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AΦR at Classical Studies Workshop in Greece
Two members of AΦR Group, together with an AΦR friend, took part in Classical Studies Workshop in Greece. This tour event took place in the first ten days of October and was organised by The Sant-Tech Foundation in co-operation with Catholic University of Lublin (KUL).
It was an unforgettable tour of Greece from Athens to Thessaloniki, including Delphi, Marathon, Meteora, Pella, Stageira and many more places of archeological interest, many of which being extremely important for philosophers and historians of philosophy, e.g. Plato’s Academy, Aristotle’s Lycaeum, ancient Stageira or Nymphaeum in Mieza. The whole stay and the journey were carefully planned by Katarzyna Kołakowska and Lesław Lesyk (both of KUL and Sant-Tech Foundation), who smoothly adapted the workshop’s schedule to unexpected conditions.
The chronological order of the papers delivered by participants from Zielona Góra is: 1) Was the First Computer Designed by the Greeks? (M. Kurzawa, at the footsteps of the National Archaeological Museum of Athens; third from the left in the photo below). The speaker focused on the history of research on the Antikythera mechanism, which is preserved in this Museum, and its unbelievable construction. 2) Aristotle in the Lycaeum (T. Mróz, in the archeological site of… Aristotle’s Lycaeum; first on the right) discussed briefly the excavations in this location and presented the outlines of the history of the Philosopher’s school.
Due to unfavourable weather conditions the following presentations were delivered en route to Thessaloniki, that is, on the bus: 3) Aristotle on the Beach (M. Kurzawa) was a paper devoted to Aristotle’s works in natural sciences and focused on his anecdotal scientific curiosity which gave rise to his theories, which still amaze us to this day. 4) Aristotle as the Greatest Teacher of Happiness (A. Habura; second from the left in the photo). The speaker presented the most essential Aristotle’s instructions on achieving happiness from the Nicomachean Ethics and highlighted their universal character, which was additionally substantiated by the studies of W. Tatarkiewicz, a recognised Polish historian of philosophy and ethician, on the same subject. 5) Polish Historians of Philosophy and Classics Scholars on Their Journeys to Greece (T. Mróz). This was rather a loose speech than academic paper and it presented three Polish scholars (W. Dzieduszycki, T. Sinko, W. Witwicki) and their memories of visiting historical places, some of which at the times of their journeys looked differently then they do today, and their observations on modern Greeks, which in turn appear sometimes to tally with today’s impressions of Greece.
Lewis Campbell and His International Connections
Studia Historiae Scientiarum, an annual journal published by Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences, includes a section Science beyond Borders. In 2018 a paper by Tomasz Mróz was published there on Lewis Campbell’s (1830–1908) correspondence held in Peterhouse Library, Cambridge.
The paper presents L. Campbell, his research on Plato, and the collection of letters sent to this Scottish scholar by: James Martineau (1805–1900), William Hepworth Thompson (1810–1886), Paul Shorey (1857–1934), Wincenty Lutosławski (1863–1954), Eduard Gottlob Zeller (1814–1908), Franz Susemihl (1826–1901), and Theodor Gomperz (1832–1912). This collection supplements the knowledge of the research on Plato’s dialogues at the turn of the 20th century, since Plato scholars in their letters touched on the issues relating to the methods and results of the research on the chronology of Plato’s dialogues. They made judgements concerning the works of other academics, they sent to each other their own publications, and reported on the progress of their studies. They also did not shy away from making personal remarks and communicating personal reflections.
Publishing this paper was preceded by a research stay in Cambridge in June and July 2016, which was sponsored by Lanckoroński Foundation. Additionally, archival materials from St Andrews University Library (Special Collections) supplemented the whole work.
The paper in Polish is available on the journal’s website here.
Unknown (hitherto) Studies on Plato and Aristotle Finally Published
A new book series was initiated by Marek Derewiecki Publishing House. The series is devoted to publishing editions of source materials and studies related to the history of reception of ancient philosophy. Polish name of the series is “Studia i Teksty z Dziejów Recepcji Filozofii Starożytnej”.
Volume one of the series includes source materials retrieved from manuscripts of Stanisław Lisiecki (1872-1960). In addition, three of his Latin papers published in the interwar period were translated into Polish. Three sections constitute the whole volume. They are: Platonica, Aristotelica and Auto-Biographica, and hence the title of the collection: S. Lisiecki: On Plato, Aristotle and on Himself (O Platonie, Arystotelesie i o sobie samym). Platonica include twelve Lisiecki’s studies on individual dialogues and three papers devoted to specific issues in Plato. Aristotelica is much smaller and contains only four works, while the autobiographical section includes two Lisiecki’s autobiographical sketches (1910 and 1957) and four letters to university professors and family.
The materials collected in this volume shed light on the author’s biography and his relations to the most eminent scholars of his times. Moreover, he can finally speak in his own words to the wider public. Only now we can examine his ideas and arguments and compare them to the works of other Polish experts in ancient philosophy of the interwar period. Even if his texts can be sometimes assessed as secondary or not meeting academic standards, they provide us with an opportunity to supplement our view on the history of Polish research on Greek philosophy with works by original author.
