SPIDER

Group

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Team

Frederik Bakker is assistant professor of Ancient Philosophy at Radboud University in Nijmegen, the Netherlands. He studied Civil Engineering at Delft University of Technology, and Classics at the University of Amsterdam, before obtaining a doctorate in ancient philosophy from Utrecht University, with a dissertation on Epicurean Cosmology under the supervision of Keimpe Algra. Bakker’s research focuses on ancient – especially Epicurean – physics and epistemology. His publications include a monograph on Epicurean Meteorology (Leiden: Brill 2016), and chapters and articles on Epicurean infinity, and Epicurus’ relation to doxography.

Project: In the context of the SPIDER project Frederik Bakker studies Gassendi’s reception of Epicurus’ method of multiple explanations, which may also shed some new light on Epicurus’ own understanding of the method. 

Another project that may be of some interest to the SPIDER project is his new Dutch translation of the fragments of Diogenes of Oinoanda (to appear in 2020), in preparation of which he will make a collation of the latest editions as well as an inventory of technical terms employed by Diogenes.

Relevant Publications:

  • Bakker, F.A. (2013), ‘Aëtius, Achilles, Epicurus and Lucretius on the Phases and Eclipses of the Moon’, Mnemosyne 66.4-5, 682-707.
  • Bakker, F.A. (2016), Epicurean Meteorology: Sources, Method, Scope and Organization (Philosophia Antiqua 142), Leiden: Brill, 2016.
  • Bakker, F.A. (2018), Review of: Jürgen Hammerstaedt, Pierre-Marie Morel, Refik Güremen (eds.), Diogenes of Oinoanda: Epicureanism and Philosophical Debates / Diogène d’Œnoanda: Épicurisme et controverses, Leuven: Leuven University Press, 2017, Syzetesis 5.1, 113-122.
  • Bakker, F.A. (2018), ‘The End of Epicurean Infinity: Critical Reflections on the Epicurean Infinite Universe’, in: Bakker, F.A., D.J. Bellis and C.R. Palmerino (eds.) (2018), Space, Imagination and the Cosmos from Antiquity to the Early Modern Period (Studies in History and Philosophy of Science 48), Cham (CH): Springer, 41-67.

Mauro Bonazzi is professor of Ancient and Medieval Philosophy at Utrecht University. He is working on Ancient Platonism in its relation with Hellenistic philosophy, most notably Stoicism and Epicureanism. He is the author of A la recherché des Idées. Platonism et philosophy hellénistique d’Antiochus à Plotin (Vrin 2015). He is currently working on a volume on The Sophists (Cambridge University Press, 2019).

Project: Goal of the project is an investigation of the Platonist reception of Epicurean philosophy. One major problem is the fragmentary evidence at our disposal; and, it is well known, Platonists are a major source for our knowledge of ancient Epicureanism. The problem, however, is that Platonists were not reliable witnesses, because their testimony often depended on their ideological assumptions. Goal of the project is to reconstruct such assumptions, and most notably the view that materialism is a misleading account of reality which leads to scepticism.

Relevant Publications:

  • Antioco di Ascalona su Ulisse e il desiderio umano di conoscenza (a proposito di Cicerone, Definibus bonorum et malorum, V 48-50), in E. Cattanei – C. Natali (eds.), Studi sul medioplatonismo e il neoplatonismo, Roma, Edizioni di Storia e Letteratura 2019, pp. 1-13 
  • The Platonist Appropriation of Stoic Epistemology, in T. Engeberg Pedersen (ed.), From Stoicism to Platonism. The Development of Philosophy 100 BCE – 100 CE, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2017, pp. 120-141 
  • Plutarch on the Difference between Academics and Pyrrhonists, in «Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy» 43 (2012), pp. 271-298
  • T. Bénatouïl - M. Bonazzi (eds.), Theoria, praxis and the Contemplative Life after Plato and Aristotle, Leiden, Brill («Philosophia antiqua», 131) 2012. 
  • En quête des Idées. Platonisme et philosophie hellénistique d’Antiochus à Plotin, Paris, Vrin («Histoire des doctrines de l’antiquité classique»), 2015.  

