Dr David Bronstein

Senior Research Fellow
BA (Hons), PhD

Email: david.bronstein@nd.edu.au

  • Biography

    David Bronstein is Associate Professor and Senior Research Fellow in the Institute for Ethics and Society at the University of Notre Dame Australia, Sydney, and Australian Research Council Future Fellow (2023-2026).

    Bronstein was born and raised in Montreal, Quebec, where, like Leonard Cohen, he graduated from Westmount High School. He studied Classics and Contemporary Studies at the University of King’s College and Dalhousie University in beautiful Halifax, Nova Scotia, and he completed his PhD in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Toronto. He has held positions as lecturer and postdoctoral research fellow at Oxford University (2007-10), as Assistant Professor at Boston University (2010-12), as Assistant and then Associate Professor (tenured) at Georgetown University (2012-20), and as Lecturer at the University of New South Wales (2019-22).

    His research is in the area of Ancient Greek Philosophy. He is interested in ethics, epistemology, philosophy of science, logic, and metaphysics in the Ancient Greek tradition and beyond. He has published several articles on Plato and Aristotle and, in 2016, a book: Aristotle on Knowledge and Learning: the Posterior Analytics (Oxford University Press).

    Bronstein currently holds an ARC Future Fellowship​ for a project entitled ‘Virtue with Aristotle: Recovering an Ancient Ethical Theory for Our Time.’ This project aims to produce the first comprehensive study of Aristotle’s concept of virtue in all three areas of human activity in which he applies it (moral action, theoretical cognition, and craft and artistic production) and to trace its relevance for contemporary ethical theory and practice. Bronstein is also completing a project on Aristotle’s philosophy of science, with a particular focus on Aristotle’s theories of demonstration and definition in the Analytics. He serves as Book Reviews Editor for the Australasian Journal of Philosophy.

  • Research expertise and supervision

    • Ancient Greek Philosophy (esp. Plato and Aristotle)
    • Ethics (esp. virtue ethics)
    • Epistemology (esp. virtue epistemology)

  • Books

    • Aristotle on Knowledge and Learning: the Posterior Analytics. Oxford University Press, 2016

  • Book chapters

    • ‘Learning from Models: 277c7–283a9’, in Plato’s Statesman: a Philosophical Discussion (ed. Panos Dimas, Melissa Lane, and Susan Sauvé Meyer), Oxford University Press, 2021: 94–114. DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780192898296.003.0005
    • ‘Aristotle’s Virtue Epistemology’, in What the Ancients Offer to Contemporary Epistemology (ed. Stephen Hetherington and Nicholas Smith), Routledge, 2019: 157–177.
    • ‘Aristotle as Systematic Philosopher: Essence, Necessity, and Explanation in Theory and Practice’, in What Makes a Philosopher Great? Arguments for Twelve Philosophers (ed. Stephen Hetherington), Routledge, 2017: 48–66.

  • Journal articles and proceedings

    • ‘Eleatic Ontology and Aristotle: Introduction’ (co-authored with Fabian Mie), Peitho: Examina Antiqua 1(12), 2021: 13–18. (Special issue on Eleatic Ontology and Aristotle, edited by David Bronstein and Fabian Mie). DOI: 10.14746/PEA.2021.1.1
    • ‘Aristotle on Predication and Demonstration’, Manuscrito 42, 2019: 85–121. (Special issue on Aristotle’s theory of science.) DOI: 10.1590/0100-6045.2019.v42n4.db
    • ‘Is Plato an Innatist in the Meno?’ (co-authored with Whitney Schwab), Phronesis 64, 2019: 392–430. DOI: 10.1163/15685284-12341969
    • ‘Aristotle’s Critique of Plato’s Theory of Innate Knowledge’, Logical Analysis and History of Philosophy 19, 2016: 126–139. (Special issue on ancient epistemology.) DOI: doi.org/10.30965/26664275-01901009
    • ‘Essence, Necessity, and Demonstration in Aristotle’, Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 90, 2015: 724–732. (Invited contribution to book symposium.) DOI: 10.1111/phpr.12184
    • ‘Aristotle’s Theory of Demonstration, Revisited’, Metascience 23, 2014: 9–16.
    • ‘Necessary and Sufficient Causes of Participation Post-Stroke: Practical and Philosophical Perspectives’, authors: Nancy Mayo, David Bronstein, Susan Scott, Lois Finch, Sydney Miller, Quality of Life Research 22, 2013: 39–47. DOI: 10.1007/s11136-013-0441-6
    • ‘Comments on Ben Morison “An Aristotelian Distinction between Two Types of Knowledge”’, Proceedings of the Boston Area Colloquium in Ancient Philosophy 27, 2012: 118–122.
    • ‘The Origin and Aim of Posterior Analytics II.19’, Phronesis 57, 2012: 29–62. DOI: 10.1163/156852812X607289
    • ‘Comments on Gregory Salmieri “Aisthêsis, Empeiria, and the Advent of Universals in Posterior Analytics II 19”’, in J.H. Lesher ed., From Inquiry to Demonstrative Knowledge: New Essays on Aristotle’s Posterior Analytics (Apeiron 43, 2010, special issue): 187–194. DOI: 10.1515/APEIRON.2010.43.2-3.187
    • ‘Investigação e Paradaxo do Mênon: Aristóteles, Segundos Analíticos II 8’, Aristóteles a noção de prioridade (DoisPontos 7, 2010): 107–130. (In Portuguese; trans. L. Angioni. English title: ‘Inquiry and Meno’s Paradox: Aristotle’s Posterior Analytics 2.8’).
    • ‘Meno’s Paradox in Posterior Analytics 1.1’, Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy 38, 2010: 115–141.

  • In the media