Presocratic Ethics
Description
The workshop aims to offer a concise introduction to early Greek philosophical ethics. Cicero (106 – 43 BCE) emphatically stated that “Socrates was the first who brought down philosophy from heaven to earth and placed it in cities, and introduced it even in homes, and drove it to inquire about life and customs and things good and evil (Tusculan Disputations V.10). Aristotle in Metaphysics 987b2 regarded Socrates as the philosopher who wondered extensively on ‘ethical matters’. Aristotle further claimed that Socrates’ teaching focused on ‘definitions’ found not to the world of nature as a whole but to the universal principles of ethics. However, the Derveni Papyrus demonstrated a wide range of Presocratic themes including ethics. Presocratic philosophy was not only an enquiry on the cosmos and physical reality, but also on the aporia of human life, virtue, excellence and the soul’s purification. Whereas virtue ethics systematically developed and discussed by Socratic and post-Socratic philosophical movements, the early Greek philosophical tradition should not be excluded from an ethical discourse. Eminent Presocratic thinker such as Xenophanes, Heraclitus, Pythagoras, Empedocles, Democritus and Archelaus enquired on key areas of early Greek philosophical ethics.
Coordinator
Giannis Stamatellos, PhD
Workshop Fee: 20€
Number of Participants: 20 (maximum)
Please apply here
Giannis Stamatellos, PhD