Francesco Cacciabaudo is a doctoral fellow in Classical Philology at the University of Cologne, within the “Integrated Track” programme at the a.r.t.e.s. Graduate School for Humanities. His dissertation revolves around the forty “Kyriai Doxai” of Epicurus, of which he explores textual transmission, literary form, philosophical aspects, and reception in antiquity. His research project is supervised by Prof. Jürgen Hammerstaedt (Cologne), Prof. Mauro Tulli (Pisa), and Prof. Pierre-Marie Morel (Paris).

Francesco Cacciabaudo completed his studies in Classical Philology, cum laude, at the University of Pisa in 2018. During his Master’s Degree, he studied for two semesters at the TU Berlin (2015) and at the University of Cologne (2016). Since April 2017 he has been working as a research assistant on several projects at the University of Cologne, including “Magica Levantina” (https://papyri.uni-koeln.de/magica-levantina/index.html) and “Fälschung einer Chronik – Chronik einer Fälschung” (http://ifa.phil-fak.uni-koeln.de/38381.html), thanks to which he gained valuable skills in Digital Humanities, Greek Palaeography and Papyrology.

Project: As part of the SPIN/SPIDER project, Francesco’s contribution will focus on the Epicurean maxims on epistemological subjects (sensation, opinion, and knowledge).

Studied Classics and Ancient Philosophy at the Università di Pisa and the Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa (2008-2012) as well as at the Eberhard-Karls-Universität Tübingen (2009-2010). DAAD doctoral fellowship at the Institute of Classical Philology, Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg (2013-2014). Research assistant (2014-2019) and lecturer (Summer Term 2018) at the Chair of Greek Philology (Prof. Dr. M. Erler). Redactional editor of the journal Würzburger Jahrbücher für die Altertumswissenschaft (2016-2019). 2019: PhD in History of Ancient Philosophy/Greek Philology at the Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa and at the Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg (cotutelle de thèse).

Member of the Mommsen-Gesellschaft (since 2015), the Sokratische Gesellschaft (since 2015) and the Würzburg Research Centre on Epicureanism (since 2014).

Links: Academia , Google Scholar , Würzburger Zentrum für Epikureismusforschung.

Project: My current research project concerns the reception of Epicurean philosophy in the writings of Galen of Pergamon (129-216 AD). Galen got to know Epicurus’ works in depth and dealt with them in various treatises on both medical and philosophical subjects, almost always in polemical tones. His most bitter criticisms are directed at Epicurus’ atomistic conception of nature and in particular his denial of the intervention of divine providence (πρόνοια) in natural pro- cesses. In Galen’s works, Epicurus’ atomism is very often related—sometimes even identified with it—to the particle theory of the physician and philosopher Asclepiades of Bithynia (2nd century BC): the study of this relationship represents one of the main points of the project. The research is carried out in parallel with an investigation of the intersections between philosophical thought and medical practice in the Hellenistic and Imperial age. The aim is to produce a translated and commented collection of fragments/testimonies in which one can recognise quotations or references, both implicit and explicit, to themes peculiar to the philosophy of Epicurus. The edition of the collection will be in digital form in order to guarantee free access and flexible updating of the research material. Depending on the funding available, a workshop on the subject will also be organised. 

A second research project focuses on the critical edition, with translation and commentary, of the hitherto unpublished PHerc. 1026, probably containing a treatise by an Epicurean author (see V. Damiani, Il PHerc. 1026: un trattato epicureo di argomento etico/epistemologico? Saggio di edizione, in: Cronache Ercolanesi 46 (2016) 5-19).

