Ancient Philosophy

• Coordinator
• General
• Objects of Research
• Members
• Associated Members
• PhD Students

Coordinator

• K.A. Algra Utrecht University
• F.A.J. de Haas Leiden University

General

This research group studies the specific character and meaning of the ancient philosophical tradition and the special source tradition of this field. Research questions are: What is the nature of ancient philosophical problems and systems when analysed and explicated in their own intellectual and cultural context? What is the nature of our sources for ancient philosophy and how does the nature of the transmission and reception affect the interpretation of ancient philosophical texts? The group works along two main lines:

1. It studies ancient philosophical literature on the basis of its sources, with due attention to the transmission of these sources and its relevance for philosophical interpretation. This approach is clearly differentiated from the analytical/philosophical method that has conquered the Anglo-Saxon world - a method that tends to discuss questions and philosophers in an a-historical way. The group aims at achieving an interpretation that fully takes into account the intellectual, historical and cultural context.
2. The philosophical analysis of this material involves more than a narrowly philological interpretation: the historian of philosophy analyses texts not only in order to fit them into the historical development of philosophical problematics and systematics, but also because (s)he is concerned with fundamental philosophical problems that retain their actuality throughout the long tradition of Western philosophy.

Objects of Research

• The transmission of ancient philosophical texts
  Since a large portion of ancient philosophical literature is lost, scholars are continuously directed to fragmentary information and/or information transmitted at second hand. The nature of this process of transmission and reception has been unduly neglected in the 20th century study of ancient philosophy. The research group studies the ancient historiographical and doxographical tradition and prepares an edition of the fragments of the early Stoa.
• Analysis of ancient philosophical problematics
  Object of research are specific aspects of the ancient philosophical tradition, clustered around the philosophical problematic in Plato’s late works, Aristotle and Aristotelianism, and the philosophy of Hellenism and the Imperial period. Platonic studies concentrate on various central texts of the late period and their influence on the later tradition. Aristotle studies concentrate on three aspects of Aristotelian philosophy: physics, metaphysics and epistemology, and on their reception in the Hellenistic Peripatos and in the late antique commentaries. The study of the philosophical systems of the Hellenistic era investigate how these systems develop the achievements of the fourth century BCE, and how they react against them. A further research topic is the question how Jewish and Christian authors adopt and invoke philosophical themes taken from Plato and Aristotle in their study of biblical scriptures.

Members

• K.A. Algra (UU)
• R.M. van den Berg (UL)
• G.J. Boter (VU) 
• J.A. van Eck (RUG)
• F.A.J. de Haas (UL)
• C.C. de Jonge (UL)
• M.H. Koenen (VU) 
• J.M. van Ophuijsen (UU)
• M. van Raalte (UL)
• I. Sluiter (UL)
• T. Tieleman (UU)

Associated Members

• H. Baltussen (Adelaide)
• N. van der Ben (em. UvA)
• J.A.E. Bons (Univ.College/UU)
• A.P. Bos (VU)
• A.C. Geljon, P.S. Hasper (RUG)
• H.M. Keizer
• M.E.M.P.J. Leunissen (UL)
• J. Mansfeld (em. UU)
• D.T. Runia (Melbourne)
• P.H. Schrijvers (em. UL)

PhD Students

• F.A. Bakker (UU)
• M.L. Bartels (UL)
• G.K. Bos (VU)
• I.M. Conradie (UU)
• M.S.A. van Houte (UU)
• M. Martijn (UL)
• A. Ntinti (UU)
• C. van Sijl (UU)