Philosophy
Platonic Commentaries in the Renaissance
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Philosophy
Platonic Commentaries in the Renaissance, London, 11 June 2014
Platonic Commentaries in the Renaissance
Wednesday 11 June 2014
Room 351, Malet Street
Birkbeck,
Room 351, Malet Street
Birkbeck,
University of London
The Platonic translations and commentaries of Marsilio Ficino at the end of the fifteenth century created the conditions for a widespread revival of Platonism in Western Europe throughout the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The texts of Plato and his later followers such as Plotinus, Proclus and Porphyry were linguistically and conceptually unfamiliar and complex, and called for substantial hermeneutic labour on the part of Renaissance scholars. The resulting Platonic commentaries are only now beginning to receive the attention they deserve but much work remains to be done to examine both their contents and the role of the Platonic commentary tradition within the history of philosophy.
Programme
10.30-11.00 Arrival
11.00-12.00 Valery Rees, ?Approaching the Divine: Ficino?s St Paul Commentary?
12.00-1.00 Dilwyn Knox, ?Marsilio Ficino, De amore, 1.3?
1.00-2.00 Lunch
2.00-3.00 Jacomien Prins, ?Harmony and Health in Ficino's Timaeus Commentary?
3.00-4.00 Anna Corrias, ?Interpreting an Exalted Mind: Marsilio Ficino as a Commentator of Plotinus?
4.00-4.30 Tea/Coffee
4.30-5.30 Michael J. B. Allen, ?Marsilio Ficino's commentary on Dionysius the Areopagite?.
This event, organized by Stephen Clucas and John Sellars, is free and open to all.
To book a place please email either [email protected] or [email protected].
With the generous support of
To book a place please email either [email protected] or [email protected].
With the generous support of
the Birkbeck Institute for the Humanities
- Modern Mencken
Tomorrow is Mencken day at the Enoch Pratt Library, honoring one of the great intellects of Baltimore. Who would be the modern day version of H.L. Mencken? Is there a writer who is smart, ascerbic, conservative, and wry? P.J. O'Rourke? ...
- The Nature Of Genius
What does it mean for one to be a genius? Is genius just the upper end of the really smart continuum? Is there a difference between genius and really, really, really, smart? Is it a difference of kind or degree? Is genius a matter of...
- Can You Really Own A Position?
I've been thinking about the use of the verb to own with respect to an intellectual view. When a student is being wishy-washy about a proposition he or she is arguing for and clearly believes, I'll tell the student to "own the position." ...
- Group E-mail Vs. Spam
Is there a difference between sending an e-mail to a group of people and spam? Is the difference based on the number of people contacted? If so, where is the dividing line between contacting a bunch of folks and sending spam? Or is it...
- Historians, Archaeologists, And Scientists
Are historians scientists? They frame hypotheses about the causes and effects of real events and use empirical evidence to support their accounts. But they don't do not look for regularities to make into laws; to the contrary, they account...