Relevant Publications: 

  1. Nota testuale a Epic. Ad Pyth. 101, in: Antiquorum Philosophia 6 (2012) 129-133. 
  2. Die kommunikativen Merkmale von Epikurs Kompendien und ihr Verhältnis zum Traktat Περὶ φύσεως, in: Würzburger Jahrbücher für die Altertumswissenschaft 39 (2015) 197-236. 
  3. Review of: G. Leone, Epicuro. Sulla natura, Libro II, Napoli 2012, in: Eikasmos 26 (2015) 436- 443.
  4. Il PHerc. 1026: un trattato epicureo di argomento etico/epistemologico? Saggio di edizione, in: Cronache Ercolanesi 46 (2016) 5-19. 
  5. Le epitomi di Epicuro: un modello di strategie comunicative per il De rerum natura, in: M. Tulli (ed.), Testo e forme del testo. Ricerche di filologia filosofica, Pisa/Roma: Fabrizio Serra Editore 2016, 257-279.
  6. Considerazioni su forme e funzioni dell’autocitazione negli scritti di Epicuro, in: Parole Rubate. Rivista internazionale di studi sulla citazione 19 (2019) 11-31. 
  7. Protreptic and Medicine: Galen, in: O. Alieva/A. Kotzé/S. van der Meeren (ed.), When Wisdom Calls. Philosophical Protreptic in Antiquity, Turnhout: Brepols 2018, 299- 317. 
  8. Das Verhältnis zwischen Adressat und Adressant in der Wissensvermittlung: Kommunikationsstrategien in Briefproömien und Widmungsbriefen, in: G. Müller/S. Retsch/J. Schenk (ed.), Adressat und Adressant. Kommunikationsstrategien im antiken Brief, Berlin/New York: De Gruyter 2020, 49-68.
  9. Art. Herculaneum Papyri, in: AncientThought.com. An Interactive Guide to Ancient Thought. Zugänglich unter: http://www.ancientphilosophytimeline.org/Timeline.html.

  10. The reception of atomism in ancient medical literature. From Hippocrates to Galen, in: U. Zilioli (ed.): Atomism in Philosophy. A History from Antiquity to the Present, London et al.: Bloomsbury 2020, 39–60.

  11. La Kompendienliteratur nella scuola di Epicuro. Forme, funzioni, contesto. Berlin/New York: De Gruyter 2021 (forthcoming).

11/16/2000: Degree in Greek Literature, University of Pisa (Dissertation: Observations on the fragments of the Hesiodic Catalog of Women. Supervisor: Professor Graziano Arrighetti): 110/110 with honors.

15/09/2004: PhD in Greek and Latin Philology, University of Florence (Dissertation: The Hmeric catalogic-technique. Supervisor: Professor Angelo Casanova).

01/2014: National Scientific Qualification to Second Level Professor, with unanimous vote, in the SC L-Fil-Let / 04 Classical and Late Ancient Philology (SSD L-Fil-Let / 05 Classical Philology). Validity 10/01 / 2014-10 / 01/2020.

09/2018: National Scientific Qualification to Second Level Professor, with unanimous vote, in the SC L-Fil-Let / 04 Classical and late ancient Philology (SSD L-Fil-Let / 05 Classical Philology). Validity from 09/19/2018 to 09/19/2024.

08/2018, National Scientific Qualification to Second Level Professor, with unanimous vote, in the SSD L-FIL-LET / 02, Greek Literature (valid from 03/08/2018 to 03/08/2024)

From 2004-2005 to 2012-2013: Scholarship at the C.I.S.P.E. (International Center for the Study of Herculaneum Papyri Marcello Gigante)

From 29 November 2019 Fellow (RTDB) at the Department of Humanities, Communication and Tourism (DISUCOM) - competition sector 10 / D4 Classical and late ancient Philology, ssd L-FIL-LET / 05 Classical Philology.

Project: Mi occuperò dell'edizione di Pitocle con Francesco Verde, per la parte filologica.

