Gabriele Cornelli

Gabriele Cornellii is Professor of Ancient Philosophy in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Brasilia (UnB). He is Director of the Archai UNESCO Chair on the Origins of Western Thought. He works in Post-Graduate Programs in Metaphysics and Bioethics at UnB. He has been coordinator of Philosophy, Bioethics and Metaphysics PHD Programs and he is now Deputy Coordinator of the Center for Classical Studies of the same University. He is also Editor of the Plato Journal, Archai journal and Atlantis journal. He is currently editing four monographs Series: Brill’s Plato Studies Series (Brill) Archai (Annablume, SP), Cátedra (Paulus, SP) and Filosofia e Tradição (UNESCO, Brazil). He is also Member of the Board of Directors of the Series Classica Digitalia (Coimbra University Press, Portugal), member of the board of Annablume Publ. (Brazil) and of the series Temi metafisici and problemi del pensiero Antico. Studi and testi, series founded by Giovanni Reale (Ed. Vita e Pensiero, Milano – Italy). He has been President of the International Plato Society (2013-2016), President of the Brazilian Society of Classical Studies (2012-2013) and of the Brazilian Plato Society (2008-2010). He is also member of the Società Italiana di Storia della Filosofia Antica and a founding member of the International Association for Presocratic Studies.

He is visiting professor in PhD Programs both in Philosophy and Classical Studies at University of Coimbra (Portugal) and visiting professor in the Department of Ancient Studies at the University of Stellebosch (South Africa). He has been visiting researcher at the Università degli Studi di Napoli (Italy) the University of Oxford (UK) and the University of Cambridge (UK).

His research focuses mostly on Presocratic and Platonic literature, with a special emphasis on the Pythagorean traditions. His latest book, In Search of Pythagoreanism: Pythagoreanism as an Historiographical Category, was published by De Gruyter (Boston / Berlin, 2013) and tries to methodologically challenge the illusion that it is possible to reach the thing in itself, the true history, and instead to consciously accept that each interpretation of Pythagorean traditions throughout its historical development is necessarily mediated. He has been working more recently on topics related to Plato’s ethics, the religious and literary background; he published several articles on the topic in English, Portuguese, Spanish, Italian and French.