Archive for August, 2011
The University of Toronto Colloquium in Mediaeval Philosophy 2011
Friday, September 23
Session I (4:30 – 6:30)
Chair: Scott MacDonald (Cornell University)
Speaker: Jennifer Ashworth (University of Waterloo): “Aquinas, Scotus and Others on Naming, Knowing, and the Origin of Language”
Commentator: Giorgio Pini (Fordham University)
Saturday, September 24
Session II (10:00 – 12:00)
Chair: Bob Sweetman (Institute for Christian Studies, Toronto)
Speaker: Susan Brower-Toland (St. Louis University): “Medieval Approaches to Consciousness: Ockham and Chatton”
Commentator: Richard Cross (University of Notre Dame)
Session III (2:00 – 4:00)
Chair: Matthew Siebert (University of Toronto)
Eric Hagedorn (University of Notre Dame): “Ockham’s Mental Language and the Dispute over the Subject of Scientia”
Jennifer Pelletier (Université du Québec à Montréal): “Metaphysics and the Categories in Ockham”
Rachel Bauder (University of Toronto): “Naming Caesar: Siger of Brabant on Proper Names”
Session IV (4:15 – 6:15)
Chair: David Piché (Université de Montréal)
Speaker: Jack Zupko (University of Winnipeg): “Contextualizing the Self-Knowledge Question in Later Medieval Philosophy”
Commentator: Neil Lewis (Georgetown University)
All sessions will be held in room 100 of the Jackman Humanities Building (170 St. George Street).
All sessions are free and open to the public.
Registration and inquiries: medieval_dot_philosophy_at_utoronto_dot_ca
The colloquium is sponsored by the Department of Philosophy, the Collaborative Program in Ancient and Medieval Studies, and the Centre for Medieval Studies
Organizers: Deborah Black, Peter King, Martin Pickavé
Events 2011-2012
Tuesday, September 20
David Sedley (Cambridge University): “Sphericity”; UC 179, 4-6pm (This event will be followed by a beginning-of-the-year reception.)
Wednesday, September 21
David Sedley (Cambridge University): “Socrates’ ‘Second Voyage’ at Plato, Phaedo 99d-102a”; LI 220, 4-6pm
Thursday, September 22
David Sedley (Cambridge University): “The unity of virtue in Plato after the Protagoras”; JHB 418, 3-5pm
Friday/Saturday, September 23/24
Friday, October 28
Paul Woodruff (University of Texas): “Eros at the Core of Philosophy”; JHB 418, 3-5pm
Friday, November 25
Philipp Brüllmann (Humboldt University Berlin): “Stoic Ethics and Accordance with Nature”; JHB 418, 3-5pm
Kara Richardson (Syracuse University): “Avicenna on Final Causation and Cognition”; JHB 401, 10-12pm
(This talk is organized by the Modern Philosophy Research Group and co-sponsored by the Collaborative Program.)
Wednesday, March 7
Jim Lennox (University of Pittsburgh): “Accentuate the Negative: A Puzzle about the Structure of Darwin’s Origin Solved”; IHPST, 5-7pm
(This talk is organized by the Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology and co-sponsored by the Collaborative Program.)
Thursday, March 8
Jim Lennox (University of Pittsburgh): “Why do we breathe? Aristotle on the hunt for final causes”; JHB 418, 5-7pm
(This talk is co-sponsored by the Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology.)
Friday, March 9
Iakovos Vasiliou (Graduate Center, CUNY): “Nous and its Objects in Aristotle”; LI 220, 2-4pm
Friday/Saturday/Sunday, March 16/17/18
Thursday, April 5
Rusty Jones (Harvard University): “Felix Socrates?”; JHB 418, 3-5pm
Friday, April 27
Mary Louise Gill (Brown University): “Knowledge as Expertise in Plato’s Theaetetus”; JHB 418, 4-6pm
Wednesday, May 30
Francesco Ademollo (University of Florence): “Plato’s Conception of Change: Some Remarks”; JHB 401, 1-3pm
Lloyd Gerson elected to the RSC
Longtime CPAMP faculty member Lloyd Gerson has been elected to the Royal Society of Canada. Congratulations Lloyd! The Royal Society now counts two CPAMP members among its fellows (the other one is Brad Inwood).
