General CV
During my time at the Plato Centre, I held a Swiss Confederation Scholarship at the University of Fribourg and a Government of Ireland Scholarship. After completing my doctorate at Trinity College Dublin with Prof. John Dillon, I lectured in the Classics Departments at University College Cork and the National University of Ireland, Maynooth before moving to the Department of Philosophy, Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg where I held both Alexander von Humboldt and Fritz Thyssen Fellowships. My principal publications include The Demiuge in Ancient Thought (Cambridge 2015), Seele und Materie im Neuplatonismus/Soul and Matter in Neoplatonism (Heidelberg 2016, edited with J. Halfwassen and T. Dangel) and Platonic Love from Antiquity to the Renaissance (Cambridge, edited with John Dillon, forthcoming). Apart from Ancient Philosophy, my research interests include Renaissance Philosophy and the reception of the classical tradition.
Publications
O’Brien, C. (Forthcoming) ‘The Platonism behind Basil’s Trinitarian Theology’ in S. Klitenic Wear & F. Lauritzen (eds.) The Byzantine Platonists: From Plotinus to Bessarion (284-1453), Baltimore: The Catholic University of America Press/Franciscan University Press.
O’Brien, C. (Forthcoming) ‘Middle Platonists and Pythagoreans’, in M. Edwards (ed.), The Routledge Companion to Early Christian Philosophy, London: Routledge.
O’Brien, C. (2020) ‘Calcidius on Fate and the World Soul’, in C. Helmig (ed.), World Soul- Anima Mundi: On the Origins and Fortunes of a Fundamental Idea, Berlin: De Gruyter, 211-242.
O’Brien, C. (2020) ‘Hermias’ Theotaxonomy’ in J. Finamore, C.P. Manolea & S. Klitenic Wear (eds.), Studies on Hermias’ Commentary on the Phaedrus, Leiden: Brill, 169-186.
O’Brien, C. (2019) ‘Plato on the Absolute’ in E. Plevrakis & M. Rohstock (eds.) Grundlegung des Absoluten? Paradigmen aus der Geschichte der Metaphysik, Universitätsverlag Winter, Heidelberg, 15-36
O’Brien, C. ‘Rabindranath Tagore’s India and William Butler Yeats’s Ireland: The Intersection of Classical Languages, Literature and Nation-Building in Post-Colonial East and West’, Canadian Review of Comparative Literature 46(1): 115-133.
O’Brien, C. (2019) ‘Stoic Practical Philosophy: A Guide to Life’, Epoché: An Online Philosophy Magazine, Delivered Monthly, Issue 22.
O’Brien, C. (2018) ‘Defending the Classical Languages from the Charges of Racism’, Epoché: An Online Philosophy Magazine, Delivered Monthly, Issue 13.
O’Brien, C. (2018) ‘Alcinous’ Reception of Plato’ in H. Tarrant, D. Layne, F. Renaud, & D. Baltzly (eds.), Brill’s Companion to the Reception of Plato in Antiquity, Leiden: Brill, 171-182.
Klitenic Wear, S. & O’Brien, C. (2017) ‘The Figure of the Diadochos from Socrates to the Late Antique Athenian School of Neoplatonism’, in J. Finamore, & S. Klitenic Wear, (eds.), Defining Platonism: Essays in Honor of the 75th Birthday of John M. Dillon, Baltimore: The Catholic University of America Press/Franciscan University Press, 253-270.
Dangel, T., Halfwassen, J. & O’Brien, C. (eds.) (2016) Seele und Materie im Neuplatonismus. Soul and Matter in Neoplatonism, Universitätsverlag Winter, Heidelberg.
O’Brien, C. (2016) ‘Plotinus and the Soul’s logos as the Structuring Principle of the World’, in T. Dangel, J. Halfwassen & C. O’Brien (eds.), Seele und Materie im Neuplatonismus. Soul and Matter in Neoplatonism, Universitätsverlag Winter, Heidelberg, 105-133.
O’Brien, C. (2016) ‘Prayer in Maximus of Tyre’, in J. Dillon & A. Timotin (eds.), Platonic Theories of Prayer, Leiden: Brill, 58-72.
O’Brien, C. (2015) The Demiurge in Ancient Thought: Secondary Gods and Divine Mediators, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
O’Brien, C. (2015) ‘Creation, Cosmogony and Cappadocian Cosmology’, in N. Dumitrascu (ed.) ,The Ecumenical Legacy of the Cappadocians, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 7-20.
O’Brien, C. (2012) ‘The Middle Platonist Demiurge and Stoic Cosmobiology’, Horizons 3.1: Seoul Journal of Humanities, 19-39.
O’Brien, C. (2012) ‘Dramatic Devices and Philosophical Content in Plato’s Symposium’, Archai Journal: On the Origins of Western Thought 9, 73-84.
O’Brien, C. (2011) ‘St Basil’s Explanation of Creation’, in G. af Hällström (ed.), The Actuality of St Basil the Great, Åbo Akademi University Press, 194-224.