PRM I (8-10 December 2022):

Towards a History

The period 100 BCE to 200 CE saw some of the most far-reaching innovations in Western philosophical history, including a striking efflorescence of philosophy in the Mediterranean, especially in the east; old systems were revitalized through discussion and debate with new (including Christianity). But what makes this period exciting also makes it difficult to describe: unlike both the preceding and subsequent periods, there are no central institutions or school-heads to provide authoritative reference-points for how (or even with whom) members of a given school might normally be expected to argue. The consequence is that this whole period is very poorly represented in our histories. This project envisages a series of workshops working towards the first true history of philosophy in the Roman Mediterranean. It brings together a team of scholars to explore ways of mapping post-Hellenistic philosophy in all the complexity that makes it both interesting and important, and establishing terms in which its story can be told.

Thursday, 8th December 2022 | JHB 1040

2:30 - Welcome

2:45 - Leo Catana (Copenhagen): The Historiography of Philosophies Developed between 100 BCE and 200 CE

4:15 - Nathan Gilbert (Durham): Sulla's Sack of Athens and its Implications for the Study of Philosophy in the First Century CE

Friday, 9th December 2022 | JHB 418

10:30 - Matthias Haake (Münster): Philosophy on Stone: Use and Meaning of Philosophy in Epigraphical Texts

12 - Madalina Dana (Lyon): The Philosophical Schools in the Epigraphic Evidence: Cultural Geography and Social History

1:30 - Break for lunch

3:30 - Bjorn Ewald (Toronto): Philosophy and Philosophers in the Hellenistic and Roman Worlds: Visual and Material Evidence for their Reception

5 - Myrto Hatzimichali (Cambridge): Philosophy and Miscellany in the Roman Mediterranean

Saturday, 10th December 2022 | JHB 418

10 - Andreas Bendlin (Toronto): Philosophy and Religion in the ‘Long’ Second Century CE: Problematizing their Relationship

11:30 - René Brouwer (Utrecht): Post-Hellenistic Philosophers and Early Imperial Jurists: A Comparative Approach

1-1:30 - Round-table: final reflections and future directions.

This workshop was organized by George Boys-Stones and supported financially by SSHRC and, at the University of Toronto, the Office of the Vice-President (International) and the Collaborative Specialization in Ancient and Medieval Philosophy (CSAMP).

The second in our workshop series Philosophy in the Roman Mediterranean will address the challenge of coordinating evidence for philosophical activity in the Post-Hellenistic period which is historically located but theoretically conservative with evidence for theoretical activity that is innovative but hard to locate historically. You may register for the event for free.