Ancient Philosophy and Science Network
Ancient Philosophy at UofT is now part of the Ancient Science and Philosophy Network coordinated by the Graduate School of Ancient Philosophy at the Humboldt University Berlin. More information to come.
Brad Inwood’s new translation of Seneca
Fresh from the press: Brad Inwood’s translation of Seneca’s On Benefits (with M. Griffith). The volume is part of Chicago University Press’ Complete Works of Lucius Annaeus Seneca series. For more information go to: http://www.press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/O/bo3773596.html
Two Books by Former CPAMP Students
Brian Dobell’s “Augustine’s Intellectual Conversion: The Journey from Platonism to Christianity” has come out with Cambridge University Press and Tom Angier’s “Techne in Aristotle’s Ethics: Crafting the Moral Life” was published by Continuum Press. Congratulations!!
A new Cambridge History of Philosophy in Late Antiquity edited by Lloyd Gerson
“The Cambridge History of Philosophy in Late Antiquity comprises over forty specially commissioned essays by experts on the philosophy of the period 200–800 CE. Designed as a successor to The Cambridge History of Later Greek and Early Medieval Philosophy (ed. A. H. Armstrong), it takes into account some forty years of scholarship since the publication of that volume. The contributors examine philosophy as it entered literature, science and religion, and offer new and extensive assessments of philosophers who until recently have been mostly ignored. The volume also includes a complete digest of all philosophical works known to have been written during this period. It will be an invaluable resource for all those interested in this rich and still emerging field.”
Events 2010-2011
Friday, September 17
Matt Evans (New York University): “Making the Best of Plato’s Protagoras (on Theaetetus 151e-184b)”; JHB 418, 4-5pm
Friday, September 24 – Saturday, September 25
The University of Toronto Colloquium in Medieval Philosophy
Tuesday, October 5
David Charles (Oxford University): “Aristotle on Practical Knowledge”; JHB 418, 5-7pm
Thursday, October 21
John Marenbon (Trinity College, Cambridge): “The Problem of Paganism I: Peter Abelard and John of Salisbury”; Alumni Hall 400, 4-6pm
(Organized by the Centre for Medieval Studies)
Thursday, October 28
Dominik Perler (Humboldt University, Berlin): “Metaphysical Limits to Radical Doubts: Medieval Debates on Skeptical Hypotheses”; JHB 418, 5-7pm
Tuesday, November 2
M.M. McCabe (King’s College, London): “Look, see! Plato on moral vision”; JHB 100, 3-5pm
Wednesday, November 3
M.M. McCabe (King’s College, London): “Waving or drowning? Socrates and the sophists on self-knowledge in the Euthydemus“; LI 205, 4-6pm
Thursday, November 4
M.M. McCabe (King’s College, London): “Aristotle on Plato on knowing that I know“; JHB 418, 3-5pm
Saturday, November 13
Oxford Handbook of Medieval Philosophy Colloquium (This event was organized by the Centre for Medieval Studies and John Marenbon)
Contributors included: Andrew Arlig, Margaret Cameron, Christophe Erismann, Peter King, Taneli Kukkonen, John Marenbon, Chris Martin, Claude Panaccio, Paul Thom, Ian Wilks.
