About the Colloquium

The Hiyoshi Colloquium (formerly the Hokkaido Colloquium) on Ancient Greek and Roman Philosophy aims to provide an informal forum for scholars and students from both inside and outside Japan to have a lively exchange on the study of ancient Greek and Roman philosophy. Meetings are conducted in English, with a minimum use of Japanese for the benefit of Japanese participants. Non-Japanese speakers are most welcome to join. For the time being, the meetings will be held online, but we hope to hold occasional face-to-face meetings in the future.

Registration is required for each online meeting to receive the Zoom details (and the paper if it is distributed in advance). To register, click on the Register link for each meeting below.

If you would like to be informed about our forthcoming meetings, you can subscribe to our colloquium mailing list via the e-mail address below.

Next meeting

TBD

Past meetings

6th Meeting: Friday, 21 June 2024 

17:00-19:45 Yokohama & Tokyo / 10:00-12:45 CEST

Speakers: Michiel Meeusen (KU Leuven/CAS Sofia), Masayuki Fukushima  (JSPS Research Fellow/Juntendo University)

Masayuki Fukushima, ‘Whose Contribution Is the Four Humoral Theory Attributed To?  From the Hippocratic Corpus to the Late Antique Medical Works’

Abstract: The Four Humoral Theory is a medical system that regards disease as the result of the imbalance of ‘humours’ in the human body. Numerous ancient physicians used this theory to gain insight into the invisible internal constitution of the body. Remarkably, the Humoral Theory maintained a dominant presence in the annals of Western medicine, persisting until the nineteenth century. Its dissemination is mostly ascribed to Galen, who adapted and promulgated Hippocratic treatises. However, Galen did not rely exclusively on Hippocratic theory for understanding individual diseases; he also introduced the concept of the affected places of the body (Locus Affectus), in his discussions on the aetiology of diseases. This paper will examine the descriptions of diseases in the Hippocratic authors, Galen, and late antique medical authors, exploring their connections to the Four Humoral Theory and identifying the contributors who promulgated this system as the foundation of Western medicine.

Michiel Meeusen, ‘The War of the Worlds: Taxonomical Polemics in High Imperial Platonism’

Abstract: How can we approach the knowledge traditions of societies that conceive of the world in a radically different way from ourselves? This is a perennial question, to which the present contribution aims to add a historical perspective, more precisely by looking at how this difference played out in the High Roman Empire, a pivotal period in political and scientific history. The fundamental set-up of the phenomenal world and especially its ordered and regulated appearance was subject to heated debate in this period. Much of the sectarian polemics between intellectuals in the Roman Imperial era boils down to the very question of world view and its philosophical implications. So what happens when worlds collide? In this contribution we explore how two eminent Imperial Platonists, Plutarch of Chaeronea and Galen of Pergamum, position themselves in these debates and how they react to rivalling views in a quest to regulate the perceived world that they inhabit in a Platonising way.

The first five meetings, from 2022 to 2023, were held under the former name, the Hokkaido Colloquium on Ancient Greek and Roman Philosophy.

5th Meeting: Thursday, 6 July 2023

17:00-20:00 Sapporo & Tokyo / 10:00-13:00 CEST

Speakers: Albert Joosse (University of Groningen), Akira Kawashima (JSPS Research Fellow, Hokkaido University)

Akira Kawashima, ‘Dialectic, Mathematics, and Becoming Virtuous in Plato’

Abstract: What should we make of Plato’s view on the relation between philosophical dialectic, mathematics, and becoming virtuous? I shall answer this question by supporting a line of interpretation and suggesting that mathematics and philosophical dialectic have a common ground in that both can be regarded as a continuous study of unity. Pace Rowett, becoming able to define each thing at issue continues to be significant in the Republic because this promotes the study of unity; to give a definition of a certain Form, one needs to understand how Forms are united with one another. However, pace Burnyeat, this is not to say that Plato mathemathicizes ethics; it is more likely that different kinds of unity matter in mathematics and philosophical dialectic, respectively. The dialectician is supposed to acquire true virtue because, through their learning, they become assimilated to their object of study, which exhibits, arguably, the highest unity and hence goodness. I shall also argue that the above picture of assimilation to the object, making its appearance not only in the Republic but also in the Symposium and Theaetetus in the form of becoming god-like, provides us with a key to elucidating Plato’s ethics.

