Research at Notre Dame
Institutes and initiatives
Centre for the History of Philosophy

Centre for the History of Philosophy

Exploring the deepest and oldest questions.

What does it mean to live a good life? How should we understand our place in the world? What can ancient wisdom offer us in a fragmented modern age?

The Notre Dame Centre for the History of Philosophy (CHOP) engages with enduring questions like these, which have shaped human thought across centuries. Our expertise spans the ancient, medieval, and modern periods of the Western intellectual tradition and beyond, with particular strength in the history of philosophy across the three Abrahamic faith traditions—Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. We host major research initiatives, offer unique teaching programs, host a vibrant program of academic and public events, collaborate with Australian and international partners, and mentor the next generation of scholars in the field. Our mission is to advance public and academic understanding of the philosophical traditions we inherit from the past, and to show how they can help us cultivate flourishing lives and communities in the present.

Our research strengths

Philosophy in the Abrahamic traditions: creative interaction between religion and philosophy in the Jewish, Christian, and Islamic intellectual traditions.
Ancient philosophy: ethics, metaphysics, and epistemology in ancient Greek and Roman philosophy.
Philosophy of nature: diverse conceptions of nature and its relation to culture, science and value.
History of Jewish Philosophy: cutting-edge academic research on the history of Jewish philosophy and its interface with wider Abrahamic intellectual traditions.

Meet our people

Associate Professor David Bronstein
CHOP Co-Director, Associate Professor in Philosophy

Associate Professor Nathan Lyons
CHOP Co-Director, Associate Professor in Philosophy

Dr Catherine Wesselinoff
CHOP Seminar Convenor, Lecturer in Philosophy

Professor Peter Harrison
Professorial Research Fellow in Science and Religion

Dr Samuel Kaldas
CHOP Seminar Convenor, Lecturer in Philosophy

Dr Silvianne Aspray
Adjunct Research Fellow

Dr Arthur J. Keefer
Adjunct Research Fellow

Dr Raphael Dascalu
Senior Research Fellow in the History of Jewish Philosophy

Aden Cotterill
Williams Papworth Research Fellow

Professor Tony Street
Professor of Medieval Arabic Philosophy

Meet our partners

History of Philosophy Forum at the University of Notre Dame US

We have a research partnership with the History of Philosophy Forum. With the Forum, we sponsor joint academic events, pursue joint research projects, and host reciprocal visiting scholars. Forum Director, Associate Professor Therese Cory, delivered the inaugural lecture at our Centre launch in October 2024.

Associate Professor Therese Cory

Institute of Philosophy at KU Leuven

We collaborate with the Institute of Philosophy. Along with HPF, we co-sponsor an international history of philosophy conference series. In 2024, we hosted Leuven philosopher Professor Gerd van Riel as a visiting scholar.

Professor Gerd van Riel

Discipline of Philosophy at the University of Sydney

We have partnered with University of Sydney philosophers, Dr Emily Hulme and Associate Professor Dalia Nassar, to pursue joint initiatives in Sydney. These include academic conferences, reading groups, and research projects.

Dr Emily Hulme

Associate Professor Dalia Nassar

Externally funded projects

Virtue with Aristotle: Recovering an Ancient Ethical Theory for Our Time

This project aims to show how Aristotle’s theory of virtue can guide our individual and collective attempts to live good human lives in challenging times. Learn more.

Principal investigator: David Bronstein
Funded by: ARC Future Fellowship
Funding: $786,404

Nature-Culture Continuities in Medieval Philosophy and Theology

This project will provide the first sustained historical study of nature-culture continuities in medieval Latin philosophy and theology, examining the areas of: cognition, language, semiotics, ethics and politics, animality, ecology, metaphysics, and God. Learn more.

Principal investigator: Nathan Lyons
Funded by: ARC Discovery Early Career Award
Funding: $416,213

Zeal: An Intellectual History

This project analyses the conceptual history of zeal in European philosophy and religion, with the aim of clarifying the contemporary meaning, value and risks of zeal today.

Principal investigator: Aden Cotterill
Funded by: Williams Papworth Research Fellowship (philanthropic donor)
Funding: $230,000