Home » 2024 (Page 3)
Yearly Archives: 2024
A Review of Plato in Poland 1800-1950
It is our honour to announce that the second review of the book Plato in Poland 1800-1950. Types of Reception – Authors – Problems (Academia, Baden Baden 2021) has just seen the light of day (the first one was announced here). The review was published in “Revue Philosophique de Louvain” 2023 (vol. 120, 1).
The review was kindly composed by professor Sylvain Delcomminette (Université Libre de Bruxelles). Professor Delcomminette is an expert in Plato’s philosophy, his current research topics include the reception of Platonism in the Marburg neo-Kantian school and specific issues in the philosophy of Aristotle. For us, one of the most important conclusions in prof. Delcomminette’s review is that the reader of this book will not get bored. Thus our task is done.
Full text of the review can be downloaded from the journal’s website
(with a personal account) here.
Vilnius and Ancient Philosophy
Institute of Philosophy, University of Zielona Góra (UZ), has for many years developed co-operation with Vilnius University (VU) in the framework of Erasmus+ programme. UZ philosophers, members of the faculty or students, visit Vilnius, and VU philosophers visit Zielona Góra almost every academic year, as we have recently reported here and here.
On Feb. 6-7th representatives of AΦR (Tomasz Mróz) and academic staff of the Institute (Justyna Kroczak, Joanna Zegzuła-Nowak) paid a working visit to Vilnius philosophers to discuss possibilities of expanding future research co-operation on the topics related to the reception of ancient philosophy.
Visiting group was given a tour of the old library of VU. The visit was an opportunity for UZ scholars to investigate possibilitites of a library query in special collections of VU and to learn the library regulations and new restrictions for readers who research manuscripts and old prints.
On the photo: J. Kroczak, T. Mróz, J. Zegzuła-Nowak in the historic Franciszek Smuglewicz Hall, VU, the old library.
The trip to Vilnius was funded from the “Small Grant” allocated last year to T. Mróz by the Deputy Rector of the University of Zielona Góra.
A paper on Polish translations of Plato
The latest issue of the “Revue de philosophie ancienne” (2023/2, vol. XLI) includes a paper by T. Mróz: Polish Translations of Plato’s Dialogues from the Beginnings to the Mid-Twentieth Century.
In his paper T. Mróz focuses on four most significant translators of Plato’s dialogues in Poland. They were: Felicjan Antoni Kozłowski (1805-1870), who was the first translator of Plato into Polish; Antoni Bronikowski (1817-1884), who was the most productive in the 19th century and kept on working on Plato in spite of unfavourable reviews; Stanisław Lisiecki (1872-1960), whose numerous translations remained unpublished; and finally Władysław Witwicki (1878-1948), whose renderings of the dialogues are still widely read. The paper presents their achievements and discusses the reception of their works.
Anyone whishing to receive an offprint should feel free to request it from the author via email.
“Oral History and the Classics” Team in Poznań
On Dec. 5th, 2023, Oral History and the Classics project team enjoyed the honour to visit Professor Marian Andrzej Wesoły at his home, in the vicinity of Poznań. Prof. Wesoły agreed to give an interview which will be included in the Oral History and the Classics collection on the website of the University of Hradec Králové.
Marian Wesoły is currently a professor emeritus of Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań and lectures at the Jacob of Paradies Academia in Gorzów Wielkopolski. His entire academic career in Poland was connected to Poznań and Adam Mickiewicz University. His doctoral (1977) and postdoctoral (1992) dissertations were devoted to the history of Greek philosophy. In 2008 he received the title of a full professor. He was granted several foreign scholarships, e.g. in Italy (1980: University of Padova, 1983: Italian Institute for History in Naples, 1997: Villa I Tatti), Germany (1986/87: University of Tübingen), and Greece (1993, 2000, 2012: Academy of Athens). Prof. Wesoły is a co-founder of the „Peitho. Examina Antiqua” journal. For 20 years he has regularly participated in the Eleatica-Symposia, initiated by Prof. Livio Rossetti at the Alario Foundation in Ascea, close to the ruins of ancient Elea/Velia. Finally, we should mention that on the 100th anniversary of the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań (2019) he was awarded Knight’s Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta.
Prof. Wesoły is a specialist in Greco-Roman and Byzantine philosophies. In his numerous works he attempts to combine philological analyses with philosophical interpretation. Moreover, he is active as a translator and one of his most recent productions is a bilingual edition and commentary of Aristotle’s Analytica Priora et Posteriora (2020).
During the interview prof. Wesoły reflected on his academic and research curriculum, but also shared his views on perspectives of his discipline, on political constraints in researching ancient philosophy, recalled his memories of the great scholars whom had the opportunity to meet and with whom he collaborated etc. When the whole recording is edited and furnished with English subtitles, it will be make public and available on the project’s website.
The interview meeting with prof. Wesoły would not be possible without his kind consent and warm welcome of the team members by his family at their home. Those were Tomasz Mróz and Jaroslav Daneš who carried out the interview, while Jan Kadeřábek, a cinematographer and a cameraman, took care of all the technicalities.
Recent commentaries