Philosophy Department's 2024/25 Speaker Series is happy to have  Dr. Kirk Sanders come for a talk February 28, 2025. Kirk is an Associate Professor of Philosophy & Classics at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. His areas of research and teaching are Ancient philosophy specifically Hellenistic (i.e., post–Aristotelian) philosophy. He also has turned his attention to Xenophon’s Socratic writings.

Title: “Shifting Priorities: Revisiting the Relationship between Xenophon’s Apology and Plato’s Apology”

Abstract: It is generally assumed that Xenophon’s Apology of Socrates both postdates and responds to Plato’s own work of the same name. In this paper, I first explore the few arguments that have been offered in support of such a view and show that they are at best inconclusive (and may in some cases even point more to the opposite conclusion). I then offer an original argument in favor of the priority of Xenophon’s Apology. While my conclusion is necessarily speculative, it has, I believe, the preponderance of the available evidence in its favor. Along the way, I will also try to highlight and challenge a variety of widespread biases in favor of Plato – and against Xenophon – in Socratic studies generally that remain in sore need of correction.