About Me
Hello, and welcome to The Shepardsonian!
I'm Douglas A. Shepardson, a Plato scholar who taught for ten years at Fordham and Hunter College. I'm currently experimenting with alternative forms of instruction, tutoring, and educational consulting!
I blog about academic philosophy, classics, and technology, and review related products (including adult Graphic Novels and Omnibus Hardcover Comics).
For online academic tutoring and consulting (or in-person in the Long Island/NYC area), see the Tutoring/Consulting tab, or click here. For testimonials, see the Testimonial tab or click here.
For my credentials, I received an MA in Early Christian Studies in 2014 from Union Theological Seminary, working with the Very Reverend Dr. ("Father") John Anthony McGuckin on Origen of Alexandria's appropriation of Ancient Greek Philosophy. I then got a Ph.D. in Ancient Greek Philosophy from Fordham University, defending my dissertation on Plato's theory of recollection 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 (at, e.g., Oxford and NYU).
Beginning in early 2026, I'll begin offering "classes" for $99. (Think of something in between a Master Class and the Great Courses, but for Philosophy, Classics, and Religious Studies only.) These will contain 12 one-hour videos, a syllabus with "required" and "suggested" readings, and access to all of the readings in PDFs. There will also be weekly "open office hour" sessions weekly for every class. So, if you want, you can ask me questions about the material to follow up on any of the videos for up to 12 hours (once a week per class) over the three months you're doing the readings and watching the videos. There will also be (and already is) a private group page, that only members of a particular group can see. There, you can ask simple questions and share thoughts about the readings with other people who are currently taking, or have taken, the class. (Access to all class materials included for as long as this website stays up, except the office hours coupons expire after three months.)
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. And since, as you can see from my blog, I'm extremely invested in popular culture, I know how to make lectures exciting. (As evidence of that, see the teaching tab or click here.
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).