Theodore Scaltsas
Professor Emeritus

- Philosophy
- School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences
Contact details
- Email: scaltsas@ed.ac.uk
- Web: BrainMining
Background
Dory is designing and creating a Pilot of an Exhibit of Hellenic Wisdom, for the European Commission.
He is also designing and creating with CERTH and EXUS a Wisdom AI Bot to display Wisdom, museologically.
Dory is directing the design and creation of the Museum of Hellenic Ideas, installed by Aristotle's Lyceum in Athens - the archaeological site of Aristotle's Peripatetic School.
Two newspaper articles: The Future of Wisdom when AI is smarter than us (in English); and AI Governance of humanity (In English).
Dory Scaltsas (西奥多 斯卡特萨斯) is Professor Emeritus of Philosophy, working on Creative Thinking. He is developing the theory of BrainMining [大脑发掘] of emotive lateral solutions: Harvard Business Review (哈佛商评); and The Leader's Guide to Problem Solving
He received his doctorate in philosophy at Oxford University (D.Phil.), where he wrote his thesis on Aristotle’s metaphysics, supervised by Prof.John Ackrill and Prof. Sir Peter Strawson. He studied philosophy and mathematics at Duke University (B.S.), and at Brandeis University (M.A.).
Dory continues his Affiliation with his alma mater, Oxford University, Wolfson College.
Dory’s first appointment was at Oxford University, New College, as Lecturer in Philosophy, 1980-84. He then joined our department and has since held Research Fellowships at:
- Harvard University, Research Fellow, Centre for Hellenic Studies, 1987-1988.
- Princeton University, Research Fellow, Seeger Research Center, 1989.
Current Research: Democracy and AI-Wisdom
Moral Dilemma: AI Governance: Would you want 'AI Superintelligence' to run your life, for your own good?
Creative Thinking:
BrainMining [大脑发掘] [utilise our anchoring bias to solve problems creatively]
Emotive Lateral Thinking and Valuative Intelligence [increase our space of solutions)
Creative thinking is what we are not taught, either at school or at university. Yet, it is ranked a top-trait by employers. It not being artistic, or entrepreneurial. It is about solving problems in novel ways, and tackling insoluble predicaments; problems in our personal lives, our social relations, and in business challenges. Let’s get Lateral aims to reverse this trend at Edinburgh University, and make individual and group creative thinking skills and methodology accessible to all. You will learn the way we can use our mental powers, our emotions, and even our innate cognitive biases, to spark off lateral solutions.
Projects:
- C2Learn: BrainMining was the basis for the award of C2Learn, a European Commission research project for teaching creative thinking in schools (€3.3M; 2012-2015).
- Archelogos Argument-Base: The Arguments in Plato and Aristotle. Pioneering Digital Humanities Project, 1990-present. Dory founded and directs Project Archelogos, a research project for the creation of an argument-database, using a new methodology for the analysis into arguments of Plato’s and Aristotle’s philosophical texts. Project Archelogos enjoys wide international collaboration and received the Henry Ford Foundation Award for the Preservation of European Culture in 1997.
- Argument Visualisation Projects: A further series of his projects centre on Argument Visualisation -- the use of computers to graphically represent the structure and conceptual relations between theses and/or arguments:
- GnosioGenesis, 2001-2002.
- The Philosophy of Socrates, 2001-2007.
- TechnoSophia, 2000-2003.
- Elenchus: Arguments For/Against Democracy 1999.
- Digital Democracy, 1998.
- LogAnalysis, 1996-1998.
- Emotions First: The Role of Emotions in Reasoning, with EU Marie Curie Fellow, Dr Laura Candiotto. Investigating Greek philosophers' theories of action where the battle between our desires grounded the pattern constitutive of our rationality.
Creative Valuative Intelligence
Valuative Intelligence complements Emotional Intelligence, targeting values rather than emotional states.
Creative Valuative Intelligence generates solutions that cannot be generated by the traditional deliberative practical syllogism. Creative thinking and lateral problem solving are not restricted to industrial products only; they apply equally in the domain of emotions and values, as, e.g., in politics and social relations. We need to learn to apply creative thinking in the emotive and valuative domains, in order to generate new conceptions of well- being for ourselves.
Dory is using Creative Thinking and Valuative Intelligence to explore human social possibilities for the era of AI Governance. AI Governance will challenge our values, our emotions and our well-being. However, this is also an unprecedented opportunity to design innovative ways of flourishing, afforded by the dawning of the era of digital well-being.