Relevant Publications:

  1. 2006: Omero e la sua esegesi nel De bono rege, in «Cronache Ercolanesi» 36/2006, 47-64. 
  2. 2007: Il sovrano a banchetto: prassi del simposio e etica dell'equilibrio nel De bono rege (PHerc. 1507, coll. XVI-XXI Dorandi), in «Cronache Ercolanesi» 37/2007, 49-65. 
  3. 2008: Il buon re di Filodemo tra Epicuro e Omero, in «Cronache Ercolanesi» 38/2008, 165-177. 
  4. 2010: Phronesis e phronimoi nel Giardino, in «Cronache Ercolanesi» 40/2010, 101-109. 
  5. 2011: Ω ΦΙΛΤΑΤΕ: il destinatario nelle opere del Kepos, in «Cronache Ercolanesi» 41/2011, 217-231.
  6. 2012: Utile a molti, utile al singolo: il proemio della lettera a Pitocle di Epicuro, in «Cronache Ercolanesi» 42/2012, 95-110.
  7. 2015: Questioni di stile: osservazioni sulla comunicazione del sapere nelle lettere maggiori di Epicuro, in D. De Sanctis, E. Spinelli, F. Verde, M. Tulli (ed.), Questioni epicuree, (Sankt Augustin: Academia Verlag, 2015), 59-71
  8. 2016: La biografia del Kepos e il profilo esemplare del saggio epicureo, in S. Schorn-M. Bonazzi (ed.), Bios Philosophos. Philosophy in Ancient Greek Biography (Turnhout: Brepols, 2016), 101-126
  9. 2019: Il βίος di Crantore nell’Academicorum Historia di Filodemo, in «Cronache Ercolanesi» 50/2019, 39-47.

03.2001 Degree in Classical Letters (Thesis: POxy 1012 Reconsidered), 110/110 with honors. University of Pisa.

09.2005 PhD in Greek and Latin Philology and Literature. University of Pisa (Dissertation: Beyond Didymus: exegesis to Demosthenes in the comments of the imperial age)

10.2005-11.2013 Scholarship, renewed annually, at the 'International Center for the Study of Herculaneum Papyri M. Gigante', Naples

2013- today Professor of Papyrology A (6CFU) for the master's degree in Philology and ancient history. Department of Philology, Literature and Linguistics. University of Pisa.

01. 2014 National Scientific Qualification to Second Level Professor, with unanimous vote, for the competition sector 10 / D4, Classical and late ancient Philology (valid 10.01.2014-10.01.2020)

Project: Il focus della ricerca sarà il pensiero scientifico epicureo che si ricava dall'espitolario di Epicuro.

Relevant Publications:

  1. 2019   La Lettera ai filosofi di Mitilene: una proposta di ricostruzione, «Cronache Ercolanesi» 49, 5-15
  2. 2016   Χρεῖα e φιλία: la prassi delle donazioni nel Κῆπος, in Tulli M. (ed.), Testo e     forme del testo. Ricerche di filologia filosofica, Pisa, pp. 281-315. ISBN 978-88-6227-789-1, ISSN: 1723-4433 
  3. 2015   Lettere dal Kepos: il concreto impegno di Epicuro i philoi, in D. De Sanctis, E. Spinelli, M. Tulli, F. Verde (ed.), Questioni Epicuree: epistemologia,    fisica, etica e le loro tradizioni, Roma. ISBN 978-3-89665-681-0
  4. 2015   Epicuro, Filodemo e la Retorica di Aristotele, in Centrone B. (ed.), La Retorica di Aristotele e la dottrina delle passioni, Pisa, pp. 33-61. ISBN 978-88-6741-45-2 
  5. 2012   Il sapiente e il retore in Filodemo, Retorica VII (PHerc. 1004, col. 50), «Cronache Ercolanesi»  42, pp. 189-192, ISSN: 0391-1535
  6. 2011   La retorica e l'epicureismo: una riflessione, «Cronache Ercolanesi»  41, pp. 187-205, ISSN: 0391-1535 
  7. 2010   Eraclito e l'inganno della retorica (PHerc. 1004, coll. 57-63), «Cronache Ercolanesi» 40, pp. 65-74, ISSN: 0391-1535
  8. 2009   Il retore e la città nella polemica di Filodemo verso Diogene di Babilonia PHerc. 1004, coll. 64-70, «Cronache Ercolanesi» 39, pp. 119-138, ISSN: 0391-1535

Michael Erler was Professor ordinarius of Classical Philology at the university of Wuerzburg (2019). He presently is Seniorprofessor and chair of the board of directors of the ‘Siebold Collegium. Institute for Advanced Studies (SCIAS)’ University of Wuerzburg. He is author of several books and articles on Plato, Platonism, Epicurus and the Epicurean tradition, drama, Hellenistic literature and literature of imperial times. He is interested in the relation between Literature and philosophy. He was President of the International Plato Society (2001-2004), Gesellschaft für antike Philosophie (2007-2010), Mommsen Gesellschaft, (2013-2015), Sokratische Gesellschaft (2010-2018).