Tuesday, November 16
Stefan Schmid (Humboldt University, Berlin): “Finality without Final Causes – On Suarez’ Account of Natural Teleology”; JHB 418, 5-7pm
Wednesday, December 1
Devin Henry (University of Western Ontario): “Optimization and Teleology in Ancient Greek Science”; IHPST
(Jointly organized by the Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology and CPAMP)
Friday, December 3
John Marenbon (Trinity College, Cambridge): “The Problem of Paganism II: Dante on Boccaccio”; Alumni Hall 400, 4-6pm
(Organized by the Centre for Medieval Studies)
Friday, January 14
Richard Kraut (Northwestern University): “An Aesthetic Reading of Aristotle’s Ethics”; LI 220, 4-6pm
Thursday, February 17
Pieter Sjoerd Hasper (Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, Munich): “Between Perception and Scientific Knowledge: Aristotle’s Account of Experience”; JHB 418, 5-7pm
Friday, March 26 – Saturday, March 27
The Toronto Annual Workshop in Ancient Philosophy “Aspects of Aristotelian Ethics”
Friday
Session 1 (9:20-11:00): Dorothea Frede (UC Berkeley) “The Endoxon Mystique”; Commentator: Tim Clarke (Yale University)
Session 2 (11:20-1:00): Brooks Sommerville (University of Toronto) “Aristotle on Unqualified Akrasia and the Pleasures of Touch”; Commentator: Susan Meyer (University of Pennsylvania)
Session 3 (2:50-4:30): Jennifer Whiting (University of Toronto) “Life, pleasure and being active together (EE 7.12 and NE 9.9)”; Commentator: Brad Inwood (University of Toronto)
Session 4 (5:00-6:40): Sarah Broadie (St. Andrews) “Practical Truth in Aristotle”; Commentator: Ben Morison (Princeton University)
Saturday
Session 5 (9:30-11:10): Iakovos Vasiliou (CUNY Graduate Centre) “Aristotle, Agents, and Actions”; Commentator: Juan Pineros (University of Toronto)
Session 6 (11:20-1:00): Daniel Russell (Wichita State University) “Aristotelian Virtue Theory: After the Person-Situation Debate’; Commentator: Emily Fletcher (University of Toronto)
Thursday, April 8
Philip Horky (Centre for Hellenic Studies) “Pythagorean Predication? Philolaus of Croton on Preexistence”; LI 205, 4-6pm
Events 2009-2010
Friday, September 11
Dominic Scott (University of Virginia): “Examples of rhetoric in Plato’s Phaedrus”; LI 205, 3-5pm
Thursday, September 17 – Saturday, September 19
The University of Toronto Colloquium in Medieval Philosophy “‘Things in the Mind’ – A Workshop on Medieval Cognitive Psychology”
Thursday, October 22
Claudio Moreschini (University of Pisa): “Apuleius philosophus Platonicus”; LI 205, 4:30-6pm
Friday, October 23
Claudio Moreschini (University of Pisa): “Hermetism in the Twelfth Century”; Alumni Hall 100, 4-6pm
(O’Donnell Lecture in Medieval Studies; organized by the Centre of Medieval Studies)
Thursday, November 5
John Cooper (Princeton University): “Aristotle and Philosophy as a Way of Life”; JHB 418, 4-6pm
Thursday, November 6
John Cooper (Princeton University): “The Stoic Way of Life”; Centre for Ethics, room 200, 3-5pm
Monday, November 9
George Rudebusch (Northern Arizona University): “Shooting in the dark: Socrates on the guilt of non-philosophers”; LI 301, 4-6pm
Wednesday, January 13
Sylvia Berryman (University of British Columbia): “How Many Philosophers Does it Take to Haul a Ship? Thoughts on the Philosophical Reception of Ancient Greek Mechanics”; VC 323, 4-6pm
(Jointly organized by the Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology and CPAMP)
Monday, March 9
Francesco Fronterotta (Università del Salento, Lecce): “Do the gods play dice? Sensible sequentialism and fuzzy logic in Plato’s Timaeus”; LI 301, 4-6pm
Thursday, March 11
Timothy Noone (Catholic University of America): “Of Angels and Men: sketches from high medieval epistemology”; Alumni Hall 400, 4-6pm
(Etienne Gilson Lecture; organized by the Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies)
Friday, March 12
Timothy Noone (Catholic University of America): “Editing Scotus: Problems and Prospects”; LI 301, 4-6pm
Friday, March 26 – Sunday, March 28
The Toronto Annual Workshop in Ancient Philosophy “Perceiving ourselves (and one another) perceiving”
