Title: "Harmonizing the Areopagite: Reading and Reception of the Dionysian Corpus in Late Antique Christianity." Abstract: This paper explores how Maximus the Confessor deployed strategies from the Neoplatonic commentary tradition to incorporate the shadowy figure of Dionysius the Areopagite into Christian intellectual vernacular.
A colloquium on John Philoponus organised by Tommaso De Robertis and John Magee. You can attend in person or by Zoom: please use this link to find out more and register
"Hupolêpsis and Hormê: The Stoic Theory of Motivation."
"Augustine on Pulling the Trigger." ABSTRACT. The main philosophical puzzle in Confessions 8 is how someone can want to do something but nevertheless fail to do it. This is, I argue, a problem about what we now call "commitment" and, as such, it is distinct from (but related to) classical problems of weakness of will. […]
Program Thursday, 6 March 2.00-3.15 Mary-Louise Gill (Brown): Craft and Causation in Aristotle’s Theory of Soul Response by Rareş I. Marinescu (Toronto) 3.15-4.30 Caleb Cohoe (Denver): An Internal Light, Not an External Sun: νοῦς ποιητικός in Aristotle’s De Anima III 5 Response by Cal Fried (Toronto) 4.30-4.45 Coffee break 5.00-6.00 Ulysse Chaintreuil (Toronto): Aristotle’s Ontology […]
"Conception and Assent in Post-Classical Arabic Philosophy."
Substantial Confusion: Why Stoic ousia is Not Matter Abstract. There is an underlying debate in the literature over how to understand and translate the term ousia for the Stoics. So far, this debate has taken place primarily in the margins and footnotes of debates about other matters. And yet the interpretive stakes are quite high — […]
Aristotle on Necessity “from an assumption” Abstract: Aristotle thinks there are different ways to be necessary. One way, often called “hypothetical” or “conditional” necessity, is associated with his commitment to teleology: something is hypothetically necessary when it is needed for some end or purpose to be achieved. It is standard orthodoxy that Aristotle’s main […]
Prof. Barney will talk on Protagoras and the Measure Thesis.
Friday, 11 April 9:30-9:40: Welcome, Acknowledgements & Introduction Session 1 | Chair: Myrthe Bartels 9:40-11:00 Tae-Yeoun Keum (UC Santa Barbara): “Plato the Taboo-Breaker: Mythological Incest and Cannibalism in the Republic and Laws” 11:00-12:15 Ryan Balot (Toronto): “Platonic Protreptic and Athenian Democracy” 12:30-13:30: Lunch break (lunch served in Vipond room) Session 2 | Chair: Jason Singer 13:30-14:45 Rachel Wagner […]
Aristotle’s Parva Naturalia FRIDAY, APRIL 25 Session I (2:15 – 3:45pm) Chair: Christian Pfeiffer (Toronto) Klaus Corcilius (Tübingen) “The Soul Itself vs. Common to Body and Soul” Commentator: Brad Inwood (Yale) Session II (4:15 – 5:45pm) Chair: Jim Lennox (Pittsburgh) Claire Bubb (New York University) “Water, Taste, and Nutrition: De sensu 4 and Aristotle’s […]
The third annual Toronto-Torino reading week will be hosted at the British School at Athens, timed to coincide with the Michael Frede Lecture, which this year will be given by Eyjólfur Kjalar Emilsson. The reading group is primarily for CSAMP students (along with graduate students from Turin University), for whom accommodation at the School is […]
The Peripatetic Mechanica and the Inquiry into Nature
Title: The Peripatetic Mechanica and the Inquiry into Nature
Following the first Proseminar of the year.
Title: "Ammonius: the soul's faculties and the introduction of the Rhetoric and Poetics in Aristotle's logical works"
University of Toronto Colloquium in Medieval Philosophy 2025 FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 19 Session I (4:30 – 6:30) Chair: Boris Hennig (Toronto Metropolitan University) Yoav Meyrav (University of Hamburg): “Hasdai Crescas and the Ex Uno Principle” Commentator: Davlat Dadikhuda (Ludwigs-Maximilians University Munich) SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 20 Session II (10:00 – 12:00) Chair: Giorgio Pini (Fordham University) Therese Cory […]
Title: 'What is De anima III.3 about?'
Title: Aristotle on Nutritive (and Generative) Functioning in Plants
Workshop on Aristotle’s Metaphysics Iota (October 2nd – 3rd, 2025) Thursday, Oct. 2: 14.15-14.30: Welcome Chair: Ulysse Chaintreuil 14:30-16:00 Chris Shields (UC San Diego): “Ways to be One“ Chair: Christian Pfeiffer 16:15-17:45 Stephen Menn (McGill / UofT): “Unity in Iota and unity in some other books of the Metaphysics” Friday, Oct. 3 Chair: Jessica Gelber […]
Title: "Natural normativity in Aristotle’s Ethics: a modest ontology?"
Pierre-Marie Morel (Paris 1) will lead a masterclass on "Aristotle’s conception of the right measure and its critics".
Title: Ptolemy's Concept of Simplicity and his Adaptation of Nature Does Nothing in Vain
Title: 'Pointing at Appearances: Plato’s Receptacle and the Problem of Deixis'
Program 9:00–9:15 Arrival & coffee 9:15–10:35 Keynote: Melissa Lane (Princeton): “The archē of nomothesia: contextualizing the emergence of lawgivers in Plato’s Laws” 10:35–10:50 coffee break 10:50–12:05 Myrthe Bartels (Toronto): “Is the Slave Doctor Right? Rival Conceptions of Legislation in Plato’s Laws” 12:15–1:30 lunch break 1:30–2:45 John Proios (Chicago): “Learning from Your Environment: […]
Title: Analogical Concepts: Some Scholastic Background to Kant
Martin Pickavé: Welcome Carl Séan O’Brien (Irish Dominican House of Studies, Dublin): “Lloyd Gerson's Contribution to the Study of Ancient Philosophy” Sarah Klitenic Wear (Franciscan University, Steubenville): “The Skopos of Platonic Principles: Essays in Honor of Lloyd Gerson and Giuseppe Blasotta’s Hen Kai Polla” John Finamore (Iowa): “The constitution of the soul and of the […]
Title: 'The Philosopher in Prison'
Title: "Augustine: The Truth about Lies"
Title: "Plutarch on the Dangers and Benefits of Flattery in Private and Public Contexts"