Project: M. Erler (JMU Würzburg) is planning a second edition of M. Erler, Epikur – Die Schule Epikurs – Lukrez, in: H. Flashar (Hg.): Grundriss der Geschichte der Philosophie. Begründet von Friedrich Ueberweg. Völlig neu bearbeitete Ausgabe. Die Philosophie der Antike, 4. Die hellenistische Philosophie, Basel 1994, (490 pp.). This prestigious volume has really become a reference point for Epicurean studies. The new edition will have the same overall structure as the old one, but the text will cover new topics as well as new aspects of Epicurean philosophy and its reception. The interpretation will be based on the latest readings of the papyri from Herculaneum. For this purpose, Erler will be in close contact with the CISPE in Naples. He will ask scholars specialising in specific aspects of Epicurus’ works and the Epicurean tradition to participate in his project. The individual chapters will then be published under the name of M. Erler and of the colleagues willing to take part in our project. The new edition will be published by Schwabe Verlag, Basel, at first separately (chapter by chapter) and in digital form to ensure the constant updating of the contributions, then as a printed book in German, and finally in an English translation.

Relevant pubications:

  1. M.Erler - Philosophie, in: B. Zimmermann, A. Rengakos (Hgg.), Handbuch der griechischen Literatur der Antike. Zweiter Band: Die Literatur der klassischen und  hellenistischen Zeit, München 2014, 279-446 (= HGL II [2014] 279-446).(Epicurus 404-425
  2. La sacralizzazione di Socrate e di Epicuro, in: M. Beretta, F. Citti, A. Iannucci (Hgg.), Il culto di Epicuro. Testi, iconografia e paesaggio, Florenz 2015, 1-13.
  3. Hedonê in the Poets and Epicurus, in: R.A.H. King (Hg.), The Good Life and Conceptions of Life in Early China and Graeco-Roman Antiquity, Berlin / New York 2015, 303-318 (deutsch: Schmerzfreiheit als Lust. Traditionelles in Epikurs Hedonekonzept, in: M. Erler, W. Rother (Hgg.), Philosophie der Lust. Studien zum Hedonismus, Basel 2012, 53-69).
  4.  Parrhesy and irony: Plato’s Socrates and the Epicurean tradition, in: R.A.H. King, D. Schilling (Hgg.), How Should One Live? Comparing Ethics in Ancient China and Greco-Roman Antiquity, Berlin/New York 2011, 155-169 (deutsch: Parrhesie und Ironie. Platons Sokrates und die epikureische Tradition, in: R.F. Glei (Hg.), Ironie. Griechische und lateinische Fallstudien, Trier 2009, 59-75).
  5. Aphormen labein. Rhetoric and Epicurean Exegesis of Plato, in: D. De Sanctis, E. Spinelli, M. Tulli, F. Verde (Hgg.), Questioni epicuree, Sankt Augustin 2015, 113-128.
  6. Epikur oder die Kunst, in Gemeinschaft zu leben, in: G. Ernst (Hg.), Philosophie als Lebenskunst. Antike Vorbilder, moderne Perspektiven, Berlin 2016, 66-87.
  7.  Otium als negotium – Epikureische Briefe: Themen und Funktionen, in: F.C. Eickhoff (Hg.), Muße und Rekursivität in der antiken Briefliteratur, Tübingen 2016, 61-73.
  8. Diogenes against Plato. Diogenes’ Critique and the Tradition of Epicurean Antiplatonism, in: J. Hammerstaedt, P.-M. Morel, R. Güremen (Hgg.), Diogenes of Oenoanda. Epicureanism and Philosophical Debates. Diogène d’Œnoanda. Épicurisme et controverses, Leuven 2017, 51-56.
  9. Beweishäufung bei Lukrez. Zum Verhältnis von Philosophie und Rhetorik in philosophischer Litertur, in: G.M. Müller, F. Mariani (Hgg.), Philosophie in Rom - Römische Philosophie, Berlin/Boston 2018, 175-188.
  10. Epikureismus in der Kaiserzeit, in: Ch. Riedweg/Ch. Horn/D. Wyrwa (Hgg.), Grundriss der Geschichte der Philosophie. Begründet von Friedrich Ueberweg. Völlig neu bearbeitete Ausgabe. Die Philosophie der Antike, 5/1. Philosophie der Kaiserzeit und der Spätantike, Basel 2018, 197-211; 242-249
  11. Educational Travels and Epicurean Prokoptontes: Vergil’s Aeneas as an Epicurean Telemachus, in: Maria Liatsi (Hg.), Ethics in Ancient Greek Literature. Aspects of Ethical Reasoning from Homer to Aristotle and beyond, Berlin/Boston 2020, 193-205.
  12. Plutarch, in: Ph. Mitsis (Hg.), Oxford Handbook of Epicurus and Epicureanism, Oxford 2020, 507-530.
  13. Zur Bedeutung des Epikureismus für die platonische Ethik, in: Ch. Pietsch u.a. (Hgg.), Der Platonismus in der Antike Band 8.2, Die philosophische Lehre des Platonismus. Die Ethik im antiken Platonismus der Kaiserzeit. Bausteine 231–252: Text, Übersetzung, Kommentar, Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt 2020, 513-519