Events 2008-2009
Wednesday, September 24
Marko Malink (Humboldt University, Berlin) “A non-extensional notion of conversion in the Organon”; JHB 418, 4-6pm
Friday, September 19 – Saturday, September 20
The University of Toronto Colloquium in Medieval Philosophy
Tuesday, October 14
Phil Mitsis (NYU) “Epicurus, Locke, and the History of the Will”; LI 205, 5-7pm
Thursday, October 16
Phil Mitsis (NYU) “Locke and the Problematic Legacy of Hellenistic Philosophy”; JHB 418, 3-5pm
Friday, November 28
Klaus Corcilius (Humboldt University, Berlin) “Aristotle on Pleasure and Desire”; JHB 418, 3-5pm
Wednesday, December 3
Ludger Honnefelder (University of Bonn) “On the Voluntarism of John Duns Scotus”; JHB 418, 3-5pm
Workshop “Time and Consciousness in Philebus and related texts”
David Bronstein (Oxford/Boston College) “Aristotle on Memory, Self, and Consciousness”
Ursula Coope (Oxford) “Determining One’s Desires for Oneself: Aquinas, Epistrophe and the Will”
Emily Fletcher (Toronto) “Animal Pleasures and the Human Good”
Dorothea Frede (Berkeley) “Puppets on Strings: Moral Psychology in Laws I and II”
Verity Harte (Yale) “Desire and the Soul: Philebus 35cd”
Christoph Helmig (Berlin) “Painter and Scribe in Plato’s Files”
Karel Thein (Prague) “Editing the Book of the Soul: Imagination and Self Awareness at Philebus”
Earlier events
The program in Ancient and Medieval Philosophy has a long tradition of bringing in leading specialists in the field to give public lectures, seminars, and often guest presentations in graduate classes. Among these distinguished visitors over the years have been: Julia Annas, Jonathan Barnes, Myles Burnyeat, Alan Code, Terence Irwin, Thomas Johansen, John Kilcullen, Norman Kretzmann, Scott MacDonald, Martha Nussbaum, Malcolm Schofield, Nicholas Smith, Richard Sorabji, Paul Spade, Leonardo Taran, and Martin Tweedale.
In more recent years the line-up has been equally impressive. This is a partial listing:
2003
Gisela Striker (Harvard University) “Plato and the Ontology of Aristotle’s Categories (ch. 2)”
John Palmer (University of Florida) “Truth and Necessity in Parmenides”
2004
A.A. Long (UC Berkeley) “Greek Models of the Mind: Epictetus on understanding and managing emotions”, “Eudaimonism, rationality and divinity in Greek ethics,” and “Neoplatonic well-being: Plotinus on Happiness (Ennead 1.4)”
Iakovos Vasiliou (CUNY Graduate Centre)
James Allen (Pittsburgh University) “Aristotle on the disciplines of argument: rhetoric, dialectic, analytic”
Sten Ebbesen (University of Copenhagen)
2005
Chris Bobonich (Stanford University) “Plato on Akrasia and Knowing One’s Own Mind”
The University of Toronto Colloquium in Medieval Philosophy
Conference “Plato and the Divided Self” with the following participants
Jonathan Lear (University of Chicago) “The Socratic Method and Psychoanalysis”
Jennifer Whiting (University of Toronto) “Psychic Contingency in Plato”
André Laks (Université Lille III) “En quel sens l’homme est-il une marionnette pour Platon?”
Rachana Kamtekar (University of Arizona) “Speaking with the same voice as reason”
Raphael Woolf (Harvard University) “How to See an Unencrusted Soul”
Louis-André Dorion (Université Montréal) “Enkrateia and partition of the soul in the Gorgias”
Dominic Scott (Cambridge University) “The Tyrant and Eros”
2006
Harold Tarrant “The Platonic Alcibiades I and its place in the History of Platonism”
Terry Penner (University of Wisconsin) “Plato and the Philosophers of Language”
Hans Baltussen (Adelaide/IAS) “Simplicius”
The University of Toronto Colloquium in Medieval Philosophy
Workshop “Aristotle on Knowledge and Akrasia” with the following participants:
Karen Nielsen (University of Western Ontario) “Aristotle’s internalist concept of decision”
Paula Gottlieb (University of Wisconsin, Madison) “What kind of mistake does the akratic make?”
Hendrik Lorenz (Princeton University) “Aristotle’s version of the association of ideas”
Jozef Muller (Princeton University) “Tug of War: Aristotle onAkrasia.”
