About Me
Hello! You've reached Douglas A. Shepardson's homepage. I'm a former college professor (a Plato scholar who taught for ten years at Fordham and Hunter College) who is currently experimenting with alternative forms of instruction, tutoring, and educational consulting here at The Shepardsonian!
I received an MA in Early Christian Studies in 2014 and a PhD in Ancient Greek Philosophy in 2022. I've both published in and peer-reviewed for various well-regarded Classics, Philosophy, and Theology journals, and have given several prestigious conference presentations.
Beginning the week of November 3rd, I am launching a series of online classes in Philosophy, Classics, and Ethics. For $99, students receive access to 12 one-hour video sessions (either live, or watched alone on your own time) and a syllabus with "required" and "suggested" readings, along with PDFs of them. The lectures are informed by serious peer-reviewed scholarship, including cutting edge developments discussed in the past ten or twenty years in the scholarship.
I also offer private tutoring, educational consulting, and event speaking. My approach blends the rigorous scholarship of peer-reviewed journals with the ease and excitement of modern technologies like video-conferencing, artificial intelligence, and virtual reality.
Senior Auditor,
Spring 2025
"Thank you for a wonderful class. We are all disappointed that you will not be returning in the Fall semester. [...]
Wishing you success and a better commute in your next venture.Please keep me posted as to where you are teaching next."
Letter from Senior Auditors to the Chair:
Link to a letter a group of Senior Auditors in my Fall 2023 Plato class sent the chair of the department:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/13oUuwEss_6jo_RCtFwC0Oi2TOxDMDygh/view?usp=sharing
Linqi Zhou,
Hunter College, 2024
Philosophy BA,
"I'm just writing to thank you for a great semester of Aristotle in PHILO38011. ... I genuinely think that your ability to clearly and engagingly explain Aristotle's ideas in class was the one thing that lifted a lot of us out of our initial confusion ... and into a place where we could first just understand, and then start to have fun with, the things he was saying. (Same goes for Plato last semester -- like, I "read" the Euthyphro a few years ago and did not get the vibe at all. I think you were able to teach us HOW to read this stuff as much as you were able to teach us what the contents themselves were.) IMO you definitely got people interested in ancient philosophy ... I'd had little interest in Greek philosophy prior to taking the Plato & 212 classes in fall 2023. ... Also, your lectures and OH just slayed overall. The vibes were good. Thank you for being cool, knowledgable, and helpful all year. I hope you and your family have a great summer!!"
Francesca Jereis,
Hunter College, 2024
Pre-Med/Philosophy BA
"I hope you are well, your family is well, and the semester is going great.
I wanted to let you know that I committed to Georgetown for medical school (top choice and dream school alert)! Thank you so much for your support and I hope to stay in touch!"
TEACHING PORTFOLIO:
Anonymous Student Evaluations, Peer Evaluations, and Sample Syllabus.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1zDo21FBBBNjYpqK0kYANbF2TfPCkjYp1/view?usp=sharing
See "Teaching" for more evidence of teaching excellence!
Sample Peer-Reviewed Publications
"The Many Do Not Recollect: The Nature and Scope of Recollection in Plato's Phaedrus."
Apeiron 57 (4): 641-660. 2024.
Plato’s theory of recollection is classically treated as an account of “concept-acquisition” or “concept-possession,” explaining how the mind is able to employ general concepts, despite the senses only perceiving particulars. Against this, recent scholars (esp. Dominic Scott) have argued that recollection is not necessary for ordinary reasoning. Recollection is not about ordinary concepts that humans use; rather, recollection is a rare, prototypically philosophic affair that is satisfied by becoming aware of Forms or principles associated with them, which most people never experience. On this view, most people do not recollect. A third position accepts both views: there are two types of recollection in Plato, one concerned with ordinary cognition, and one concerned with philosophical awareness of the Forms. This paper argues for the narrow reading, focusing on the Phaedrus.
Link to online-first version here (please cite official published version with correct page numbers).
"Anamnēsis as Aneuriskein, Anakinein, and Analambanein in Plato's Meno."
[English title with Greek translated: "Recollection as Finding Again, Awakening, and Getting Back in Plato's Meno."]
The Classical Quarterly 72 (1): 138-151.
This article examines the theory of recollection in Plato's Meno and attempts to unravel some long-standing puzzles about it. What are the prenatal objects of the soul's vision? What are the post-natal objects of the soul's recollection? What is innate in the Meno? Why does Socrates (prima facie) suggest that both knowledge and true opinion are innate? The article pays particular attention to the ana- prefix in the verbs aneuriskô, anakineô and analambanô, and suggests that they are used for two distinct stages of recollection: a phenomenological stage of ‘finding again’ or ‘awakening’ our innate content, which Plato calls doxa, and an epistemic stage of ‘getting it back’ as epistêmê. Thinking of the verbs with this ‘back/again’ sense of the ana- prefix (instead of as ‘up’, in the common translation of analambanô as ‘take up’) allows us to understand why Plato would simultaneously imply that our souls had prenatal epistêmê, have post-natal innate true opinion and have the potential to analambanein epistêmê. He is not talking about ‘taking up’ epistêmê that he also calls doxa, but about ‘getting back’ the epistêmê we had prenatally. The article concludes with an examination of what this innate content is, suggesting that it is a type of ‘principle’ and ‘essential’ mental content.
Link to PrePrint:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1aOoG06llLqUA3SKEIDEjmII8wdK2INXP/view?usp=sharing
(please cite the published version)
For my other work, see my CV under the "more" tab, or my PhilPapers profile here:
https://philpeople.org/profiles/douglas-a-shepardson
Feel free to email me with any questions about my research (info@TheShepardsonian.com).