Rate My Professor Ryan Drake

Drake's research spans ancient philosophy, social and political thought, and 19th- and 20th-century European philosophy. His areas of specialization include Plato's moral psychology, eros, moral education, the good, philosophical method, interpretive strategies, Classical Greek Philosophy, Ancient Greek and Roman Philosophy, and Aristotle's works in aesthetics, particularly the Poetics. Additional interests encompass Critical Theory, Aesthetics, Continental Philosophy, Max Horkheimer, Walter Benjamin, and mimetic sympathy in Aristotle. His scholarship in hermeneutics and intellectual history deepens students' understanding of enduring philosophical questions and connects them to contemporary ethical and political concerns. Key publications include "Wonder, Nature, and the Ends of Tragedy" (International Philosophical Quarterly, 2010), "Plato's Fable: On the Mortal Condition in Shadowy Times" (Ancient Philosophy, 2008), "Recovering Plato in (and against) the continental tradition" (2006), "Orphaned and Adopted Texts in the Protagoras" (2005), and articles on topics such as mimetic sympathy in Aristotle's Poetics and Plato's enchantment of politics.