Karen Margrethe Nielsen
| 2025 | Professor of Ancient Greek and Roman Philosophy, University of Oxford |
| 2022 | Leverhulme Major Research Fellowship |
| 2013 | Associate Professor, Faculty of Philosophy & Tutorial Fellow, Somerville College, University of Oxford |
| 2012 | Associate Professor, Department of Philosophy, Western University, Canada |
| 2006 | PhD, Sage School of Philosophy, Cornell University |
| 2005 | Assistant Professor, Department of Philosophy, Western University, Canada |
BA & MA, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (Philosophy, Greek, History of Ideas)
Books
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Vice in Ancient Philosophy: Plato and Aristotle on Moral Ignorance and Corruption of Character (CUP, 2023) |
| Bridging the Gap Between Aristotle’s Science and Ethics, co-edited with D. Henry (CUP, 2015) |
| Prohairesis: Aristotle’s Theory of Decision and its Legacy (in progress), monograph funded by Leverhulme Major Research Fellowship |
Journal articles and book chapters (since 2020)
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“Aristotle’s Ethics”, in S. Connell (ed.), New Cambridge Companion to Aristotle (CUP, expected 2026) |
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“Infinite Jest? Socrates’ Conception of Craft in the Hippias Minor and Its Implications for Aristotle’s Ethics” in P. Kontos and M. Leunissen (eds.) (Hackett, expected 2025) |
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Review of E. Cagnoli Fiecconi, Ethics for Rational Animals (OUP, 2024), Mind (expected 2025) |
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“The Magna Moralia on Prohairesis” in Bobonich, Gartner and Jimenez (eds.), Aristotle’s Other Ethics (OUP, date TBC) |
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Review of M. Deslauriers, Aristotle on Sexual Difference. Metaphysics, Biology, Politics (OUP, 2022), Archiv für Geschichte der Philosophie, 2024 |
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“Deliberation and Decision in the Eudemian Ethics” in G. di Basilio (ed.), Essays on Aristotle’s Eudemian Ethics (Routledge, 2022) |
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“Guided Practice Makes Perfect: Habituation into Full Virtue in Aristotle’s Ethics” in K. Romden-Romluc and J. Dunham (eds.), Habit in the History of Philosophy (Routledge, 2022) |
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“Aristotle: Justice” survey article in K. Albrecht (gen. ed.) and J. Tasioulas (ed.), Encyclopedia of the Philosophy of Law and Social Philosophy (Springer, 2022) |
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“The Definitions of Phronêsis and Euboulia in Nicomachean Ethics VI” in C. Natali and P.-M. Morel (eds.), Aristote. Les definitions en philosophie pratique (Ousia, 2020) |
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“Why Self-Knowledge Matters for Virtue” in F. Leigh (ed.), Self-Knowledge in Ancient Philosophy (OUP, 2020) |
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“The Tyrant’s Vice: Pleonexia and Lawlessness in Plato’s Republic”, Philosophical Perspectives (2019) [published 2020] |
My main area of research is Aristotle’s practical philosophy, including connections to Platonic and Stoic ethics and moral psychology. I have also published on Aristotle’s biology and metaphysics. In the future, I plan to publish a collection of essays titled “Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea: Coercion and Compulsion in Ancient Greek Thought”.
A note on my name: I sign with both my first names (“Karen Margrethe”), and prefer that all three names appear in writing. Oxford email doesn’t recognise Scandinavian naming practices, so my email address leaves out my second first name. If you find the cluster of consonants in “Margrethe” hard to pronounce, I’m fine with “Karen”!