Albert Joosse, ‘Authorial anonymization in the pseudo-Platonic On Virtue’

Abstract: This paper analyzes the pseudo-Platonic dialogue On Virtue as a text that aims to sell a new view of Plato to its readers. I place the dialogue in the context of pseudepigraphical writings in general and of the pseudo-Platonica in particular. Due attention to the specific form of a pseudepigraphical text can help us understand how it wants to be seen in relation to the authentic corpus on which it depends. In the case of On Virtue, the author’s systematic use of the Meno effects what I label as an ‘anonymization’ of the authorial persona: a self-effacement of the actual author which encourages its readers to view Plato as the origin of the ideas it conveys.

4th Meeting: Friday, 9 December 2022 

18:30 Sapporo & Tokyo / 10:30 CET

Speaker: Aiste Celkyte (Leiden University)

Title: The ever-moving soul in Galen

Abstract: Galen of Pergamum was primarily a celebrated doctor, yet his writings also contain some fairly sophisticated philosophical reflections. He was especially engaged with Plato’s dialogues, often lamenting the lack of thorough understanding of the Platonic views among his contemporaries. At the same time, it seems that Galen is not always a faithful follower of Plato himself. In this paper, I discuss a peculiar case of him using the epithet ‘ever-moving’ to describe the activities associated with the spirited soul. In Plato’s Phaedrus, this term has distinct connotations associated with the rational soul and its cosmic origins; why, then, does Galen apply it to one of the lowly mortal souls? I analyse the relevant passages by contextualising them within Hellenistic philosophical and scientific polemics. Ultimately, I argue that Galen’s engagement with these debates not only explains the odd use of the Platonic terminology but also reveals a distinctive metaphysical account of motion that lead to a novel understanding of human psychology.

3rd Meeting: Friday, 23 September 2022

10:00 Sapporo & Tokyo / 18:00 San Francisco (Thursday, 22 PDT)

Speaker: G.R.F. Ferrari (University of California, Berkeley)

Title: How I read Plato:  the case of the Ion

Abstract: It is one thing for us to explain why it makes sense within Plato’s fiction for the character Socrates to have made the argumentative move that he does.  But we should follow up with the question:  why does it make sense for Plato the writer to have put his Socrates in a situation where this was the dramatically plausible move for Socrates to have made?  For it is from how the story goes — the story that Socrates’s argumentative moves go to constitute — that Plato wants his readers to acquire their sense of what he, Plato, is trying to get across to them.  What Socrates says and does needs to be supplemented, if we’re ever to surmise what Plato is trying to say and do.  In this talk, I explain at greater length my way of reading Plato, and illustrate how this process of supplementation works in the Ion, picking on certain crucial passages to make my point.  It’s no surprise that this dialogue especially should give us insight into Plato’s conception of himself as a writer, since it’s the only Platonic dialogue wholly devoted to the topic of poetics. 

2nd Meeting: Friday, 29 July 2022

18:30 Sapporo & Tokyo / 17:30 Xi'an / 12:30 Athens / 11:30 Rome

Speaker: Bobo Zhang (Shaanxi Normal University)

Title:  Unravelling the Mystery of Thrasymachus’ Blush in “The Republic”

Abstract: Why does Thrasymachus blush in the Republic? Most of interpretations deny that Thrasymachus’ blush has anything to do with shame. My task in this talk is, instead, to collect ample evidence to show Thrasymachus’ blush is closely related to his thumos. I do not deny that Thrasymachus feels humiliated. To be sure, he has been defeated by Socrates and has lost face. But my proposal is that his red face actually revealed more information: he is bold but not shameless; he is not honest, but not lawless. 

1st Meeting: Friday, 27 May 2022

18:30 Sapporo & Tokyo / 17:30 Shanghai & Beijing / 12:30 Athens / 11:30 Rome

Speaker: Teng He (Fudan University)

Title: Rethinking Augustine as the first philosopher of will

Abstract: Who is the first philosopher of the will? The thesis that Augustine was the first philosopher of the modern concept of will was explored by Albrecht Dihle. In this paper, I will return to the Dihle’s thesis and argue that Augustine is the first philosopher of the will as faculty of decision. In the first part, I will distinguish the will as an appetitive faculty from the will as a faculty of decision. In the second part, on the basis of this definition I will examine whether this conception of the will exists in ancient philosophy as well as in the Christian tradition before Augustine. Last, I will apply Harry Frankfurt’s theory of two-stage volition to Augustine’s distinction between free decision (liberum arbitrium) and will (voluntas).

Organizers

Akira Kawashima (JSPS Research Fellow, Keio University)

Tomohiko Kondo (Associate Professor, Keio University)

Contact

You can reach the organizers at: akira.kawashima88 [AT] gmail.com.

The HCAGRP is supported by JSPS KAKENHI Grant Number JP21K00024.