Jacob Klein

PhD, Cornell University (advised by Terence Irwin)

I am interested in ancient ethics and moral psychology generally, but especially as they relate to questions about the objectivity of norms and value. I have recently published two longer papers on some of the central features of Stoic ethical theory. One of these argues for an epistemic account of the value and disvalue the Stoics assign to so-called indifferents; the other reconstructs the Stoic theory of oikeiôsis to show how it supports Stoic claims about the human good. The latter paper, "The Stoic Argument from oikeiôsis," was selected by The Philosopher's Annual as one of the ten best articles published in philosophy in 2016.

I am currently working on a book manuscript (The Ethics of the Older Stoics) that connects the conclusions of these papers to the Stoic theory of motivation and the details of Stoic moral psychology. I am also co-editing The Oxford Handbook of Hellenistic Philosophy with Nathan Powers (SUNY Albany), and Nathan and I are writing a book on The Stoics for Routledge's Great Philosophers series.

• The Oxford Handbook of Hellenistic Philosophy (co-editor with Nathan Powers, forthcoming from Oxford University Press)
• The Stoics (with Nathan Powers, under contract with Routledge)
• "The Stoics and Kant on the Motive of Duty," in Kant and Stoic Ethics (under contract with Cambridge University Press)
• "Original Sins: Chrysippus on Command and Prohibition," for a volume on The Philosophy of Chrysippus in the Symposium Hellenisticum series
• "Introduction" (with Nathan Powers), in The Oxford Handbook of Hellenistic Philosophy (forthcoming from Oxford University Press)
• "The Highest Good in Stoicism," in The Oxford Handbook of Hellenistic Philosophy (forthcoming from Oxford University Press)
• "Autonomy and Stoicism," in The Routledge Handbook of Autonomy, ed. Ben Colburn (forthcoming from Routledge)
• "Desire and Impulse in Epictetus and the Older Stoics," Archiv für Geschichte der Philosophie, 103 (2021), 221–51.
• "Aristotelian and Stoic Virtue," in The Routledge Handbook of Hellenistic Philosophy, ed. Kelly Arenson (Routledge, 2020)
• "The Stoic Argument from oikeiôsis," Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy, 50 (2016), 143-200.
• "Making Sense of Stoic Indifferents," Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy, 49 (2015), 227-81. 
• "Of Archery and Virtue: Ancient and Modern Conceptions of Value," Philosophers' Imprint Vol. 14, No. 19, June 2014 
• "Stoic Eudaimonism and the Natural Law Tradition," in Reason, Religion and Natural Law: Plato to Spinoza, ed. Jonathan Jacobs (Oxford University Press, 2012) 
• "Stoic Thinkers," in Key Ethical Thinkers, ed. Tom Angier (Bloomsbury, 2012) 
• Review of Annas and Betegh (eds.), Cicero's 'De finibus': Philosophical Approaches, Bryn Mawr Classical Review, 2017.05.29
• Review of Brad Inwood, Ethics after Aristotle (Harvard, 2014), Phoenix Vol. 69, No. 3/4
• Review of René Brouwer, The Stoic Sage: The Early Stoics on Wisdom, Sagehood and Socrates (Cambridge 2014), Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews, 2015.04.13
• Review of A. Long (ed.), Plato and the Stoics (Cambridge, 2013), Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews, 2014.09.34
• Review of Tony Burns, Aristotle and Natural Law (Continuum, 2011), Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews,2012.06.02
• Review of Henry Dyson, Prolepsis and Ennoia in the Early Stoa (Walter de Gruyter, 2009), Journal of the History of Philosophy, January, 2011

• PHIL 501: The Moral Psychology of Plato's Republic (University of Michigan)
• PHIL 429: Ethical Analysis (University of Michigan)
• PHIL 417: Plato's Republic
• PHIL 417: Noncognitivism in Ethics
• PHIL 417: Ancient Ethical Theory
• PHIL 417: Ancient Stoicism
• PHIL 381: Skepticism Ancient and Modern
• PHIL 343: Contemporary Metaethics
• PHIL 335: Contemporary Epistemology
• PHIL 301: Ancient Philosophy
• PHIL 101: Introduction to Philosophical Problems
• CORE 151: Legacies of the Ancient World

• Visiting Nelson Endowed Professor, University of Michigan, Fall 2022
• Fulbright Award to Germany, 2012-13
• Charlotte Newcombe Dissertation Fellowship, 2008-09
• Norman Malcolm Fellowship (Cornell, King's College London), 2006-07