About the conference


Organized by the Croatian Philosophical Society and the Department of Philosophy of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in Split, the annual scientific conference Mediterranean Roots of Philosophy was launched in March 2007 in Split. It is a bilingual conference held in Croatian and English language. 

Over the past 18 years, the conference has brought together a number of domestic and international scientists and researchers. Contributions from the conference have been published in the international scientific journals Philosophical Investigations, Synthesis Philosophica and Methodological Review, as well as in three edited books: Filozofija Mediterana (Philosophy of the Mediterranean, 2009), Mediteranski korijeni filozofije (Mediterranean Roots of Philosophy, 2016), and Filozofija i kultura Mediterana (Philosophy and Culture of the Mediterranean, 2023.)


Why Mediterranean Roots of Philosophy?

Western philosophy and science begin their historical development at the start of the 6 century BC on the eastern shores of the Mediterranean sea, specifically in Asia Minor, in the Greek colonies of Miletus and Ephesus and surrounding islands; it then spreads to Elea and Sicily and reaches its peak in Athens, one of the centers of ancient Mediterranean. Later development of ancient philosophy, from Hellenism to the medieval epoch, through new intellectual centers of Alexandria, Antioch, Carthage, and Rome is also crucially related to the Mediterranean. Creation, conflict, and mutual permeation of Mediterranean cultures, a distinctive Mediterranean multiculturalism gave an essential mark to the future growth of philosophy in the West. Ancient Greece and Rome, the Hellenistic-Roman heritage, the Byzantine world, and Oriental Arabic traditions all blend into Arabic medieval philosophy, culture, and civilization. The Byzantines introduced the Arabs to Greek philosophy, and they, with their leading philosophers Avicenna, Averroes, and Ibn Haldun returned the forgotten legacy of Aristotelian philosophy to Europe. Because of that, our permanent focus is on exploring the Mediterranean roots of philosophy. 

The next aspect relevant for choosing this topic is the foundation of Croatian philosophy which, both in its beginnings and at its zenith, has its roots in the Mediterranean part of its multiregional cultural identity (Hermann of Dalmatia, Marko Marulic, Matthias Flacius Illyricus), Franciscus Patricius, Roger Joseph Boscovich). 

The third set of themes congenial to the idea of this symposium relates to the philosophical and interdisciplinary reflection of the peculiarities of the Mediterranean multicultural space which gave birth to the inter-civilizational tensions threatening to escalate into the clash of civilizations, but also open the possibility of dialogue and reconciliation (the Mediterranean sea divides, but also connects us). It suggests the following set of questions: