BENJAMIN
KEOSEYAN
philosopher
About
I am a philosopher and classicist. I am an Assistant Professor of Philosophy (tenure-track) in the Harriet L. Wilkes Honors College of Florida Atlantic University, in sunny Jupiter, Florida. I received my Ph.D. in philosophy in 2025 at the even sunnier University of Arizona, with a dissertation on Plato's political philosophy under Julia Annas and Thomas Christiano. Before that I completed my M.A. in philosophy at the not-so-sunny Northern Illinois University.
My current research focuses on the role that law plays in Plato's political theorizing in the Republic and the Laws. I believe there is still more to learn from Plato about just how we should use law in the best political constitution, and explore this in my research. I am also currently writing on the way that Cicero's academic skepticism manifests in his political dialogues—the De Republica and the De Legibus.
Research
PDFs of all papers available upon request
Plato's Political and Legal Philosophy
In "Entrenchment of the Laws in Kallipolis?" (Ancient Philosophy Volume 46, Issue 1, Spring 2026), I describe how Plato uses legal entrenchment as a safeguarding mechanism against abuses of political authority in the guardian class. While recently scholars have highlighted some of the safeguarding mechanisms in the constitution of Kallipolis, my article is the first to argue that Plato intended some of the laws of Kallipolis—specifically the laws concerning guardian education—to be utterly unchangeable, even for the guardians.
Jeremy Waldron expressed a common view among scholars when he wrote that “The heritage of argument about the Rule of Law begins with Aristotle”. This view, I believe, is ill-founded. In a paper about the rule of law in the Republic (currently an R&R at a well-regard ancient philosophy journal), I argue that Kallipolis---the ideal city of the Republic---embodies the rule of law in several ways identifiable to contemporary legal theorists. I use Gerald Postema's three principles of "the core ideal of the rule of law" in his 2022 Law's Rule as a sort of yardstick to measure the rule of law in the laws and institutions of Plato's ideal city of Kallipolis.
In "Plato's Definition of Law" (draft, presenting at PPE 2026), I argue that in his later works -- and in particular in his last dialogue, the Laws -- Plato defines law as the rule of reason aimed at the common good of the polis, and is thus best understood as a kind of natural law theorist. This, I argue, is the same conception of law at work in the Republic, so there is a puzzle as to why the constitutional design of Republic and Laws is so different. In both dialogues, political authority is distributed in order to ensure that the city is ruled by reason – as Plato’s natural law theory requires – but differently, which reflects a development in Plato’s view of human nature, rather than a development in his political and legal philosophy proper.
In an article about citizenship and the aim of the craft of statesmanship in the Laws (under review), I challenge the widespread interpretation of the Laws on which the aim of the statesman is the virtue of the citizens alone. The book 10 remarks about craftsmanship, together with the Laws 11 legislation on market and retail activity, I argue, show that the statesman of the Laws aims at the virtue of some non-citizens.
Early Greek Political Thinking About Law
Though Plato was the first to write systematically about legal entrenchment and the rule of law, he was not the first Greek to think about these ideas. In an article about Solon's presence in Plato's dialogues (under review) and an article about the philosophy of law implicit in the Anonymus Iamblichi fragment (under review), I describe the precursors to and contexts for Plato's ideas about law. Writings about Solon and the fragments attributed to him, I argue, both indicate that the ideas of entrenchment and eunomia (understood as rule of law) were present in the archaic period. I analyze the philological evidence for an understanding of eunomia as something like Rule of Law in the archaic period. In the latter article, I argue that the author of the text known as Anonymus Iamblichi -- who sees tyranny as a kind of reconstitution of law and justice -- seems to ascribe to a kind of legal positivism to which Plato's natural law theory is a response.
My articles about Plato and his precursors on law are part of a book project I am working on, which is a continuation of my dissertation project. In it, I trace the origins of our ideas of rule of law and legal entrenchment to Plato and those who influenced him. I argue, among other things, that Plato was a natural law theorist, that Plato was a constitutionalist, and that in both the Republic and the Laws, what really rules is law itself, which on Plato's cosmology turns out to be an expression of divine Reason.
I also am interested in the reception of these ideas in the late-ancient world and beyond. To that end, I organized a panel at the 2026 International Society for Neoplatonic Studies conference in Leuven, Belgium, called Nomos, Nous, and Nature: The Neoplatonic Reception of Plato's Idea of Law.
Cicero's Academic Skepticism and his Political Dialogues
This research project tries to solve a puzzle in Cicero’s political works. Cicero’s De Republica and De Legibus are regarded as some of the most influential texts in the history of constitutionalism, and present confident and sustained arguments for such ideas as the importance of political involvement in a republic and natural law theory. Yet we know that Cicero was an academic skeptic, and did not think we could have knowledge regarding such matters. In the past, scholars took these dialogues to belong to a period where Cicero abandoned skepticism, thus explaining the apparently non-skeptical style of argument in them. But nowadays, the consensus is that Cicero was a skeptic throughout his life; so whence the lack of skepticism in these dialogues?
In “Ring Composition and the Skepticism of the De Republica” (Polis: The Journal for Ancient Greek and Roman Political Thought, 2024) I propose a novel interpretation of the De Republica, which has two main virtues: first, it explains how the apparently unconnected fragments of the dialogue form a cohesive literary whole (as we might expect from a master orator as Cicero) with a main argument against the Epicurean prohibition on political involvement; second, it explains how this sustained defense of the political life (contra the Epicureans) is compatible with Cicero’s skepticism, and is in fact an instance of his Academic skeptical teaching method.
In “Is the De Legibus a Skeptical Dialogue?” (under construction) I explain how the De Legibus is consistent with Cicero's commitment to academic skepticism.
