How to use The Connected Corpus

The Connected Corpus is a new tool for reading and re-reading Ancient Greek and Roman philosophy.

Maybe you’re reading Plato’s Republic for the nth time and looking for a new way to explore and engage with the text.

Maybe you’re studying Ancient Philosophy and wondering “What did the Ancients think about __ (eg. justice, death, technê, friendship, the soul, etc.)?”.

Maybe you’re curious about philosophical comparisons between the Republic and the Nicomachean Ethics, or Thrasymachus and Epicurus on justice, or different arguments about the function of the human soul.

Maybe you’re critically examining an idea or argument in the Republic and are looking for counter-arguments, alternative views, or voices of support.

The Connected Corpus can help.

It’s not a commentary; it’s a tool to supplement your study of primary texts.

Our original textual annotations serve a few different purposes:

(1) They highlight important philosophical concepts, claims, and arguments in a focal text.

(2) They identify other thinkers who have something to say about a those concepts, claims, or arguments, and where exactly they say it.

(3) They frame a comparison or debate between two texts or thinkers about a concept, claim, or argument. These are the “philosophical connections.” “Connections” can be comparisons or contrasts, agreements or disagreements, alternatives or new perspectives. What you make of these connections is up to you! They are meant to raise questions and possibilities, not answer them.

(4) They serve as mini libraries on a particular concept, claim, or argument, connecting you to texts in English translation and the original language.

In these ways, The Connected Corpus is intended as a supplement to, not a replacement for, close reading of individual texts.

Accessing the connections

To see the connections, navigate to a particular focal text. Scroll down and click on the comment bubbles in the right-hand margin. To connect to other texts, click on the hyperlinks in the annotations. A list of all annotations is at the bottom of the page. You can also filter connections by who they are connections to, e.g. Aristotle, Stoics, Epicurus, Pyrrhonian Skeptics, etc.