Plato’s Inner-academic Teachings in the Light of New Research

At the core of Plato’s inner-academic teachings lies his metaphysic. The questions, however, how this metaphysic is to be understood in detail and how it relates to the Old Academy have been controversially disputed throughout the 20th and 21st century. Recently, there have been numerous seminal new publications concerned with these questions. The conference aims to concentrate and to openly discuss the current state of research, thereby letting different positions enter in dialogue with one another. The programme places Plato’s inner-academic teachings in a broad systematic and historic context. In particular, the relation of the Theory of Principles to ethics, political philosophy and mathematics are discussed, besides further selected philosophemes. Furthermore, the tradition of the Old Academy as well as crucial questions concerning sources will be addressed. Finally, the conference aims to identify future fields and questions of research regarding Plato’s inner-academic teachings. The conference is generously funded by the Fritz Thyssen Stiftung and is supported by the Philosophy Department of Heidelberg University. Time: 01–03 December 2022 Venue: International Academic Forum Heidelberg (IWH) Concept and Organisation: Christoph Poetsch, Tobias Dangel Registration. Since seats at the venue are limited, registration for in person-participation is mandatory. In order to do so, please send a message to christoph.poetsch@uni-heidelberg.de. Please indicate, with respect to the limitations of seats, on which days you plan to participate in person. The talks will be streamed online. For online-participation please write a message to the address indicated above as well.

 

Programme

 

Day 1. 01 December 2022

13:00   Welcome Remarks and Introduction

            Peter McLaughlin (Heidelberg)

            Tobias Dangel (Heidelberg)

            Christoph Poetsch (Heidelberg)

A. Mathematics

13:30   Dmitri Nikulin (New York)

Plato on the Structure and Constitution of Number

14:30   Thomas Auffret (Paris)

Mathematical Approximation and Philosophical Knowledge

15:30   Break

B. The Theory of Principles and Selected Philosophemes

16:00   Benedikt Strobel (Trier)

Prinzipien und ihre Bestimmungen – Überlegungen zu ihrem ontologischen Verhältnis in Platons Theorie Περὶ τἀγαθοῦ

17:00   Christoph Poetsch (Heidelberg)

„Das All mit sich selbst zusammenbinden“? Symposion 202e und die prinzipientheoretischen Konsequenzen für den Teilhabe-Begriff

18:00   Break

18:15   Marwan Rashed (Paris)

Some remarks on the beginning of the second part of Timaeus’ monologue (47E3–48E4)

 

Day 2. 02 December 2022

C. Ethics and Political Philosophy

09:00   Alan Kim (New York)

Why the One is Good

10:00   Raúl Gutiérrez (Lima)

Gerechtigkeit, Koinonia und Einheit. Zu den prinzipientheoretischen Grundlagen der praktischen Philosophie Platons

11:00   Break

11:30   Lloyd P. Gerson (Toronto)

The Metaphysical Foundation of Plato’s Ethics

12:30   Lunch Break

D. The Old Academy and the Early Tradition

14:30   Gheorghe Paşcalău (Leuven)

Das Ordnungsprinzip des Vorher und Nachher (πρότερον καὶ ὕστερον) bei Aristoteles und in der Alten Akademie

15:30   Franco Ferrari (Pavia)

Zur Rezeption der Prinzipienlehre des Timaios in der Alten Akademie

16:30   Break

17:00   Carl S. O’Brien (Heidelberg)

The Inner-academic Teachings’ and Platonism’s Attempt to Understand the Intelligible World

18:00   Break

Keynote

18:30   Thomas A. Szlezák (Tübingen)

Platon über das Streben (ephesis) und die Bewegung (kinesis)

 

Day 3. 03 December 2022

E. The Question of Sources in the Context of the Old Academy

09:00   Kilian Fleischer (Würzburg)

Neulesungen in den Platon-Kolumnen des Index Academicorum (PHerc. 1021, Kol. 1–2)

10:00   Irmgard Männlein-Robert (Tübingen)

Literarische und philosophische Aspekte der platonischen Pseudepigrapha im Kontext der Akademie

11:00   Break

11:30   Consolidation and Discussion

12:15   Concluding Remarks