Jonathan Lear

In This Section

Jonathan Lear is the John U. Nef Distinguished Service Professor at the Committee on Social Thought and in the Department of Philosophy. He trained in Philosophy at Cambridge University and The Rockefeller University where he received his Ph.D. in 1978. He works primarily on philosophical conceptions of the human psyche from Socrates to the present. He also trained as a psychoanalyst at the Western New England Institute for Psychoanalysis. His books include: Aristotle and Logical Theory (1980), Aristotle: the desire to understand (1988); Love and its place in nature: a philosophical interpretation of Freudian psychoanalysis (1990), Open minded: working out the logic of the soul (1998), Happiness, death and the remainder of life (2000), Therapeutic action: an earnest plea for irony (2003), and Freud (2005).

CV (DOC)

Contact

office: Foster 503
office phone: 773/702-8407
email: jlear@uchicago.edu

Selected Publications

Allegory and Myth in Plato's Republic (PDF)
Jumping from the Couch: An Essay on Phantasy and Emotional Structure (PDF)
Socratic Method and Psychoanalysis (PDF)
Ethics, Mathematics and Relativism
Mind, New Series, Vol. 92, No. 365 (Jan., 1983), pp. 38-60 (Link)
Aristotle's Philosophy of Mathematics
The Philosophical Review, Vol. 91, No. 2 (Apr., 1982), pp. 161-192 (Link)
Leaving the World Alone
The Journal of Philosophy, Vol. 79, No. 7 (Jul., 1982), pp. 382-403 (Link)
Sets and Semantics
The Journal of Philosophy, Vol. 74, No. 2 (Feb., 1977), pp. 86-102 (Link)
Aristotle's Compactness Proof
The Journal of Philosophy, Vol. 76, No. 4 (Apr., 1979), pp. 198-215 (Link)
The Disappearing 'We' (with B. Stroud)
Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, Supplementary Volumes, Vol. 58 (1984), pp. 219-258 (Link)
Inside and outside the Republic
Phronesis Volume 37, Number 2 / January, 1992 (Link)
The Introduction Of Eros: Reflections On The Work Of Hans Loewald.
J. Amer. Psychoanal. Assn., 44:673-698 (Link)
Avowal and Unfreedom
Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, Volume 69, Number 2, September 2004 , pp. 448-454(7) (Link)
On Reflection: the legacy of Wittgenstein’s later Philosophy
Ratio Volume 2 Issue 1 Page 19-45, June 1989 (Link)
Working Through the End of Civilization.
Int. J. Psycho-Anal., 88:291-308 (Link)
Psychoanalysis and the idea of a moral psychology: memorial to Bernard Williams' philosophy
Inquiry, Volume 47, Issue 5 October 2004 , pages 515 – 522 (Link)
The idea of a moral psychology: The impact of psychoanalysis on philosophy in Britain
Int. J. Psycho-Anal., 84:1351-1361. (Link)
"Philosophy and Bear Mace" (Link)
Freud
Love and Its Place in Nature: A Philosophical Interpretation of Freudian Psychoanalysis
Aristotle: The Desire to Understand
Happiness, Death, and the Remainder of Life
Therapeutic Action: An Earnest Plea for Irony

Please see my CV (DOC) for a complete list of publications.

Selected Reviews by Jonathan Lear

Author(s) of Review: Jonathan Lear
Reviewed Work(s): Irrationality and the Philosophy of Psychoanalysis by Sebastian Gardner
Mind, New Series, Vol. 104, No. 416 (Oct., 1995), pp. 863-879 (Link)
Author(s) of Review: Jonathan Lear
Reviewed Work(s): Human Morality by Samuel Scheffler
The Journal of Philosophy, Vol. 90, No. 4 (Apr., 1993), pp. 205-211 (Link)
Author(s) of Review: Jonathan Lear
Reviewed Work(s): The Memory Wars: Freud's Legacyin Dispute by Frederick Crews Amer. Psychoanal. Assn., 44:580-587. (Link)

Selected Reviews of Jonathan Lear's Work

Author(s) of Review: Sebastian Gardner
Reviewed Work(s): Open Minded: Working Out the Logic of the Soul by Jonathan Lear
The Philosophical Quarterly, Vol. 51, No. 203 (Apr., 2001), pp. 254-257 (Link)
Author(s) of Review: Ilham Dilman (1999)
Jonathan Lear, Open Minded: Working Out the Logic of the Soul
Philosophical Investigations 22 (3) , 285–294 (Link)
Author(s) of Review: Richard Kraut
Reviewed Work(s): Aristotle: The Desire to Understand by Jonathan Lear
The Philosophical Review, Vol. 100, No. 3 (Jul., 1991), pp. 522-524 (Link)
Author(s) of Review: Ian Mueller
Reviewed Work(s): Aristotle and Logical Theory by Jonathan Lear
The Philosophical Review, Vol. 91, No. 4 (Oct., 1982), pp. 625-628 (Link)
Author(s) of Review: Marcia Cavell
Reviewed Work(s): Open Minded: Working Out the Logic of the Soul by Jonathan Lear
The Journal of Philosophy, Vol. 96, No. 5 (May, 1999), pp. 263-269 (Link)
Author(s) of Review: A. W. Price
Reviewed Work(s): Aristotle and Logical Theory by Jonathan Lear
Mind, New Series, Vol. 92, No. 365 (Jan., 1983), pp. 126-128 (Link)
Author(s) of Review: Elijah Millgram
Reviewed Work(s): Love and Its Place in Nature by Jonathan Lear
Open Minded: Working Out the Logic of the Soul by Jonathan Lear
Mind, Vol. 110, No. 440 (Oct., 2001), pp. 1087-1092 (Link)
Author(s) of Review: Grant Gillett
Reviewed Work(s): Therapeutic Action by Jonathan Lear
Mind, Vol. 113, No. 452 (Oct., 2004), pp. 769-771 (Link)
Author(s) of Review: John Corcoran; Michael Scanlan
Reviewed Work(s): Aristotle and Logical Theory by Jonathan Lear
The Philosophical Quarterly, Vol. 32, No. 126 (Jan., 1982), pp. 76-86 (Link)
Author(s) of Review: D. W. Hamlyn
Reviewed Work(s): A New Aristotle Reader by J. L. Ackrill
Aristotle's Two Systems by Daniel W. Graham
Aristotle: The Desire to Understand by Jonathan Lear
Aristotle Today by Mohan Matthen
Philosophy, Vol. 64, No. 248 (Apr., 1989), pp. 261-266 (Link)
Author(s) of Review: Gregg M. Horowitz
Reviewed Work(s): Therapeutic Action by Jonathan Lear
Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews (2004) Link

