Philosophy Seminar

Prof. Malcolm Schofield, “Aristotle on what makes a community a proper community: the ideal and the practicable”

Webinar Prof. Malcolm Schofield, "Aristotle on what makes a community a proper community: the ideal and the practicable" ‘The best politieia for most cities and most people’ (Pol. 4.11) Organised in collaboration with the Research Centre for Greek Philosophy of the Academy of Athens Handout 1: https://www.bsa.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/Athens-Seminar-2-–-abstract.pdf Handout 2: https://www.bsa.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/Athens-Seminar-2-–-texts.pdf Webinar registration: https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_FBGNbm0bTviCPHfIBYN06g

Prof. Malcolm Schofield, “Aristotle on what makes a community a proper community: the ideal and the practicable”

Webinar  Prof. Malcolm Schofield, "Aristotle on what makes a community a proper community: the ideal and the practicable" 'Aristotle’s idea of a politeia' (Pol. 3.6) Organised in collaboration with the Research Centre for Greek Philosophy of the Academy of Athens Note: those attending the webinar must have copies of texts and/or translations of Aristotle's Politics to […]

John Sellars, ‘Philosophy as a Way of Life in the Renaissance’

Image: © The Trustees of the British Museum Dr John Sellars (Royal Holloway, University of London), ‘Philosophy as a Way of Life in the Renaissance’ Abstract The Renaissance saw the rise of a group of intellectuals, interested in a wide range of subjects, often labelled ‘Humanists’. These figures have sometimes been derided by historians of philosophy […]

John Sellars, ‘Aristotle and Philosophy as a Way of Life’

Dr John Sellars (Royal Holloway, University of London),  'Aristotle and Philosophy as a Way of Life' Abstract Pierre Hadot famously stated that in antiquity philosophy was understood primarily as a way of life. At first glance, it is far from clear that Aristotle understood philosophy in this way. If Aristotle turned out not to fit […]

Professor Voula Tsouna, “Issues in Epicurean philosophy of mind and science: The method of multiple explanations in Epicureanism”

Professor Voula Tsouna (University of California), "Issues in Epicurean philosophy of mind and science: The method of multiple explanations in Epicureanism" Abstract I intend to examine an original and important feature of Epicurean science, namely the method of multiple explanations.  The Epicureans claim that, in certain contexts, several alternative explanatory hypotheses may be advanced which may prove […]

Professor Voula Tsouna, “Issues in Epicurean philosophy of mind and science: The Epicurean notion of ‘επιβολή'”

Professor Voula Tsouna (University of California), "Issues in Epicurean philosophy of mind and science: The Epicurean notion of ‘επιβολή'" Abstract The surviving writings of Epicurus and his followers contain several references to epibolê  - a puzzling notion that does not receive discussion in the extant Epicurean texts, even though it is known to have been debated within […]

Sarah Broadie, “Putting mathematics in its place in Plato’s Republic”

British School at Athens, Upper House 52 Souedias Street, Athens, Greece

Professor Sarah Broadie (University of St. Andrews), "Putting mathematics in its place in Plato’s Republic" The discussion will centre on two questions: (a) what to make of the inferiority of mathematics to dialectic (the main locus for this is the Divided Line in Book VI)? And (b) what is the real purpose of the mathematical […]

Sarah Broadie, “What has Plato’s Divided Line to do with his Sun-image of the good?”

Elli Lambridis Philosophical Library Athens, Greece

Professor Sarah Broadie (University of St Andrews), "What has Plato's Divided Line to do with his Sun-image of the good?" We know from the text that there is a close connection, but Plato leaves us with the task of working out exactly what it is. The explanation involves (of course) the so called dialectical method, […]