| Region: | Western philosophy |
| Era: | Contemporary philosophy |
| John M.Cooper | |
| Birth Date: | 29 November 1939 |
| Birth Place: | Memphis, Tennessee, U.S. |
| Death Place: | Princeton, New Jersey, U.S. |
| Influences: | G.E.L. Owen, Aristotle |
| Institutions: | Princeton University, University of Pittsburgh |
| Alma Mater: | Harvard University |
| Main Interests: | Ancient philosophy, ethics |
John Madison Cooper (November 29, 1939 – August 8, 2022)[1] was an American philosopher who was the Emeritus Henry Putnam University Professor of Philosophy at Princeton University and an expert on ancient philosophy.
Cooper earned his Ph.D. at Harvard University in 1967 and taught there until 1971, when he accepted a tenured position in philosophy at the University of Pittsburgh, where he taught until he moved to Princeton in 1981. He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences in 2001.[2]
In 2011, Cooper delivered the John Locke Lectures at Oxford University,[3] and in 2012, he delivered the Tanner Lectures on Human Values at Stanford University.[4]
He is the editor of the Hackett edition of the complete works of Plato, as well as author of Pursuits of Wisdom: Six Ways of Life in Ancient Philosophy from Socrates to Plotinus and a number of other books on ancient Greek philosophy.[5]