Abstracts

Keynote speaker:

Prof. dr hab. Zbigniew Nerczuk

Nicolaus Copernicus University

Presentation title: The problem of the history of ancient philosophy, or the search for the lost Atlantis 

Abstract: The paper addresses the problem of the current interpretative model of the history of ancient philosophy. It attempts to indicate new research directions, leading to a paradigm shift and an expanded interpretation of ancient thought. The current textbook history of ancient philosophy is based on a convention set by a specific understanding of "philosophy" that assumes the centrality of Plato and Aristotle and understands Greek philosophy from the perspective presented in the lives of philosophers by Diogenes Laertius. Adopting such an understanding of philosophy separates alleged "philosophical" from "non-philosophical" literature, thus leading to dividing Greek thought using anachronistic categories. A new reconstruction of Greek thought should free itself from the primacy of the label of "that what is philosophical" and begin to study Greek literature in terms of particular doctrinal dependencies based on references and quotations, with specific emphasis on the significance of the literary genre. It should abandon the "absolutizing", "linear", and "cumulative" pattern of discussing the Greek philosophy and focus on an "immanent" reconstruction based on the understanding of "philosophy" and its course as it is presented in individual authors. This new project should be founded on the search for references in the form of paraphrases and quotations, that is, on unveiling the intertextual sphere of Greek literature, allowing us to determine the transmission and reception of specific ideas.