Intellect and Contemplation in Ancient Greek and Medieval Islamic Philosophy

Intellect and Contemplation in Ancient Greek and Medieval Islamic Philosophy
1-2 October 2021, LMU Munich

This conference is part of a collaboration between
members of Utrecht University and MUSAΦ

Programme (download)

Friday, 1 October

9:30–10:00 Welcome and introduction

     Section 1 Chair: Laura Castelli (LMU Munich)

10:00–11:00 Mauro Bonazzi (Utrecht University)
“Antiochus, Ulysses and the Limits of Contemplative Life”
11:00–12:00 Bert van den Berg (Leiden University)
“Living Statue and Confusion: Reading the Great Myth in Plotinus’ School and Proclus’ Academy”

    Section 2 Chair: Rotraud Hansberger (LMU Μunich)

14:00–15:00 Tommaso Alpina (LMU Munich)
“Contemplating the Contemplator. Human Soul as the Object and the Subject of Contemplation”
15:00–16:00 Bethany Somma (LMU Munich)
“Externalized Contemplation in Ibn Ṭufayl’s Ḥayy Ibn Yaqẓān”

16:45–17:45 Keynote talk: Peter Adamson (LMU Μunich)
“From Known to Knower: Affinity Arguments for the Mind’s Incorporeality in the Islamic World”

Saturday, 2 October 2021

     Section 3 Chair: Mareike Hauer (KU Leuven)

09:30–10:30 Riccardo Chiaradonna (Roma Tre University)
“Life and Contemplation in Plotinus’ Hierarchy of Being”
10:30–11:30 Thomas Bénatouïl (University of Lille)
“Porphyry on the Digression of the Theaetetus and Intellectual Detachment from Sensations and Social Activities”

12:00–13:00 Julia Trompeter (Utrecht University)
“Michael of Ephesus on the Objects of Contemplation”

     Section 4 Chair: Tommaso Alpina (LMU Munich)

15:00–16:00 Jari Kaukua (University of Jyväskylä)
“Knowledge of Essences in Suhrawardī: Presence or (Modified) Avicennian Science?”
16:00–17:00 Cécile Bonmariage (UC Louvain)
“‘Knowledge is the seed of vision’: Contemplation, Knowing Things as They Are, and the Intellect in Ṣadr al-Dīn Shīrāzī”

17:00–17:30 Concluding discussion

Organization:
Rotraud Hansberger (LMU Munich)
Mareike Hauer (KU Leuven; member of the project ‘PlatoViaAristotle’ that has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement No. 885273))

This will be a hybrid event. For more information please contact hansberger@lrz.uni-muenchen.de and mareike.hauer@lrz.uni-muenchen.de.

This conference is supported by the Fritz Thyssen Foundation