Kinesis: Thinking about Motion in Classical Greece - 10-11/11/2017, Berlin (Germany)
The topics of motion and change are nearly ubiquitous in ancient literature, independent of specific genre. The pre-Socratics can be seen as the first ones to think about motion in complex structures and to integrate it as an essential power of the cosmos into their explanations of the world. This strong proximity between the first philosophers of the western world and the topic of motion culminates in Aristotle´s concept of the “unmoved mover” as the first principle in the world. This workshop intends to interpret the topic of motion not only as an exclusive philosophical topic, but as a principle of intellectual discourse in ancient Greece in general, to which the pre-Socratics gave major impulses. Accordingly, we find great interest in motion and change in other ancient Greek literature as well, especially in Thucydides. This leads to the question where this tendency came from: was it a reaction to contemporary social or political change? Did it fulfill a role as a general explanation for complex processes witnessed by the authors? Or did some of these thinkers just integrate motion and change as topics to be part of an intellectual discourse, to serve a scientific fashion?
FECHA/ DATE/DATA: 10-11/11/2017
LUGAR/LOCATION/LUOGO: Topoi-Haus (Berlin, Germany)
ORGANIZADOR/ORGANIZER/ORGANIZZATORE: Christian Wendt (Freie Universität Berlin); Robert Müller (Freie Universität Berlin).
INFO: web - christian.wendt@topoi.org
INSCRIPCIÓN/REGISTRATION/REGISTRAZIONE: Gratis/free/gratuito
PROGRAMA/PROGRAM/PROGRAMMA:
10.11.2017 13:00 - 13:10 Welcome 13:10 - 14:00 Motion – A Topic of Intellectual Discourse? (Robert Müller – Freie Universität Berlin) 15:00 - 15:50 The Political Implications of ‘Motion’ in Plato’s Theaetetus and Laws (Ryan Balot – University of Toronto) 15:50 - 16:50 Motion, Rest, and Unsocial Sociability? Thucydides’ Archaeology and Protagoras’ Great Speech (Seth N. Jaffe – John Cabot University) 17:10 - 18:00 The Greatest Motion – kinesis as a Historical Category in Thucydides (Christian Wendt – Freie Universität Berlin) 11.11.2017 09:00 - 09:50 Anaxagoras on Motion (Anna Marmodoro – University of Oxford) 09:50 - 10:40 Metaphysics and Motion (Patricia Curd – Purdue University) 11:10 - 12:00 In Proclum: Intelligible Motion in the Parmenides Commentary (Georgios Tsagdis – University of Westminster) 12:00 - 13:50 Folk Physics in Action: Practical Consequences of an Aristotelian Worldview (George Darby – University of Oxford) 13:40 - 14:30 Round table: Across Boundaries – Commuting Disciplines