CHRYSSI SIDIROPOULOU graduated from the School of Philosophy, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, in 1990. After attending a postgraduate programme in philosophy for one year there she then moved into the University of Wales, U.K., in 1991. Her postgraduate research mainly focused on the philosophy of Ludwig Wittgenstein. At the same time she taught classes on both Wittgenstein and Plato. She received her Ph.D in 1996. During the academic year of 1996 she joined the ranks of Boğaziçi University in Istanbul, Turkey. Since then she has been lecturing on Ancient Philosophy, Medieval Philosophy, Philosophy of Mind, and Wittgenstein. Moreover, upon her coming to Boğaziçi Modern Greek became an official course of the academic curriculum; she has standardly been teaching it along with Ancient Greek. Upon being offered a scholarship she visited Abo Akademi in Turku, Finland, during September-October 1998. At Abo she conducted postdoctoral research on contemporary Philosophy of Mind (functionalism and the nature of mental life).
AREAS OF INTEREST: Wittgenstein, Ancient Philosophy (with emphasis on Plato's metaphysics and psychology), Philosophy of Religion, Philosophy of Mind, Ancient Greek Language for Philosophers
Ph.D. thesis title: Wittgenstein, the Self and Religious Life
The dissertation examines Wittegenstein's critique of Cartesian dualism along with analysing central themes in philosophy of religion and philosophy of mind. Its main target is to show that dualism is not only an untenable position in philosophy of mind; but also that, contrary to what is traditionally accepted, it is unsuitable or even destructive to fundamental religious claims (e.g. self-awareness, unique moral status, spirituality, eternal life). Within the framework of the thesis there are also specific discussions of the way the Medieval philosophers Augustine, Anselm of Canterbury and Thomas Aquinas conceive the soul and mind.
Among the courses she has taught on the undergraduate and graduate level: Introduction to Philosophy, Ancient Philosophy, Medieval Philosophy, Advanced History of Philosophy, Philosophy of Mind, Wittgenstein, Plato: Phaedo, Plato: Symposium. Also Modern Greek, Ancient Greek, and Latin at the department of Western Languages and Literatures.
Some of her publications are:
"Science and Ritual: the Limits of Scientific Explanation and of the Cartesian Metaphysics of the Self" (in Greek), Neysis. Athens, Winter 1998.
"From Homer to Plato: Beginnings of the Concept of the Self in Greek Thought" (in Greek), Philologos. Summer 1998.
"Dualism and the Soul: a Wittgensteinian Approach" (in Greek), Deykalion. Athens, Winter 1999.
"Love: Its Forms, Dimensions and Paradoxes," Book Review of the book by İlham Dilman. Philosophical Investigations, vol. 23, No. 3. (Blackwell, Oxford, UK and Malden, USA, July 2000).
"Platonik Düalizm ve Ruh-bir yaklaşım denemesi," Felsefe Tartışmaları, vol. 30, 61-67, 2003
Translation (from German to Greek): Die Eigenart der Griechen: Einführung in die Griechische Kultur, by R. Harder.
She has also contributed papers and conference speeches on issues pertaining to the teaching of Greek as a foreign language.