Biography
Dr Adrian Mihai is an Affiliated Lecturer in the Faculty of Divinity, and his research has run from the early Greek philosophers to the Cambridge Platonists, with some personal and intellectual interests in hermeneutics and its relation to phenomenology.
Furthermore, as collaborator on the International projects 'The Cambridge Platonists at the Origins of Enlightenment' and 'Reason and Revelation: The Critical Heritage of Antiquity', his work focuses on the chief ways in which Greek and Latin influence has moulded the philosophy, the theology and the science of Modern Times. He is also a Research Associate at the 'Laboratoire d'études sur les monothéismes' (LEM-CNRS, Paris).
Dr Mihai studied Ancient Philosophy at École Pratique des Hautes Études (EPHE, Paris), with Professor Philippe Hoffmann, and he is the author of 'L'Hadès céleste. Histoire du purgatoire dans l'Antiquité' (Paris: Garnier, 2015), for which he was awarded the prestigious 'Prix de l'Association des études grecques'. From 2014 to 2016, Dr Mihai was a SSHRC Postdoctoral Fellow in the Faculty of Philosophy at Laval University, under the supervision of Dr Jean-Marc Narbonne.
He is currently preparing the first critical edition of Ralph Cudworth's 1678 treatise, 'The True Intellectual System of the Universe', a daring interpretation of Ancient philosophy and religion, particularly of Atomism.
Research
Ancient Philosophy and Religion:
- The Platonic and Neoplatonic Traditions (from Plato to Eriugena)
- Ancient Eschatology
- Late Neoplatonism (Porphyry, Iamblichus, Proclus, Damascius)
- John Scott Eriugena
Modern Philosophy:
- Ralph Cudworth and the Cambridge Platonists
- Immanuel Kant
- Martin Heidegger
- The French Phenomenological Tradition
Publications
- Adrian Mihai (ed.), Ralph Cudworth, The True Intellectual System of the Universe (2 vols.), Brepols, 2020.
- “The Neoplatonic Hermeneutics of Ralph Cudworth”, in D. Hedley and D. Leech (eds.), Revisioning Cambridge Platonism, Dordrecht: Springer, 2019, in press.
- "'Strato’s Ghost. A Critique of Hylozoick Philosophy by Henry More and Ralph Cudworth", in Christian Hengstermann (ed.), Henry More’s ‘Immortality of the Soul’, Münster: Aschendorff, 2019, forthcoming.
- “Atomism in the Cambridge Platonists”, in Ugo Zilioli (ed.), Atomism in Philosophy. A History from Antiquity to the Present, London: Bloomsbury, 2019, forthcoming.
- "Ralph Cudworth on Causality, and Substantial Forms. Towards a New Theory of Causation", in D. Hedley (ed.), Divine Participation, Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, forthcoming.
- L’Hadès céleste. Histoire du purgatoire dans l’Antiquité, Paris: Classiques Garnier, 2015 (Kaïnon. Anthropologie de la pensée ancienne I), 469 p.
- “Mens, Animus, Intellectus in Eriugena”, in I. Ramelli (ed.), Nous in Ancient and Late Antique Philosophy, Leiden: Brill, 2021, forthcoming.
- “Theodicy in Neoplatonism, from Plotinus to Eriugena”, in M. Grebe & J. Grössl (eds.), Companion to Suffering and the Problem of Evil, Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 2021, forthcoming
- “Plan de L’antre des Nymphes de Porphyre”, in T. Dorandi (ed.), Porphyre, L’antre des Nymphes, Paris: Vrin, 2019, in press.
- “Hades in the Philosophical Traditions of Greco-Roman Antiquity”, in G. Ekroth (ed.), Roundtrip to Hades. Visits to the Underworld in the Eastern Mediterranean Tradition, Leiden: Brill, 2017, pp. 174-194.
- “Le Descensus ad inferos du néoplatonicien Damascius à Hiérapolis”, in G. Cursaru and P. Bonnechere (eds.), Katábasis in the Greek Literary Tradition and Religious Thought, Cahiers des Études Anciennes (LIII), 2016, pp. 65-81.
- “Comparatism of Theological Traditions in Late Antiquity: Damascius, De Princ. III 159.6-167.25”, Numen LXI, no 5-6 (2014), 457-483.
- “Soul’s Aitherial Abode According to the Poteidaia Epitaph and the Presocratic Philosophers”, Numen LVII, no 5 (2010), 1-30.
- “Giorgio Colli et la non-philosophie”, Dogma. Revue éléctronique (2010), 1-9.
- “Sur l’essence du sacré dans la philosophie de Heidegger”, Vox Philosophiae I, no 3 (2009), 139-148.
- “L’Antiquité et l’athéisme du mouvement sophistique”, Phares XVII, no 1 (2017), pp. 47-68.
- “Démocratie et démographie dans la Grèce ancienne”, DIRE XVI, no 2 (2007), 14-18.
Teaching and Supervisions
- Michaelmas 2019: MPhil Module on Nature: Mechanism and Anti-Mechanism
- Lent 2019 Seminar on Levinas’ Autrement qu’être ou au-delà de l’essence
(Seminar Coordinator: Adrian Mihai)
- Lent 2019 Seminar on Hegel’s Philosophy of Religion
(Coordinators: Thomas Hanke, Adrian Mihai & Douglas Hedley)
- Michaelmas 2018 MPhil Module. Nature. Mechanism and Anti-Mechanism
(Paper Coordinators: Douglas Hedley & Adrian Mihai)
- Michaelmas 2018 Seminar on Schelling’s Weltalter
(Seminar Coordinator: Douglas Hedley)
- Michaelmas 2018 Seminar on Kant’s Opus Postumum
(Seminar Coordinator: Adrian Mihai)
- Summer Biblical Study 2018 Elementary New Testament Greek
(Westminster College)
- 2017-2019 Seminar on Eriugena’s Periphyseon
(Seminar Coordinator: Adrian Mihai)
- 2017-2019 Seminar on Plotinus’ Enneads
(Seminar Coordinator: Douglas Hedley)
I supervise the following papers:
- A5 (The Question of God)
- A8 (Philosophy of Religion)
- A9 (Ethics)
- B10 (God, Freedom and the Soul)
MPhil Supervisions