 

 

Holger Essler studied at Naples, Oxford, Pisa, Potdsdam, and Würzburg, where he obtained his PhD. He is senior lecturer in classics, papyrology and digital humanities at Würzburg University and associate professor of papyrology at Ca'Foscari University. He is vice-director of the Venice Centre in Digital and Public Humanities and director of Anagnosis, a project for aligning letters in images and transcriptions of literary papyri. Together with G. Del Mastro he is co-directing the creation of a full text database of all Herculaneum papyri (epikur-wuerzburg.de/thv). His research interests comprise Epicurean theology, Herculaneum papyri and the philology of Epicurean texts.

Links: www.epikur-wuerzburg.de

Project: Creation of a semantic media wiki on Epicureanism on the basis of the existing Wiki on Herculaneum papyri (epikur-wuerzburg.de/HercWiki). Enlarging and enriching the text database of Herculaneum Papyri (on papyri.info, overview on epikur-wuerzburg.de/thv).

Relevant Publications: 

  1. H. Essler: Glückselig und unsterblich. Epikureische Theologie bei Cicero und Philodem. Mit einer Edition von PHerc. 152/157, Kol. 8-10 (Basel 2011)
  2. H. Essler: Copy-Paste in der Antike, ZPE 212 (2019), 1–24.
  3. H. Essler: P.Herc. 152/157 – an Author's Master Copy, Segno e Testo 15 (2017), 57-80.
  4. H. Essler: "Philodemus of Gadara". In Oxford Bibliographies in Classics, ed. Dee Clayman, New York: Oxford University Press, 27 April 2017. doi: 10.1093/obo/9780195389661-0246
  5. H. Essler: Ehebruch bei Göttern und Steinen (PHerc. 152/157, Frg. 42, 25-Frg. 78, 9), CErc. 46 (2016) 101-108.
  6. H. Essler:  Zusammenhang bei Einzelsätzen. Zum assoziativen Aufbau der epikureischen κύριαι δόξαι, in: I. Männlein-Robert, W. Rother, S. Schorn, C. Tornau (Hgg.): Philosophus Orator. Rhetorische Strategien und Strukturen in philosophischer Literatur, Basel 2016, 145-160.
  7. H. Essler: Space and Movement in Philodemus' De dis 3: an Anti-Aristotelian Account, in: G. Ranocchia, C. Helmig, C. Horn (Hgg.): Space in Hellenistic Philosophy. Critical Studies in Ancient Physics, Berlin/Boston 2014, 101-123.
  8. H. Essler: Die Lust der Freundschaft und die Lust des Freundes von Epikur bis Cicero, in: Michael Erler, Wolfgang Rother (Hg.): Philosophie der Lust. Studien zum Hedonismus (Basel 2012. Schwabe Epicurea III), 139-60.
  9. H. Essler: Eine Auslegung Epikurs theologischer Schriften, CErc. 41 (2011) 13-25.
  10. H. Essler: Cicero's use and abuse of Epicurean theology, in: Jeffrey Fish, Kirk Sanders (Hg.): Epicurus and the Epicurean Tradition, Cambridge 2011, 129-51.

