 gregory vlastos (; july 27, 1907 &ndash; october 12, 1991) was a scholar of ancient philosophy, and author of several works on plato and socrates. a christian, vlastos also wrote about christian faith. ==life and works== vlastos was born in istanbul, to a scottish mother and a greek father, where he received a bachelor of arts from robert college before moving to harvard university where he received a phd in 1931. after teaching for several years at queen's university in kingston, ontario, canada, he moved to cornell university in 1948. he was stuart professor of philosophy at princeton university between 1955 and 1976, and then mills professor of philosophy at university of california, berkeley until 1987. he received a macarthur foundation fellowship in 1990. he was twice awarded a guggenheim fellowship, was a fellow of the american academy of arts and sciences, a corresponding fellow of the british academy, and a member of the american philosophical society.an in memoriam essay vlastos died in 1991, before finishing a new compilation of essays on socratic philosophy. he is credited with bringing about a renaissance of interest in plato among philosophers throughout the world. many of vlastos' students have become important scholars of ancient philosophy, including terence irwin, richard kraut, frank a. lewis, paul woodruff, sara ahbel-rappe, and alexander nehamas. ==theory of socratic philosophy== in his work the philosophy of socrates: a collection of critical essays (undp 1971). vlastos advanced the idea "that one can identify in certain platonic dialogues a philosophical method and a collection of philosophical theses which may properly be attributed to socrates." he maintained that this can be described as "socratic philosophy, as distinct from what is commonly know as platonism". the idea remains controversial and those who agree with his position are referred to as vlastosians. ==published works== * christian faith and democracy, association press, 1939 * platonic studies, princeton university press, 1973, isbn 978-0-691-07162-6 isbn 0691071624 * socrates, ironist and moral philosopher, cornell university press, 1991, isbn 978-0-8014-9787-2 isbn 0801497876 * socratic studies, cambridge university press, 1994, isbn 978-0-521-44735-5 isbn 0521447356 * studies in greek philosophy volume i: the presocratics, princeton university press, 1995, isbn 978-0-691-03310-5 isbn 0691033102 * studies in greek philosophy; volume ii: socrates, plato, and their tradition, princeton university press, 1995, isbn
1907_births 1991_deaths American_people_of_Greek_descent American_people_of_Scottish_descent Christian_philosophers Cornell_University_faculty Greek_people_from_Istanbul Greek_people_of_Scottish_descent Guggenheim_Fellows Harvard_University_alumni MacArthur_Fellows Princeton_University_faculty Robert_College_alumni Scholars_of_ancient_Greek_philosophy University_of_California,_Berkeley_faculty