Jessica Moss (University of Pittsburgh) “The presently pleasant appears absolutely pleasant and absolutely good”
David Bronstein (University of Toronto) “Knowing the universal without the particular”
David Charles (Oxford Univ.) “Like the drunk repeating the verses of Empedocles”
Martin Pickave and Jennifer Whiting (University of Toronto) “Akrasia explained from the point of view proper to its nature”
2007
Christian Wildberg (Princeton University) “Lucretius and Plotinus on Evil”
Sarah Broadie (University of St. Andrews) “Divine and Natural Causation in the Timaeus”
Gabor Betegh (Central Eureopean University) “The boy and the man: the less prominent sense of priority of actuality according to substance in Aristotle’s Metaphysics Θ”, “Tale, theology, and Teleology in the Phaedo”, and “The Derveni Papyrus and Early Stoicism”
Donald R. Morrison (Rice University) “Analysis in Alcinous”
The University of Toronto Colloquium in Medieval Philosophy
We also celebrated the publication of the final volume in Toronto’s Phoenix Presocratics series with a conference featuring:
Carl Huffman (DePauw University) “Aristoxenus’ Account of Pythagoras and the Early Pythagoreans”
Patricia Curd (Purdue University) “Minding the Cosmos”
Daniel Graham (Brigham Young University) “Leucippus’ Atomism”
Conference “Self and Consciousness from Plato to Kant” with the following participants
Rachel Barney (Toronto) “The Platonic Self and the Limits of Perception”
Hendrik Lorenz (Princeton) “Aristotle on the unity of the perceiving subject”
Jennifer Whiting (Toronto) “The Lockeanism of Aristotle”
Dominik Perler (Humboldt University, Berlin) “One Soul and Many Parts: Medieval Debates on the Plurality of Faculties”
Calvin Normore (UCLA) “Avicenna’s Self and Olivi’s Personality: On Reflection”
Christia Mercer (Columbia University) “Leibniz on Self and Consciousness: The Self as a Footprint of God”
Gideon Yaffe (USC) “Beyond the Brave Officer: Reid on the Unity of the Mind and Locke’s Theory of Personal Identity”
Stephen Engstrom (Pittsburgh) “Unity of Apperception”
Claude Panaccio (Université du Québec à Montréal) “Ockham’s Externalism”
George Boys-Stones (Durham University, UK) “Creative Thinking: Forms and Demiurgy in the Platonist Revival”
Donald R. Morrison (Rice University) “Aristotle and the common good and the eudaimonia of the polis”
Ockham Mini-Conference
Workshop to launch the Cambridge History of Philosophy in Later Antiquity; in addition to several local participants the workshop’s speakers were John Dillon, Andrew Smith, Catherine Osborne, Frans De Haas, Harold Tarrant, Angela Longo, Stephen Gersh, Jan Opsomer, John Finamore, and many others.
Events 2012-2013
Thursday, September 13
Dominik Perler (Humboldt University, Berlin): “Suárez on Consciousness”; JHB 100, 3-5pm (This event will be followed by a beginning-of-the-year reception in JHB 100A)
Friday/Saturday, September 21/22
Thursday, September 27
George Boys-Stones (Durham University): “Platonism and the Metaphysics of Providence”; JHB 418, 3-5pm
Thursday, October 18
Susan Sauvé Meyer (University of Pennsylvania): “Virtue and Self-Mastery in Plato’s Laws”; JHB 418, 3-5pm
Friday, October 19
Susan Sauvé Meyer (University of Pennsylvania): “Aristotle on what is up to us”; JHB 418, 3-5pm
Sunday, November 11 and Monday, November 14
Workshop “Hylomorphism in Aristotle and Kant” (organized by Jennifer Whiting).
Speakers and commentators: Alessandro Bonello (University of Toronto), Jessica Gelber (Syracuse University), David Bronstein (Georgetown University), David Charles (Oxford University), Robert Howton (University of Toronto), Marko Malink (University of Chicago), Jennifer Whiting (University of Toronto), Aryeh Kosman (Haverford College), Hendrik Lorenz (Princeton University), Matthew Boyle (Harvard University), Stephan Schmid (Humboldt Universität Berlin), Ian Blecher (University of Pittsburgh), Stephen Engstrom (University of Pittsburgh), Kelin Emmett (University of Toronto), Ariel Zylberman (University of Toronto).
