The History of Philosophy Forum is pleased to announce our 2021-2022 Small Grants recipients! These accomplished international researchers will be conducting research at the University of Notre Dame during this academic year. We look forward to welcoming them to campus! Information about events planned during their visits will be forthcoming.
Alberto Ross is Professor of Philosophy and Humanities at Universidad Panamericana (Mexico). His main area of research is Ancient Philosophy, in particular Aristotle and his reception in late antiquity. The aim of his project is to conduct a research on the reception of the Aristotelian notions of “god” (theós) and the “divine” (theîon) in Late Antiquity. He hopes to offer a better understanding of this period of Aristotelian exegesis and philosophy, as well as demonstrate how the reception of the work of Aristotle in the Hellenic world gave rise to new philosophical theses and traditions.
Alexander Long works on ancient Greek and Roman philosophy at the University of St Andrews. His most recent publications are on death and immortality in philosophical authors including Empedocles, Plato, the Stoics and the Epicureans. During his visit to Notre Dame he will work on a new project on nature and the natural in Plato's political and ethical dialogues. The appeal to nature and the natural is often associated with Plato's successors, such as Aristotle, and the antagonists in Plato's dialogues, such as Callicles, rather than with Socrates and other leading speakers in Plato. But in Plato's Republic Socrates argues that the parts of a just soul are in the natural relation to each other, and both Plato's Republic and Laws describe political foundations that are, perhaps in different senses, natural. During the visit to Notre Dame Alexander will focus on the relationship between nature, the soul and value in Plato's Republic.
Caterina Pello is an Associate Lecturer in the Department of Greek and Latin at University College London. Her primary research areas are Presocratic philosophy and the study of women in the history of philosophy. Her PhD thesis, which she is currently developing for publication, focuses on the Pythagorean women. Her current project focuses on early Greek philosophy of life and death. She is especially interested in the Presocratic theories of the beginning of life and living things, the interactions between ancient Greek philosophy and medicine, and the resonance of Greek biology in contemporary ethics of life. Together with Katharine O’Reilly (Ryerson University), Caterina is also co-editing a book titled Ancient Women Philosophers: Recovered Ideas and New Perspectives, which focuses on women’s contributions to the history of Greek, Roman, Indian, and Chinese philosophy.
Luca Pitteloud is professor of ancient philosophy at the Federal University of ABC in São Paulo, Brazil. He did his PhD at the University of Fribourg, Switzerland. During his stay, he plans to investigate the function of the Demiurge in Plato’s Timaeus. This is part of a larger project that aims to demonstrate that the Timaeus is best understood as a thought experiment, and to present the implications of such a view for the interpretation of other key aspects of Plato’s cosmology. Luca's main objective will be to formulate the thesis that the Demiurge is an epistemological tool because it allows for the creation of a mental representation of the universe.
Hanif Amin Beidokhti is working on a project entitled "Suhrawardī’s Metaphysics of Light and the Neoplatonic Doctrine of the Two Worlds." Hanif's research is devoted to a re-examination of Šihāb al-Dīn Yaḥyā Suhrawardī’s (d. 587/1191) Illuminationist or light metaphysics as described in his magnum opus the Ḥikmat al-išrāq (The Philosophy of Illumination). In both traditional and modern scholarship, it has been assumed that light is the equivalent of existence in Avicennan Peripatetic philosophy. Given the significant drawbacks of this identification, notably the implication that for Suhrawardī bodies would be non-existent, for they lack light essentially, this project sets out to establish an alternative interpretation of light and Illuminationist metaphysics, situating this Suhrawardian concept in its proper historical context and within the development of his thought. The core of the reading proposed here will be that the Neoplatonic system of the two worlds, the intelligible and the sensible realms, can provide us with a clue for understanding the relationship between the world of light (ʿālam al-nūr) and the world of darkness.
Anna Corrias is working on a project entitled "Reading Aristotle's Mind: Marsilio Ficino on Theophrastus on the Intellect." Her visit has been deferred until a later date.
Originally published by at historyofphilosophy.nd.edu on December 09, 2021.