Ancient Philosophy Society

Wellington Hotel Update

Sun, 24 Feb 2008 01:19:36 -0500

Anyone planning to stay at the Wellington Hotel should make their reservations as soon as possible. The Wellington has changed its reservation system and they are overbooked for the period of the conference. They will continue to honor the deal they have with us, but they ask that those intending to stay at the Wellington make their reservations as soon as possible.

For information regarding all the hotels for the conference, see this post.

To register for the conference, click here to go to the Philosophy Documentation Center APS Conference Registration page.

For the program, click here.

2008 APS Conference Program

Thu, 14 Feb 2008 23:17:36 -0500

The final program has now been set for the 2008 Ancient Philosophy Society meeting in New York, hosted by Claudia Baracchi and the New School for Social Research.

To download and view a copy of the program in pdf format, please click here.

Many thanks to Claudia and Chris Roberts as well as to the entire program committee who did an excellent job putting together a program from so many excellent submissions.

To register for the conference, click here to link to the Philosophy Documentation APS conference registration page. For hotel information, see this post.

Conference Program Almost Final

Fri, 08 Feb 2008 17:26:28 -0500

This year's program for the Ancient Philosophy Society's meeting at the New School in New York is almost final. For those of you trying to make plans, see this post for hotel information, and note that the conference is set to begin on Thursday the 10th at 2pm and it will end on Sunday the 13th after a keynote address by Barbara Cassin scheduled from 11:15am to 1pm.

If at all possible, please plan your trip so that you will be able to stay through Sunday at 1pm.

Once the program is finalized, it will be posted.

Unprecedented Number of Submissions Received

Sun, 06 Jan 2008 21:51:25 -0500

This year the Ancient Philosophy Society received over 100 submissions for its Spring 2008 annual meeting at the New School in New York City. While the Society is very impressed by the overall quality of these submissions, the record number of submissions poses specific problems for a program that can only accept a very limited number of submissions each year.

Our aim is to be as inclusive as possible without sacrificing our commitment to scholarly excellence. Historically, the format of the program has been to have plenary sessions exclusively. While we are considering various ways to expand the number of people on the program, we have been hesitant to introduce concurrent sessions because we have long sought to cultivate the spirit of community and conversation that plenary sessions generate.

Final decisions about the program are in the process of being made. However, before the program is set, we want to thank all of you who have submitted papers for your interest in the Ancient Philosophy Society. For those of you who are not accepted onto the program this year, please do not be discouraged as decisions were made with an eye to ensuring a rich diversity of approach and content.

2008 APS Conference Hotels

Mon, 17 Dec 2007 15:32:29 -0500

The hotel information for the Spring 2008 Ancient Philosophy Society conference (register here) at the New School in New York is now available. Blocks of rooms are reserved at three hotels, each with different rates and locations. Members are responsible for making their own reservations (please mention New School/Ancient Philosophy Society rate).

Please reserve rooms a far ahead of time as possible as the NYC hotel rates fluctuate and are particularly high in the spring.

Wellington Hotel	Rates do not include Taxes
871 Seventh Avenue at 55th St. New York, NY 10019 Phone: (212) 247-3900, ext. 7750 Toll Free: (800) 652-1212, ext. 7750 Fax: (212) 581-1350 E-mail: sales@wellingtonhotel.com	$200 (Double bed, up to two people) $220 (2 Beds, up to two people) $220 (Queen bed, up to two people) $270 (2 Double beds, 4 people max.) $290 (1BR Suite, 4 people max.)

The reservation cut off date is March 9, 2008. After the cut off date, reservations will be accepted based on availability.

Washington Square Hotel	Rates do not include Taxes
103 Waverly Place New York, New York 10011-9194 Phone: (212) 777-9515 Toll Free: (800) 222-0418 Fax: (212 ) 979-8373	$235 Deluxe Queen

To reserve, participants will have to mention Group No. 061704-2086 (or New School/Ancient Philosophy Society rate). The reservation cut off date is: Feb 13, 2008.