Visiting and research positions
- Harvard University (1987-8)
- Princeton University (1989)
- University of Sydney (1991)
- Dartmouth College (1993)
- Scuola Normale Superiore, Pisa (2000)
- University of Cyprus (2005)
Publications
- Valuative Intelligence -- The Creative Design of our Wellbeing, MEDIENIMPULSE, special issue on "Creativity and Co-Creativity", Austrian Ministry of Education.
- BrainMining [大脑发掘] : 'A Cognitive Trick for Solving Problems Creatively - Mental biases can actually help', Harvard Business Review, 4 May 2016. Chinese Translation: 【哈佛商评】认知偏见助力创造性思维´. Discussion 1. Discussion 2.
- Extended and Embodied Values and Ideas
- 'Substantial Holism'
- ‘Is a whole identical to its parts?’
- Latest research publications and PhilPapers
Books
- The Philosophy of Epictetus (co-ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007).
- The Philosophy of Zeno of Citium (co-ed., Larnaca Press, ISBN 9-963-60323-8, 2002).
- Argument Analysis of Aristotle's On Generation and Corruption (1998), published by Project Archelogos.
- Substances and Universals in Aristotle's Metaphysics, (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1994; paperback ed. 2010)
- Unity, Identity, and Explanation in Aristotle's Metaphysics (co-ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994).
- The Golden Age of Virtue: Aristotle's Ethics (Athens: Alexandria Press, 1993; reprinted 2010)
- Aristotelian Realism, Deukalion Special Issue (ed., Athens: Daedalos Press, 1993).
Archelogos publications
Argument Analyses of Plato’s and Aristotle’s works at: https://archelogos.co/
- Christopher Rowe - Plato's Republic V, 2016.
- George Rudebusch and Christopher Turner - Plato's Laches, 2016.
- Hugh Benson - Charmides, 1998.
- Robin Waterfield - Gorgias, 2001.
- David Robinson & F.-G. Herrmann - Lysis, 1999.
- George Rudebush - Plato's Philebus, 2016.
- Timothy Chappell - Theaetetus, 2002.
- Robert Heinaman - Metaphysics Z, 2002.
- S Marc Cohen & Gareth Matthews - Metaphysics K, 2008.
- Paula Gottlieb - Nicomachean Ethics I-II, 2001.
- Norman Dahl - Nicomachean Ethics III, 2008.
- Norman O. Dahl (2016) Nicomachean Ethics IV, 2016.
- Carlo Natali - Nicomachean Ethics X, 2008.
- Theodore Scaltsas - On Generation and Corruption, 1998.
- Allan Bäck - Aristotle’s Prior Analytics I, completed, forthcoming.
- George Kennedy - Rhetoric III, 1999.
The Archelogos projects have been supported by George David, the Leventis Foundation, the Carnegie Trust, the Leverhulme Trust, the Kostopoulos Foundation, the Directorate of Education of the European Community, and by Livanos and the Hellenic Ship-owners Association in London.
Responsibilities & affiliations
- Course Organiser for the Structure of Being
- Course Organiser for Ancient Theories of Existence
Undergraduate teaching
Greats: Aristotle lectures
Ancient Theories of Existence
The Structure of Being
Contact Hours: Wed's 1:00-2:00, DSB 6.03.
Current PhD students supervised
Research summary
BrainMining; Creative Lateral Thinking and Emotional Intelligence; Ancient Philosophy; Contemporary Metaphysics.
Current research interests
Dory’s current research is on the theory of BrainMining - emotive thinking - creative lateral solutions; on the relation of emotions to creative lateral thinking; and on emotions in decision making. He is also developing a theory of Duoist Creative Thinking on the basis of Yijing metaphysical principles of Chinese thought. He leads and participates in research projects for the development of methods for teaching creative lateral thinking in schools. His has further research interests in ancient metaphysics, contemporary metaphysics, and ancient epistemology.Project activity
- Digital Exhibition of Zeno of Citium and Stoicism, for Cyprus' EU Presidency. Within the framework of Cyprus' Presidency of the European Union 2012, the Secretariat for the Presidency and the Cypriot Ministry of Education and Culture funded the creation of an Exhibition of the Ideas of Zeno and Stoicism.
- Creative Emotional Reasoning C2Learn Funded by EU 7th Framework Programme ICT (Information and Communication Technologies, €3.3M) to explore lateral thinking, emotions and creativity.
- Emotions First - The role of emotions in reasoning, Marie Curie Fellow suprvision, Dr Laur Candiotto, 2015-2017.
- Project Archelogos, Mr George David - 3E + Leventis Foundation. (See under Publications below).
- Latest research grants/projects