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Demons, Calcidius and Vitello at ISNS Symposium
On June 3rd-6th in Leuven, Belgium, the 23rd annual symposium of the International Society for Neoplatonic Studies (ISNS) took place. The programme of the whole event can be downloaded here. AΦR was certainly present there.
Together with two other panelists, Tomasz Mróz presented his paper in the panel: Medieval Platonism. These panelists were Heide König (LMU Munich) and Ernesto Fuentes Padgett (Notre Dame). Mróz’s paper was titled Vitello’s Theory of Daemons. Platonic Inspirations in a Naturalistic Treatment.
Vitello was a philosopher and a natural scientist of the second half of the 13th century, best known for his treatise in optics. To obtain degrees he travelled to the universities in Paris and Padua, but he also visited Viterbo. Although he gained recognition as the author of Perspectiva, dedicated to Wilhelm of Moerbecke, his interests went beyond optical issues and in a letter titled De causa primaria paenitentiae in hominibus et de natura daemonum he differentiated between the real demons as animals and apparent demons, as the effects of optical illusions or malfunctions of human cognition. He developed a theory of demons, their nature, their position among natural creatures, and investigated a number of detailed issues connected to the life of demons and their various interactions with human beings.
Mróz took an attempt to demonstrate how Vitello started with Plato, Calcidius’ commentary to the Timaeus, mathematical considerations and the Averroists’ theory of double truth to prove the existence of demons as animals and how, subsequently, he took advantage of his experience as a natural scientist and a confessor to supplement the theory with a number of observations and the then common opinions that eventually, in his eyes, reinforced the theory.
The conference in Leuven was, as all ISNS events, a successful meeting, gathering specialist in history of philosophy from antiquity to modern times. It was also an opportunity to see and listen to papers of scholars from all the continents. It was also a pleasure to see there our collaborator from Vilnius University, Jonas Čiurlionis, who delivered a paper Mathematics of Music in Timaeus’ creation of the World Soul.
Plato in Poland book available in OA
This post is only to announce that the book by T. Mróz, Plato in Poland 1800-1950. Types of Reception – Authors – Problems (Academia Verlag/Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft, Baden Baden 2021), as a result of the agreement with the publisher, is now available free in open access on the Nomos Verlag website here and in the repository of the University of Zielona Góra, here. Enjoy!
A Visit of a Guest from Vilnius University
Jonas Čiurlionis, Ph.D., who started to co-operate with AΦR research group in the autumn of 2021, has paid us a visit under the Erasmus agreement between Vilnius University (Lithuania) and University of Zielona Góra. Dr. Čiurlionis researches philosophical principles of ancient scientific ideas, including those of Aristotle, their development and reception. More information on his activities can be found here.
At the University of Zielona Góra dr. Čiurlionis has delivered English lectures for graduate students in the doctoral school, for undergraduate students of philosophy and for students of physics. All his talks were devoted to various aspects of mathematical, harmonical and musical foundations of scientific theories of antiquity, for example, concept of four elements, Platonic theory of creation of the world, or Aristotelian theory of movement and change. What was of special significance for the members of the AΦR group, was that dr Čiurlionis explored extensively reception and development of these concepts later in antiquity, in the middle ages and Renaissance.
One of the aims of dr. Čiurlionis’ visit in Zielona Góra was to take an essential part in doctoral seminar (in Polish) and consult the progress of Adrian Habura, M.A., who is composing his disseration on reception of Aristotle’s philosophy in works of Władysław Tatarkiewicz, for dr. Čiurlionis was appointed as an auxiliary supervisor for A. Habura’s thesis.
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.
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