Regency Inn and Suites	Rates do not include Taxes
215 West 34th St. New York, NY 10001 Phone: (212) 947-5050 Fax: (212) 268-4829 Reserve: (212) 594-4732	$169 (1 bed, up to two people) $189 (2 Beds, up to four people)

The reservation cut off date is March 9, 2008.

In addition to these contracts, other hotels that are decent and affordable in the area of the New School include:

Hotel Grand Union
Chelsea Savoy
Wolcott
Larchmont

Online Registration for Spring 2008 Conference

Sat, 27 Oct 2007 23:04:58 -0500

It is now possible to register online through the Philosophy Documentation Center for the Eighth Annual independent meeting of the Ancient Philosophy Society to be held at the New School for Social Research in New York, April 10-13, 2008.

The link to register is: http://www.pdcnet.org/2008-APS-Registration.html.

The conference registration fee, together with 2008-09 membership dues in the Ancient Philosophy Society, is $75 for individuals and $30 for students with valid ID. The conference registration fee for APS members already paid for 2008-09 is $25 for individuals and $5 for students.

The registration deadline at these rates is March 27, 2008. Registrations submitted after that date will be charged an additional $10 ($85 for non- or renewing member or $35 for current members).

If you are uncertain about your membership status, the registration webpage has a link to allow you to check your status. Please register early to avoid the late penalty and to facilitate the planning process.

Philosophy in Dialogue: Plato's Many Devices

Mon, 17 Sep 2007 21:50:28 -0500

Traditional Plato scholarship, in the English-speaking world, has assumed that Platonic dialogues are merely collections of arguments. Inevitably, the question arises: If Plato wanted to present collections of arguments, why did he write dialogues instead of treatises? Concerned about this question, some scholars have been experimenting with other, more contextualized ways of reading the dialogues. This anthology is among the first to present these new approaches as pursued by a variety of scholars. As such, it offers new perspectives on Plato as well as a suggestive view of Plato scholarship as something of a laboratory for historians of philosophy generally.

The essays gathered here each examine vital aspects of Plato's many methods, considering his dialogues in relation to Thucydides and Homer, narrative strategies and medical practice, images and metaphors. They offer surprising new research into such much-studied works as The Republic as well as revealing views of lesser-known dialogues like the Cratylus and Philebus. With reference to thinkers such as Heidegger, Gadamer, and Sartre, the authors place the Platonic dialogues in an illuminating historical context. Together, their essays should reinvigorate the scholarly examination of the way Plato's dialogues "work"--and should prompt a reconsideration of how the form of Plato's philosophical writing bears on the Platonic conception of philosophy.

"Plato studies are now undergoing a transformation and I believe that this collection will be on the forefront of innovative scholarship." --Robert Metcalf, University of Colorado

2008 Call for Papers

Mon, 17 Sep 2007 21:50:28 -0500

The Eighth Annual Independent meeting of the Ancient Philosophy Society will be held in New York City at the New School for Social Research on April 10-13, 2008.

Papers on any topic in ancient Greek and Roman philosophy are invited. Papers should be no more than 3000 words, 30 minutes reading time. Panel proposals will be considered, though they should be as complete as possible. Please prepare papers for blind review, with personal information on a cover sheet. Abstracts will not be considered.

Deadline: 15 November 2007

Inquiries and submissions (four paper copies plus one electronic copy, prepared for blind review) should be directed to:

Claudia Baracchi
Department of Philosophy
The New School for Social Research
79 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10003

Please, for electronic submissions or inquiries use only this email address: submissions@ancientphilosophysociety.org

The call for papers is now available for download in pdf format.