Recent Courses

21691. Plato in Paris

Open to college students. It has been said that all of western philosophy is a footnote to Plato. This course will be an introduction to contemporary French philosophy via a study of the influence Plato has had on the major French philosophers of our time. We shall read crucial Platonic texts- among them, Symposium, Phaedrus, Laches, Apology - and at the same time read the interpretations that Foucault, Pierre Hadot, Jacques Derrida and Jacques Lacan have given to them. We shall concentrate on the following philosophical questions: What is it to have free speech? How can philosophy itself be a way of life? How can philosophy change one's soul? What is the nature of love? How does philosophy fit into a great city, like ancient Athens and contemporary Paris? No previous knowledge is required of Plato or of French philosophy.*Special note: To be taught at The University of Chicago's Paris Center. Spring 2007.

24101. Kierkegaard:Either/Or

Open to college students.This seminar will be a careful reading of Kierkegaard's classic text. Among the topics we shall consider are: the ethical life and its relation to the aesthetic life; the relation of both to the religious; the nature of pseudonymous authors. This course is restricted to majors in Fundamentals and Philosophy. (Others should register only with permission of the instructor). (A) Autumn 2006.

25400/35400. A Philosophical Introduction to Freud and Psychoanalysis

Open to college and grad students.This course is an introduction to Freud and to the basic ideas of psychoanalytic theory. But the course will approach these ideas from the perspective of certain philosophical concerns: for example, what is human freedom and why does it matter?, what is the nature of human desire, of practical reason, what is happiness and can humans be happy? The central readings will be Freud's texts, but there will also be selections from philosophical works.Winter 2004.

25704. Plato's Republic

Open to college students.This course will guide students through a careful reading of Plato's Republic. Among questions we shall consider: What is justice and why think of it as a human excellence? What is the relation between politics, human psychology and metaphysics? Why does Plato write in dialogue form and why does he use myths, allegories and images in the course of his argument? What are the problems with democracy as Plato understood it? Autumn 2007.

26401. The Philosophy of Socrates

Open to college students.We shall read selected texts by Plato to gain a sense of Socrates' method of argument and his conception of philosophy. Autumn 2005.

33201. Kierkegaard:Stages on Life's Way

Open to grad students and college students with consent of instructor.Prerequisites: Open to advanced undergraduates with permission of instructor. A close reading of the text. Co-taught with James Conant. Winter 2004.

33510. Kierkegaard:The Sickness Unto Death

34400. Kierkegaard:Either/Or

Open to grad students and college students with consent of instructor.Prerequisites: Consent of instructor. Class limited to twenty students. James Conant is co-instructor of this course. The course is devoted to a close reading of selected portions of Either/Or, the first and one of the most difficult of Kierkegaard's pseudonymous writings. Our attention is divided equally between Volumes One and Two of Either/Or. Autumn 2002.

35400. A Philosophical Introduction to Freud and Psychoanalysis

Open to grad students and college students with consent of instructor. Winter 2004.

36700. Plato's Phaedrus

Open to grad students and college students with consent of instructor.A careful reading of Plato's text. Co-taught with John Coetzee Autumn 2003.

51910. Lacan

Open to grad students.Prerequisites: One course on psychoanalysis or permission of instructor. Co-instructor:Candace Vogler Winter 2002.

53801. Kierkegaard's Socrates

Open to grad students. .This will be an inquiry into the philosophical significance the figure of Socrates had for Kierkegaard.We shall read the relevant sections of The concept of irony, Philosophical Fragments, Concluding Unscientific Postscript and The Sickness Unto Death.We shall also read relevant sections from Plato, Xenophon and Aristophanes. Autumn 2005.

55405. Parts of the Soul

Open to grad students.This seminar will investigate the idea that the soul has parts. What does it mean to claim that there are different parts to the soul? Why is such a notion invoked? What does that imply about the prospects for human happiness or freedom? Reading: relevant sections from Plato's Republic, Freud The Ego and the id, and other relevant works on the structural theory; other later psychoanalytic writers. Winter 2006.

55500. Plato's Republic I

Open to grad students.Prerequisites: his is a graduate seminar designed for Ph.D. students in Philosophy and the Committee on Social Thought. (Others require permission of instructor for enrollment.) . We shall read the Republic carefully over two quarters, along with a plethora of contemporary essays on issues raised in the text. Among the topics we shall consider are: the formulation of human psychology in the Republic and its relation to the metaphysics. The aim of philosophy. The aim of constructing a city in thought and conversation. This is a graduate seminar designed for Ph.D. students in Philosophy and the Committee on Social Thought. (Others require permission of instructor for enrollment.) Autumn 2006.

55501. Plato's Republic II