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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.
Talks on W. Tatarkiewicz’s Lectures on Greek Philosophy
A series of conferences called Seminars of Historians of Polish Philosophy continues and develops. The latest edition (the 13th) was organised in Toruń by the Institute of Philosophy of the Nicolaus Copernicus University on May 28th-30th, 2026. The title of the meeting was Polish Historiography of Philosophy. Methods – Problems – Representatives. The members of Ancient Φilosophy Reception research group were obviously present there. It should be only briefly mentioned here that the 12th edition of the Seminar took place in May 2025 in Zielona Góra, and the initiative came from AΦR.
Those were Tomasz Mróz and Adrian Habura who represented Institute of Philosophy (UZ). Both their papers were presented in the panel New Sources for the History of Polish Philosophy, and both were focused on various aspects of the same archival material. This material cosisted of excerpts, reports and notes taken by Bohdan Zawadzki (1902-1966, photo on the right) from lectures delivered in Warsaw in the early 20’s of the 20th century by Władysław Tatarkiewicz (1886-1980). They remained unknown before Habura’s short research visit in Vilnius.
The paper by T. Mróz was titled Bohdan Zawadzki’s reports from Władysław Tatarkiewicz’s lectures on Greek philosophy. Mróz made a general presentation of Zawadzki as a student of Władysław Witwicki (1878-1948) in Warsaw and a professor in Vilnius, and his relations to Tatarkiewicz. Then he focused on the manuscript materials and the representation of Plato in them. His conclusion was that even a preliminary analysis of Zawadzki’s notes, especially in parts devoted to Plato, demonstrates that Tatarkiewicz as a lecturer of Greek philosophy was still influenced by his studies in Marburg and he had provided his students with much richer material than he later included in volume I of his History of Philosophy.
A. Habura, in his paper titled Two images of Aristotle in Władysław Tatarkiewicz’s works in the light of Bohdan Zawadzki’s notes, examined a more detailed issue related to Zawadzki’s manuscripts. A starting point of his paper was a distinction between the two “images” of Aristotle that Tatarkiewicz developed before the WWII. The first was the result of his doctoral studies in Marburg (1910), while the second was included in his History of Philosophy (1931). An analysis of these two “images” leads to the conclusion that, although they are formally different, they do not differ so much in the content. Zawadzki’s manuscripts from Tatarkiewicz’s lectures are valuable in this case, because they allow to demonstrate that in the 1920s, while writing his History of Philosophy, Tatarkiewicz’s studies on Aristotle were more developed than they appeared until now.
Participation of both scholars in the Seminar was sponsored from the funds of “Small Grant” (UZ).
A Conference in Częstochowa: Polish Studies on Plato
Ancient Φilosophy Reception research group couldn’t have been absent at the conference on Polish Studies on Plato, which was held in Jan Długosz University (UJD) in Częstochowa on May 18-19th, 2026.
The conference was organised by the Chair of Philosophy of UJD, and prof. Wiesława Sajdek was the head of the whole event. Tomasz Mróz delivered his paper in the opening panel, after the introductory talk by prof. Marian Wesoły. Reports from the first day of the conference (in Polish) were published on the websites of UJD and a local radio station. It should be emphasised that both professors, Sajdek and Wesoły, have already collaborated in various activities of AΦR.
The paper by Mróz had a long title: Why study the history of studies on Plato? (and a couple of interesting pieces that were not included in the books). He argued, certainly, for the positive answer to the question in the title, since – for example – discussions about Plato’s legacy and various interpretations of his philosophy reflect philosophical trends of their times and commenting on Plato’s dialogues provides a convenient opportunity to express one’s own views. Moreover, Mróz discussed peculiar history of the texts that had “Plato” and “Poland” in their titles, starting with an English report, published by Lewis Campbell (1830-1908), Plato in Poland (1893), on the then recent studies on Plato’s logic by Wincenty Lutosławski (1863-1954). Then, the history of Polish texts by Irena Pannenkowa (1879-1969), Izydora Dąmbska (1904-1983), Zbigniew Nerczuk (another collaborator of AΦR), and Mróz himself followed.
Mróz discussed briefly some issues related to his decades long studies on Polish traditions in researching and translating Plato that were unsuitable for publishing in scholarly works. They were e.g. his reminiscences from his meetings with Lutosławski’s daughter, Janina Lutosławska (1922-2006), and the archival discoveries he had made in the legacies of Lutosławski, Stefan Pawlicki (1839-1916), Stanisław Lisiecki (1872-1960), and Henryk Jakubanis (1879-1949), many of which he was able to edit and publish.
In the final parts of his talk, Mróz presented a small detail related to the location of the conference, the city of Częstochowa. Once in his research he came across a copy of the Phaedo in Władysław Witwicki’s (1878-1948) translation (Warsaw 1925) which had been owned by Jan Sołdrowski (1889-1970), a teacher of various subjects (including classics) and a Catholic activist from Częstochowa. His notes on the margins of the book revealed his thoughts and impressions from reading the dialogue.