Aristotle and Rational Discovery: Speaking of Nature

Mon, 17 Sep 2007 21:35:34 -0500

In this lively and original book, Russell Winslow pursues a new
interpretation of logos in Aristotle. Rather than a reading of
rationality that cleaves human beings from nature, this new
interpretation suggests that, for Aristotle, consistent and dependable
rational arguments reveal a deep dependency upon nature. To this end,
the author shows that a rational account of a being is in fact subject
to the very same principle that governs the physical motion and
generation of a being under inquiry. Among the many consequences of
this argument is a rejection of both of the prevailing oppositional
claims that Aristotle's methodological procedure of discovery is one
resting on either empirical or conceptual grounds: discovery reveals a
more complex structure than can be grasped by either of these modern
modes. Further, Winslow argues that this interpretation of rational
discovery also contributes to the ethical debates surrounding
Aristotle's work, insofar as an ethical claim is achieved through
reason, but is not thereby conceived as objective. Again, the demand
for agreement in ethical/political decision will be disclosed as
superseding in its complexity both those accounts of ethical decision
as subjective (for example, "emotivist" accounts) and those as
objective ("realist" accounts).

Pleasure in Aristotle's Ethics

Tue, 10 Jul 2007 14:14:28 -0500

Michael Weinman's Pleasure in Aristotle's Ethics provides an innovative and crucially important account of the role of pleasure and desire in Aristotle's philosophy. Michael Weinman seeks to overcome common impasses in the mainstream interpretation of Aristotle's ethical philosophy through the careful study of Aristotle's account of pleasure in the human, but not merely human, good, thus presenting a new way in which we can improve our understanding of Aristotle's ethics. Weinman asserts that we should read Aristotle's ethical arguments in the light of his views on the cosmos (the living whole we call nature) and the never-changing principles informing that living whole.

Plato's Timaeus: The Conference

Tue, 10 Jul 2007 14:09:34 -0500

September 13–16, 2007, University of Illinois-Urbana. The Departments of the Philosophy and Classics, UIUC, are mounting an international, interdisciplinary conference, “Life, the Universe, Everything — and More: Plato’s Timaeus Today.” Keynote speakers are Alexander Nehamas (Philosophy and Comparative Literature, Princeton), Sir Anthony Leggett (2003 Nobel Laureate for Physics), and Anthony Vidler (Dean of Architecture, the Cooper Union). Prompted by the explosion of critical interest in the dialogue since the turn of the millennium, the conference will address all of its aspects — its theology, metaphysics, cosmology, science, psychology, ethics, literary aspects, and reception in the history of ideas. For the full speakers’ list, program, and registration information, conference organizers, Richard D. Mohr (UIUC) and Barbara M. Sattler (Yale), invite you to visit our website www.timaeus.uiuc.edu. A block of guestrooms is being held through August 13th at the conference’s main site, the Illini Union (Hotel). For details, see the Housing tab at our website.

Cambridge Companion to Plato's Republic

Wed, 04 Jul 2007 23:28:19 -0500

This Companion provides a fresh and comprehensive account of this outstanding work, which remains among the most frequently read works of Greek philosophy, indeed of Classical antiquity in general. The sixteen essays, by authors who represent various academic disciplines, bring a spectrum of interpretive approaches to bear in order to aid the understanding of a wide-ranging audience, from first-time readers of the Republic who require guidance, to more experienced readers who wish to explore contemporary currents in the work’s interpretation. The three initial chapters address aspects of the work as a whole. They are followed by essays that match closely the sequence in which topics are presented in the ten books of the Republic. Since the Republic returns frequently to the same topics by different routes, so do the authors of this volume, who provide the readers with divergent yet complementary perspectives by which to appreciate the Republic’s principal concerns.

About the Ancient Philosophy Society

Fri, 15 Jun 2007 13:08:33 -0500

The Ancient Philosophy Society was established to provide a forum for diverse scholarship on ancient Greek and Roman texts. Honoring the richness of the American and European philosophical traditions, the Ancient Philosophy Society supports phenomenological, postmodern, Anglo-American, Straussian, Tübingen School, hermeneutic, psychoanalytic, and feminist interpretations of ancient Greek and Roman philosophical and literary works. It is the intention that, within the larger aim of assessing the meaning and significance of ancient texts, the Ancient Philosophy Society serve as the site of critical engagement among these various schools of interpretation and that it encourage creative and rigorous independent readings.