Friday, November 23
Richard Taylor (Marquette University): “Averroes on the Philosophical Account of Prophecy”; JHB 418, 1-3pm
Friday, March 1
Stefan Schick (University of Regensburg): “Boethius of Dacia and the Truth about Nonexistent Objects”; JHB 418, 3-5pm
Friday/Saturday/Sunday, March 15-17
Tuesday, March 26
Michael Griffin (University of British Columbia): “Commentary as Philosophy: The Neoplatonists’ Renewal of an Aristotelian Method”; JHB 418, 3-5pm
Monday, April 22
Gabor Betegh (CEU Budapest): “Pythagoreans and Orphics”; JHB 418, 3-5pm
Events 2013-2014
Tuesday, September 10
Tony Long (Berkeley): “Plotinus II.4: What is the matter with matter?”; JHB 100, 3-5pm (This event will be followed by a beginning-of-the-year reception)
Friday/Saturday, September 20/21
Tuesday, October 15
Richard Sorabji (Wolfson College, Oxford): “Gandhi and the Stoics”; Centre for Ethics, Room 200, 4-6pm (This event is organized by the Centre for Ethics and co-sponsored by the Collaborative Program.)
Wednesday, October 16
A panel featuring Richard Sorabji, Akeel Bilgrami (Philosophy, Columbia University), Brad Inwood (Classics and Philosophy, University of Toronto), and Ramin Jahanbegloo (Political Science, York University); Centre for Ethics, Room 200, 10-12 (This event is organized by the Centre for Ethics and co-sponsored by the Collaborative Program.)
Wednesday, October 16
Christopher J. Martin (University of Auckland): “Inconvenient Consequences: Peter Abaelard’s Revolution in Logic and its Failure, Part I”; LI 310, 3-5pm (Prof. Martin is this year’s CMS/PIMS Distinguished Visitor and his events are co-sponsored by the Collaborative Program.)
Thursday, October 17
A half-day workshop with Richard Sorabji based on
Gandhi and the Stoics and select readings from Gandhi, Cicero and Epictetus. Pre-registration required (see
here for details). Centre for Ethics, Room 200, 9-12:30 (This event is organized by the Centre for Ethics and co-sponsored by the Collaborative Program.)
Friday, October 25
Christopher J. Martin (University of Auckland): “Inconvenient Consequences: Peter Abaelard’s Revolution in Logic and its Failure, Part II”; location LI 310, 1-3pm (Prof. Martin is this year’s CMS/PIMS Distinguished Visitor and his events are co-sponsored by the Collaborative Program.)
Friday, November 1
Christopher J. Martin (University of Auckland): “Flights of Fancy: Some Thirteenth-Century Discussions of the Certainty of Self-Knowledge”; Alumni Hall 400, 4pm (Prof. Martin is this year’s CMS/PIMS Distinguished Visitor and his events are co-sponsored by the Collaborative Program.) (This event will be followed by a reception.)
Thursday, November 28
André Laks (Universidad Panamericana, Mexico): “Without Socrates: Ethical Patterns in Presocratic Thought”; University College, 4:30-6pm (Prof. Laks will give UC’s Stubbs Lecture, his visit is co-sponsored by the Collaborative Program.)
Thursday, December 5
André Laks (Universidad Panamericana, Mexico): “Bones, points and the soul: an analogy in Aristotle’s De motu animalium“; JHB 401, 10am-12pm
Friday/Saturday/Sunday, March 21-23
Annual Toronto Workshop in Ancient Philosophy
Wednesday, March 26
Mariska Leunissen (University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill): “Teleology and Necessity in Aristotle’s Account of the Natural and Moral Imperfections of Women”; IHPST, 12-2pm (This event is co-sponsored by the Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology.)
Wednesday, April 23
Deborah Roberts (Haverford College): “Translating the Obscene: the Unexpurgated in an era of Expurgation”; location TBA, 4-6pm (This and the following event are jointly organized by the Department of Classics and the Collaborative Program.)
Thursday, April 24
Aryeh Kosman (Haverford College): “Why the Gods Love the Holy: Euthyphro 10-11″; JHB 418, 3-5pm
Tuesday, May 13
Jacob Schmutz (Université Paris Sorbonne – Abu Dhabi): TBA; JHB 418, 3-5pm
