Acknowledgements
The project laid out in the following pages benefitted from a diverse community. This community spanned an ocean, both preparing the way for and helping the development of the basic thought of this project from germination to full fruition. This book is the final form of my dissertation project, which I was fortunate enough to complete with the support of two universities. It began while I was a PhD student and teaching assistant at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, and came to fulfillment during my time as a research fellow at the Munich School of Ancient Philosophy at the LMU in Munich. Most of all, I want to thank Peter Adamson for his guidance, patience, and support through the years, first during my time as a doctoral student at MUSAPh and now as postdoc with his ERC project, Animals in Philosophy of the Islamic World. I am grateful for his attention, trust, and overall good humor, all of which made the completion of this book less taxing. I would also like to thank Thérèse Bonin, who was part of my PhD committee, for her valuable advice and thorough feedback as I began working on this study in book form. I also owe thanks to the other members of the PhD committee, Michael Harrington and Christof Rapp, whose questions and feedback helped this book become what it is.
I gained many skills from both of the universities at which I studied, skills that I employed in this book and that have made this project possible. I learned much from the members of both departments, who navigated the history of philosophy with attentive care and intellectual adroitness, and who probed specific questions with learned assiduity and linguistic fluency. In particular, I would like to thank Matteo Di Giovanni, Rotraud Hansberger, Patrick Lee Miller, Ron Polansky, Daniel Selcer, and George Yancy. Additionally, I want to thank Mark Anderson, who first introduced me to Plotinus, and who encouraged me to continue striving to understand his thought.
I have had the opportunity to share various aspects of this study at several conferences and workshops over the years, where the feedback from attendees helped to shape the work into its current state. I especially thank George Karamanolis at the University of Vienna, Filip Karfik and his team at the University of Fribourg, as well as the members of the Institute for Jewish Philosophy and Religion at the University of Hamburg, for their perspectives and for the chance to share parts of my work with them.
I would like to thank Robert Berchman and John Finamore for including this study as part of their series. Additionally, I would like to express my gratitude to an anonymous referee, whose perceptive feedback opened the way for a new depth to the project. The book is certainly the better for it, and I am grateful for the attention they afforded my text.
It has also been my great pleasure to have many wonderful colleagues over the years who, in various ways, both aided in the production of this book and helped me grow as a scholar. In particular, I would like to thank Tommaso Alpina, Hanif Amin Beidokhi, Fedor Benevich, Jacob Greenstine, Jonathan Greig, Máté Herner, Martin Krahn, Andreas Lammer, Abdurrahman Mihirig, Marilù Papandreou, Melina Vogiatzi, and Kelsey Ward.
Finally, I would like to thank my non-academic friends and family, who have given my life balance. I owe a debt of gratitude to the members of the campaigns that kept me grounded over the last several years, whose reminder that we are never done with our stories offered valuable perspective. I also want to express my appreciation to my siblings for their inspiration, support, and patience as I saw this investigation through. I especially want to thank my twin, who has lived with me and my fastidious, but frequently annoying, inquisitiveness the longest, and has thus had to muster the most fortitude. Without her, this book, as I, would be incomplete. And most of all, I express my utmost gratitude and love to my spouse, Tom, who has provided endless support, unwavering patience, and unfailingly insightful words throughout the course of this project, and to Aias, who has given guidance and support from the beginning without any words at all.