1999); 'The Humanizing of Knowledge' in The Oxford Handbook of Presocratic Philosophy (Oxford U. P., 2008), and ‘Xenophanes of Colophon' in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. He is currently preparing a paper on Plato's View of Xenophanes to be presented at the 2010 meeting of the International Society for Presocratic Studies at the University of Edinburgh.

Recent Papers

1. ‘On Aristotelian epistêmê as “Understanding”’, Ancient Philosophy, Vol. 21 (2001), 45-55.

2. ‘The Afterlife of Plato’s Symposium’, Ordia Prima, Vol. 3 (2004), 75-85.

3. ‘Some Notable Afterimages of Plato’s Symposium’ in Lesher, Nails, and Sheffield, eds, Plato’s Symposium: Issues in Interpretation and Reception (Hellenic Studies Series/Harvard University Press, 2006), 313-340.

4. ‘The Humanizing of Knowledge’ in Patricia Curd and Daniel Graham, eds, The Oxford Handbook of Presocratic Philosophy (Oxford U. P., 2008), 458-484.

5. ‘Anselm Feuerbach’s Das Gastmahl des Platon and Plato’s Symposium’ in Pepa Castillo, Silke Knippschild, Marta García Morcillo, Carmen Herreros, eds., Congreso Internacional: Imagines: La Antigüedad en las Artes Escénicas y Visuales / International Conference: Imagines: The reception of antiquity in performing and visual arts (Logroño: Universidad de La Rioja, 2008), 479-490.

6. ‘Archaic Knowledge’ in William Wians, ed., Logos and Mythos (SUNY Press, 2009), 13-28.

7. 'Aristotle's Considered View of the Path to Knowledge' in M. Boeri, ed., Festschrift for Alfonso Gomez-Lobo (forthcoming),

8. ‘The Meaning of Saphêneia in Plato’s Divided Line’ in M. McPherran, ed., A Critical Guide to Plato’s Republic (Cambridge U. P., forthcoming).

9. ‘Plato and the Presocratics’ in Gerald Press, ed., The Continuum Companion to Plato (Continuum Press, forthcoming).

10. ‘Xenophanes of Colophon’ in G. Oppy and N. Trakasis, eds, Encyclopedia of the Philosophy of Religion (forthcoming).

11. ‘A Systematic Xenophanes?’ in Studies in Philosophy and the History of Philosophy (CUA Press, forthcoming).

12. ‘Analytic Approaches to Plato’ in Gerald Press, ed., The Continuum Companion to Plato (Continuum Press, forthcoming).

13. 'Plato's View of Xenophanes' (in progress, not for citation or quotation but comments/criticisms welcome)

Some Earlier Papers

1. 'Perceiving and Knowing in the Iliad and Odyssey,' Phronesis, Vol. 26 (l98l), 2-24. 

2. 'Heraclitus' Epistemological Vocabulary,' Hermes, Vol. 111 (l983), 155-170.  

3. Parmenides' Critique of Thinking: the poluderis elenchos of Fr. 7,' Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy, Vol. 2 (l983), 1-30.

4. 'Socrates' Disavowal of Knowledge,' Journal of the History of Philosophy, Vol. 25 (l987), 275-288.

5. 'The Emergence of Philosophical Interest in Cognition,' Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy, Vol. 12 (1994), 1-34.        

6. 'Mind's Knowledge and Powers of Control in Anaxagoras DK B12,' Phronesis , Vol. 40 (1995), 125-42.   

7. ‘The Flourishing of Ancient Philosophy in America: Some Causes and Concerns’ in L. Rossetti and J. Thorp, eds, Greek Philosophy in the New Millennium (Akademia Verlag, 2004), 89-98.