The whole volume is a collective production. The source material was obviously written by the author, Lisiecki. His manuscripts were examined and re-typed by Adrian Habura and T. Mróz. Latin texts were translated by Adriana Bolibok (University of Life Sciences in Lublin) and T. Mróz, and their translations were looked through and refined by Barbara Brzuska (University of Warsaw). Whole collection was edited and prefaced by T. Mróz. The volume is one of the results of the research project funded by the Polish National Science Centre.
The book is available at the publisher’s bookstore here.
A View of Plato’s Paths in Poland
A lengthy, 480 pages, monograph book by T. Mróz was published in Academia Verlag’s series “Academia Philosophical Studies” as vol. 75. The title of the book is Plato in Poland 1800-1950. Types of Reception – Authors – Problems.
Some material from the book, including table of contents, is available on publisher’s website. The book attempts to make Polish Plato reception available to non-Polish readers. The years 1800-1950 cover essential phaenomena in modern Polish philosophy, for they encompass periods of reception of Western philosophical trends and the development of the Lvov-Warsaw school, neo-Messianism and neo-Scholasticism. The book discusses how each of these phaenomena contributed to interpreting Plato. The material is divided into three main parts focused on various types of reception.
The book is a final outcome of a project sponsored by Polish government within the National Programme for the Development of Humanities funding scheme. An essential collaborator in this project was Una Maclean-Hańćkowiak, who patiently edited the author’s style.
Plato between Scotland and Poland
In 2018 “Journal of Scottish Philosophy” (vol. 16, iss. 2) published a paper which was not, in fact, discussing Scottish philosophy as such, but was devoted to an episode in history of historiography of ancient philosophy and classical studies in Scotland.
The title of the paper clearly defines its topic: Scottish-Polish Cooperation on Plato at the Turn of the Twentieth Century. This paper discusses an example of Scottish-Polish cooperation on research, undertaken at the turn of the twentieth century, into the dialogues and philosophy of Plato. Two scholars were involved in this research: the Scottish classical scholar and historian of ancient philosophy, Lewis Campbell (1830–1908), and the Polish Plato scholar and philosopher, Wincenty Lutosławski (1863–1954). Their research on the chronology of Plato’s dialogues is analysed and the reception of their works discussed. The paper is enriched with some excerpts from their correspondence.
Unfortunately, the paper is not accessible on the journal’s website. If anyone, however, would like to receive an offprint, feel free to email the author: T.Mroz@ifil.uz.zgora.pl
A brief presentation of this paper can be found on Kudos website.
Censorship against Plato Scholars and Plato Himself
A volume on various aspects of relations between censorship, politics and oppression was published in 2018 by Gdańsk University Press. The book was a result of an international conference which took place in Gdańsk in 2017.
A paper by T. Mróz, included in this collective volume, discusses three cases of censorship on works of Polish Plato scholars who were active in three various periods of Polish history. First, the title of W. Lutosławski’s book on Plato was shortened by Imperial Russian authorities in Warsaw, they removed the word “socialism” from the title of his book on Plato. Its final version was then reduced to “Plato as the Creator of Idealism”.
S. Lisiecki, in turn, translated dialogues and wrote extensive introductions to them, but only his Republic saw the light of day in the interwar period, while all the remaining dialogues were left unpublished (but some of them, fortunately, will be published this year!). His leaving the clergy and Roman Catholic church might have been one of the reasons of his difficult situation in Polish academia.
Finally, W. Witwicki’s translation of the Republic with his commentaries appeared in print in 1948. After his death, the second edition was published in 1958, but some of his ironic and critical remarks on totalitarian system were removed.
Paper by T. Mróz can be downloaded from the University’s repository here.
Polish historians of Greek philosophy and their journeys to Athens
It comes as no surprise that experts in Greek philosophy and literature, classic scholars, or historians of the ancient world ache to visit the monuments of ancient history and to touch the relics of the Greek past. Many scholars were able to fulfill this dream and to undertake a journey to visit Athens and dwell the streets to search for Socrates or to have a discussion with the spirit of Plato in Academic garden.
Such journeys resulted very frequently in books or papers, memoirs or historical guides, that included their authors’ noble hopes and high expectations, but also their disappointments and grievances that Greek and Athenian reality at the turn of the 20th century could not meet their image of classical beauty and spiritual harmony.
In his paper in Polish, T. Mróz presented the works of four Polish authors who were experts in Greek literature and philosophy, who published extensively on this subject and who were sufficiently wealthy to travel to Greece, and to Athens in particular. In chronological order of their journeys, they are: Wojciech Dzieduszycki, Wincenty Lutosławski, Tadeusz Sinko and Władysław Witwicki. Their journeys took place between 1874 and 1937.
The paper can be downloaded here, and “Civitas” table of contents is here in English and here in Polish.
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