Professor Gregory MacIsaac

D. Gregory MacIsaac is Associate Professor of Humanities at Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada.

His specialisation is Ancient Greek philosophy. He has taught in the Bachelor of Humanities ‘Great Books’ program since 1998. He grew up in Nova Scotia and took his B.A. in Classics at the University of King’s College (Halifax). He did his and M.A./Ph.D. in Philosophy at the University of Notre Dame (Indiana), with a thesis on Late Antique Neoplatonism. He has spend sabbatical years in Paris (École Pratique des Hautes Études and C.N.R.S.), Dublin (Plato Centre, Trinity College Dublin), London (Institute of Classical Studies, University of London), and Besançon (Laboratoire ‘Logiques de l’Agir’, Université de Franch-Comté). In 2025-26 he will be Scholar in Residence at Cambridge’s Centre for the Study of Platonism, and Visiting Scholar in the Faculties of Classics and Divinity.  

Professor MacIsaac spent twenty years working on aspects of the soul’s knowledge in the Neoplatonist Proclus. His more recent work is on Plato. He is near the completion of a commentary on Plato’s Theaetetus. In Cambridge, he will begin a commentary on Plato’s Parmenides.  He is interested in showing that these dialogues are Plato’s engagement with Presocratic philosophy, rather than his presentation of his own theories, as is commonly thought.

At Clare Hall, Prof. MacIsaac is accompanied by his wife, Robyn Bragg, who is a professional artist. Her medium is collage and encaustic. With them are their two daughters, Eleanor (9) and Elizabeth (6).