Draft:Gerard Naddaf
Canadian philosopher of ancient Greece
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Gerard Naddaf (b. North Sydney, Nova Scotia, 6 December 1950) is a Canadian philosopher and historian of ideas. Naddaf is a professor emeritus of philosophy at York University, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and specializes in ancient Greek philosophy and, in particular, Plato and early Greek philosophy.[1] Naddaf is best known for his work on the Greek concept of physis.[2][3][4]
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Submission declined on 3 November 2025 by Theroadislong (talk).
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Comment: Please read WP:YFA, this draft comes nowhere near close to being acceptable and you have yet to disclose your paid status on your user page, that should be your very next edit. Theroadislong (talk) 20:14, 2 December 2025 (UTC)
- Comment: we need independent sources not his own writings and please see WP:MOS. Theroadislong (talk) 14:55, 3 November 2025 (UTC)
- Comment: All inline links should be removed, please, and turned into references if appropriate, Wikilinks, or external links in a section so named. See Wikipedia:External links. There should be no links pointing to external sources until those in the 'References' section (with the exception of one optional link in any infobox). 🇵🇸🇺🇦 FiddleTimtrent FaddleTalk to me 🇺🇦🇵🇸 14:39, 30 October 2025 (UTC)
- Comment: In accordance with the Wikimedia Foundation's Terms of Use, I disclose that I have been paid by my employer for my contributions to this article. Kim Wilson copyeditor (talk) 12:29, 27 October 2025 (UTC)
Education
Naddaf graduated from the École Pratiques des Hautes Etudes in religious studies in Paris in 1980 and completed a doctorate of philosophy (Summa cum laude) at the Sorbonne in Paris in 1986. Both degrees were completed under the supervision of Pierre Hadot and Luc Brisson.[5][6]
In 1987, Naddaf was awarded a two-year SSHRC post-doctoral fellowship, which was taken up in Classics at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. Afterwards, in 1988, Naddaf took up a position in the Department of Philosophy at York University in Toronto, Ontario, where he remained until his retirement in 2020.
Academic work and writing
Naddaf is known for his work on the Greek concept of physis, which is usually translated as nature. Physis as a concept has been important for the development of the study of philosophy and science both in its early stages and contemporarily. Naddaf establishes that for the early Greek philosophers, the fundamental and etymological meaning of the word physis refers to “the whole process of growth of a thing from birth to maturity”;[7][8] the word is not meant to be static. Connected with the work of the philosophers, Naddaf writes that the famous expression Peri physeos (On nature) refers to the origin and growth of the universe from beginning to end.[9]
The process, however, consisted not only of a rational theory of the world, but also a theory to explain the origin of mankind and of the city/society.[10][11]
Naddaf reveals that this three-part schema (cosmogony, anthropogony, politogony) preserved the same tripartite structure as the older mythological narratives before them that appealed to supernatural causes such as we find in the Babylonian creation story or in the Book of Genesis. From this perspective, there is a persistence of a literary genre which continues in later philosophers such as Plato.[12]
Naddaf's work on nature bridges ancient philosophy and modern environmentalism, echoing the Greek belief that human existence must align with the natural world.[13][14]
Naddaf's most recent work, Making Sense of Myth (2024), explores what Ronald Polansky says is "the indispensable role of myth and storytelling in human life and society by way of an interview-cum-memoir, tracing the life and intellectual trajectory of Luc Brisson, one of the most prominent philosophers of his generation."[15] The afterword written by Naddaf draws the book into "a biography of humanity in the world at large and narrows to locate the emergence of storytelling: myth as a feature of society."[16]
For a succinct summary of Naddaf's thesis, see What is Ancient Philosophy? by Pierre Hadot (2004). [17][18]
Naddaf served as President of the Canadian Philosophical Association in 2005.
Works
Authored and co-authored books
- Naddaf, Gerard (2024). Making Sense of Myth: Conversations with Luc Brisson. Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press.
- Naddaf, Gerard (2005). The Greek Concept of Nature. Albany: State University of New York Press.
- Naddaf, Gerard; Couprie, Dirk L.; Hahn, Robert (2003). Anaximander in Context: New Studies in the Origins of Greek Philosophy. Albany: State University of New York Press.
- Naddaf, Gerard (translator, editor, and co-author); Brisson, Luc (author) (1998). Plato the Myth Maker. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
- Naddaf, Gerard (1992). L'origen et l'évolution du concept Grec de phusis. Lewiston: The Edwin Mellen Press.
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