These articles form the backbone of another of my book projects. I plan to write a book that is accessible for a popular audience, in which I discuss what Cicero has to teach us about doing politics without certain knowledge.
Teaching
as primary instructor:
Honors Ancient Philosophy
FAU, Fall 2025
I begin my ancient philosophy course with a discussion of the historical Socrates and Plato's Socrates, looking at the Euthyphro, Apology, and Crito. Then we read all of the Republic, and discuss questions of Platonic chronology, as well as Platonist ethics, moral psychology, metaphysical-epistemology, and political philosophy. I introduce some pre-Socratic thinkers along the way, to give some context to Plato's metaphysics. Then we shift to Aristotle's hylomorphism as a response to Plato's metaphysical-epistemology, and discuss Aristotle's ethics and politics. I finish the course with a unit on Hellenistic philosophy, with a focus on how each major Hellenistic school aimed at ataraxia. The students are encouraged to try out living like an Epicurean, a Stoic, and a Pyrrhonist during the last weeks of the semester. Outlining arguments is a major component of my ancient philosophy course, as I believe that outlining arguments is one of the most valuable skills undergraduate students can learn.
Honors Introduction to Humanities
FAU, Spring 2026, Summer 2026
This is a general education course that satisfies a humanities elective requirement for FAU Honors College students. The way I teach it is by focusing on the history of one single concept in the European intellectual tradition and beyond: beauty. We begin in the ancient world, with some Homer and then Plato's Symposium, then look at the reception of Plato's ideas in Plotinus, Augustine, and Al-Ghazālī. Then we shift to the modern period, and read Burke's Enquiry, as well as the OUP Very Short Introduction volume on Beauty. Throughout the course, we read a wide variety of poems and short stories (including but not limited to: Li Bai, Philip Larkin, Raymond Carver), listen to music (from Pérotin and Bach, to Arvo Pärt and Philip Glass), look at tons of visual art (from wabi-sabi ceramics and gothic architecture to Edward Hopper and Willem de Kooning). I end the semester with a screening and a discussion of the film Koyaanisqatsi. Students write in-class essays several times throughout the semester, and are required to keep a humanities journal (answering prompts I give them).
Foundations of Reasoning
Pepperdine University, Fall 2024, Spring 2025
This is a discussion-based course that seeks to teach students to think well. It owes a lot to Meghan Sullivan’s God and the Good Life course at Notre Dame, and is a mixture of intro to philosophy, a bit of logic, Great Books, philosophy of religion, and the meaning of life. It is mandatory for almost all first-year students at Seaver College.
A Guided Tour of Plato's Republic
University of Arizona, Summer 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2021
This is an upper-level philosophy course for philosophy and classics students at University of Arizona. In it, we closely read Plato’s Republic, as well as Julia Annas’s An Introduction to Plato’s Republic. Students hone their skills reconstructing and evaluating first Annas’s interpretations of Plato’s arguments, then their own interpretations of the arguments from the text. My lecture videos for this course are approved by the philosophy department for use by other instructors teaching it at Arizona.
Logic
FAU, Fall 2025; Pepperdine University, Summer 2022, Summer 2020
This course is an introduction to formal logic, and satisfied math general education requirements at both FAU and Pepperdine. We focus on translating natural language arguments into formal languages, including sentential logic and first-order logic. Students learn truth table, truth tree, and natural deduction methods for testing validity with SL and QL.
An Introduction to Aristotle
University of Arizona, Fall 2022
This is a discussion-based, upper-level philosophy course for philosophy and classics majors at University of Arizona. In it, we read selections from Aristotle’s work, as well as the entirety of Jonathan Lear’s fantastic Aristotle: the Desire to Understand. Students reconstruct and evaluate Lear’s interpretation of Aristotle, and give their own interpretations of Aristotle. I focus on helping students to see Aristotle’s various views as part of the impressive philosophical system of Aristotelianism, while flagging the tensions present between (and indeed within) Aristotle’s different works.
Environmental Ethics and Philosophy
FAU, Spring 2026
University of Arizona, Summer 2021, Fall 2020
This is a survey of the ethical problems related to the environment and our place in it. I use Dave Schimdtz and Danny Shahar’s excellent Environmental Ethics: What Really Matters, What Really Works. We start in the nineteenth century, with Marsh, Emerson, and the debate between Gifford Pinchot and John Muir, then learn about Aldo Leopold’s Land Ethic. The bulk of the course is spent on evaluating arguments in contemporary writings on environmental issues, including rewilding, trophy hunting as conservation, and animal liberation.
Philosophy of Happiness
University of Arizona, Summer 2020
This is an introductory ethics course with a special focus on hedonism, eudaimonism, and existentialism. In it, we read and discuss a very broad selection of philosophers, including Plato, Aristotle, Epicurus, Annas, the Daodejing, Nozick, Parfit, Mill, Nietzsche, Camus, and others.
as discussion instructor/teaching assistant:
The Classical Mind
Catholic University of America (Tucson Program), Spring 2024, Spring 2023, Fall 2022
The Modern Mind
Catholic University of America (Tucson Program), Fall 2023
Logic and Critical Thinking
University of Arizona, Fall 2019
Classical Mythology
Northern Illinois University, Fall 2018, Spring 2019
Contact Me
Benjamin Keoseyan
Hibel Fine Arts Building 125
Harriet L. Wilkes Honors College
Florida Atlantic University
5353 Parkside Drive
Jupiter, FL 33458
Email: bkeoseyan at fau dot edu
Telephone: (seven-o-four) 604 . 8703
A photograph of me with "il maestro di color che sanno", Thessaloniki, Greece.
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