Erasmus+ Teaching Visits in Vilnius Continue
In May, 11th-15th, 2026, Tomasz Mróz enjoyed his fifth Erasmus+ teaching visit in Faculty of Philosophy, Vilnius University.
One of the lectures was focused on discussing various problems related to historiography of philosophy, using the method and structure of the History of Philosophy by Władysław Tatarkiewicz (1886-1980), especially in regard to ancient philosophers. An additional material for discussion was provided by the Lithuanian edition of this three-volume book (2001) with covers – contrary to Polish editions – decorated with various images. The front cover of vol. I, for example, depicts Boethius – what students were able to discover with only little help! – in his consoling dialogue with Philosophy herself, and the wheel of Fortune, an important argument for a philosophers not to let a hard lot get them down.
Another lecture related to the history of ancient philosophy scholarship was devoted to Wincenty Lutosławski (1863-1954), a renowned researcher of Plato, and the Vilnius period of his academic career. A decade spent in Vilnius was by Lutosławski considered a disappointment with his colleague professors and low number of students. He was able, however, to promote a successful Ph.D. student interested in Plato, Benedykt Woyczyński (1895-1927), initiate correspondence with notable persons, not only philosophers, and – last, but not least – work on his idea of a historical development of metaphysics, which was his focus until his ultimate years.
This lecture was an open event and it was advertised here.
A Note on “Plato in Poland” in “The Polish Review”
It has been only recently that we have learned about a note on Tomasz Mróz’s book (Plato in Poland 1800-1950: Types of Reception – Authors – Problems, Baden-Baden 2021) that appeared in “The Polish Review” (New York) in 2022 (vol. 67, no. 4, p. 176) in the section: Books Briefly.
A paragraph long note by the journal editors assessed the book as “a valuable addition to the history of Polish philosophy”.
An Erasmus+ Visit of a Guest from Vilnius
A co-operation between Vilnius University and the University of Zielona Góra in philosophy is developing well and a recent (March 9th-13th, 2026) visit of a guest from VU, dr Mindaugas Stoškus, proves this. M. Stoškus is a scholar with whom Ancient Φilosophy Reception research group have recently started a formal collaboration in a project funded by the Research Council of Lithuania on the reception of Greek philosophy among the philosophers in VU in the 20th century. It is here where we have already announced this as well as Stoškus’ previous visits in Zielona Góra.
There were two lectures on ancient philosophy (and its application) among the classes of dr Stoškus. They both required students’ engagement and active participation. For philosophy students, he spoke about the ancient Greek idea of philosophy and wisdom, while for the students of doctoral school – about Plato and teaching methods. The photo on the right was taken by Urszula Majdańska-Wachowicz during the class for PhD. students. M. Stoškus (left) is being introduced by T. Mróz (right).
We are looking forward to the next visits of Vilnius scholars!
Philosophy in Zielona Góra. An Anniversary
This year, Institute of Philosophy, University of Zielona Góra (UZ), where Ancient Φilosophy Reception research group is affiliated, celebrates its 30th anniversary. Among the variety of events, there was a conference on 23rd-24th October, devoted to the problem of co-operation in its various relations to theory, history and philosophical practice. AΦR’s history at UZ is obviously much shorter, but two of its representatives actively participated in the conference.
Mariam Sargsyan was the first of them. In her presentation she discussed the results of her doctoral studies at UZ and her dissertation, successfully defended earlier this year. She focused on analyses of Henryk Jakubanis’ (1879-1949) historical-philosophical legacy, which consists of three main parts: 1) his work on Empedocles and its methodology; 2) Plato in his (partly unpublished) writings; 3) his views on ancient and modern ways of doing philosophy. Moreover, Sargsyan presented the conclusions of her research on intellectual genealogy of Jakubanis’ thought.
What was even more significant was the fact that Ukrainian participants (see the photo above) of the conference, who work at the National University of Kyiv, attended Sargsyan’s presentation on Jakubanis, who had studied and worked in Kyiv a century ago. They were very interested in her results and provided valuable feedback that could be helpful in improving the text of her doctoral thesis before it is published. The discussion between them demonstrated how important it is to confront different points of view on one subject which is researched by scholars from different countries, applying various methods and interested in different aspects of the history of philosophy.
The second conference participant from AΦR was Adrian Habura who delivered a paper on Władysław Tatarkiewicz (1886-1980) and his reflection on social aspects of human happiness. Habura discussed Tatarkiewicz’s definition of happiness and his understanding of human life, then he examined the role of the others in individual happiness and the links between human individual and society in their relations to happiness. In his paper Habura developed a general view on the role of society in Tatarkiewicz’s philosophical and ethical considerations contained in his book Analysis of Happiness.
Although Habura’s paper was not directly devoted to the reception of ancient philosophy in Tatarkiewicz’s writings, the following discussion allowed him to address this issue. He highlighted some similarities and differences between Aristotle’s and Tatarkiewicz’s understandings of happiness and convincingly demonstrated how Aristotle could have inspired ethical investigations of this Polish philosopher, whose doctoral thesis on Aristotle was composed under supervision of the Marburg neo-Kantians.
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