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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.
20th Annual Conference of the International Society for Neoplatonic Studies
International Society for Neoplatonic Studies (ISNS) has for decades been a forum for scholars researching various phaenomena in the history of Neoplatonism, including even the latest developments of the reception of Platonism. In June 14th-17th, 2023, ISNS conference was held at the foot of Etna, in Catania, in co-operation with Università degli Studi di Catania.
One of the numerous panels at the conference was devoted to Plato’s Timaeus, the concept of time and its influence on various thinkers across the history of philosophy up to recent times. The panel was organised by the two professors, Laura Marongiu and Laura Follesa, both of University of Milan. Although this panel focused on relatively narrow topic, the response from scholars was impressive and thus the list of speakers in this successful panel demonstrated incessant interest of generations of scholars in the Timaeus, the late dialogue of Plato. The topics ranged from Speusippus, Aristotle, Xenocrates, Numenius, Plotinus, Iamblichus, Proclus, Simplicius and Philoponus to M. Ficino, L. Bruno, F.W.J. Schelling, G.W.F. Hegel, H. Bergson and E. Husserl (on the photo: L. Follesa, L. Marongiu & T. Mróz).
T. Mróz presented a paper titled The Timaeus and Three Scholars of One Generation: P. Natorp, P. Shorey and W. Lutosławski. Mróz discussed various interpretations of the Timaeus by the three scholars, focusing on their general methods in reading Plato and their views on Plato’s concept of the time, although none of them considered the time to be the central issue in the dialogue.
ISNS conferences have always been a forum for scholars who explore various aspects of Platonism, Neoplatonism and Plato reception from antiquity up to contemporary times. Professor John Finamore, spiritus movens of all of ISNS symposia, spares no efforts to hold ISNS events in various academic centres and to provide opportunity for scholars throughout the world to take part in them. He has recently announced that next year’s ISNS conference will take place in Dublin, in co-operation with Trinity College.
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.
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