I have been a research engineer at the CNRS (Centre Jean Pépin UMR8230 CNRS-ENS-PSL) since 2009, specializing in the analysis of Ancient philosophical sources, digital humanities and scientific information. I am a founder member of the IPhiS-CIRIS project, a bibliographical database of classical sources and editions.

My own research since my PhD (2007) focuses on Ancient philosophy and the history of medicine. I work more specifically on ancient Epicureanism, Scepticism, Hippocratic and Galenic medicine, and more generally on the history of Empiricism and its links with certain ethical positions in Antiquity. I am also interested in the transmission of Epicurean texts in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, and more broadly in the editorial history of Epicureanism.

Project: After several years devoted to the study of the epicurean scientific method, my current research focuses on the ethical and especially political implications of the epistemological prerequisites of Ancient Epicureanism. The empirical methodological principles that govern all opportunities for knowledge acquisition and validation for Epicurus and its followers are equally valid to guide individual and collective decision-making. The key concept of this research is that of "empirical reasoning", epilogismos, a recurrent technical term throughout the Epicurean corpus, which has the particularity of appearing both in texts devoted to the theory of knowledge and in ethical and anthropological contexts. The main objective of my work is to underline the extreme coherence of Epicurean doctrine, by showing how epistemology is the foundation and constant support of all aspects of human existence. The use of digital tools, first and foremost the semantic markup of Epicurean texts in xml-TEI, should make it possible to extract and enhance a vocabulary network built around the notion of "reasoning" (logismos), which I wish to show that it is used by Epicureans indifferently in epistemological, political and ethical texts.

Relevant Publications:

  1. « L'histoire du Jardin comme école : Entre réalité historique et utopie philosophiq » ue. Mètis - Anthropologie des mondes grecs anciens, Daedalus/EHESS, 2018, Place aux objets ! Présentification et vie des artefacts en Grèce ancienne, pp.237-260. ⟨hal-01949738⟩
  2. Julie Giovacchini. L'empirisme d'Epicure. Classiques Garnier, 2012, Les Anciens et les modernes, 978-2-8124-0504-4. ⟨hal-01267360⟩
  3. Julie Giovacchini, Christophe Darras, Daniel Delattre, Joëlle Delattre-Biencourt. Vocabulaire de l'épicurisme. Daniel Delattre; Jackie Pigeaud. Les Epicuriens, Gallimard, pp.1425-1460, 2010, Bibliothèque de la Pléiade, 9782070116591. ⟨hal-02376095⟩

Jean-Baptiste Gourinat is ‘Directeur de recherche’ at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (Paris) and director of the Centre Léon Robin (CNRS / Sorbonne Université). He is the author of several books and articles on Stoic philosophy, Aristotle and Plotinus, notably on the logic and epistemology of these philosophies. He has worked on the relationship between Stoicism and Epicureanism, and he has also reedited Guyau’s classik book on Epicurus.

Relevant Publications:

  1. Jean-Marie Guyau, La morale d’Épicure (1874), préface et traduction des notes par J.-B. Gourinat, Fougères, Encre Marine, 2002.

  2. « L’origine des pensées : un bien commun des épicuriens et des stoïciens », dans E. Végléris (éd.), Cosmos et psychè. Mélanges offerts à Jean Frère, Hildesheim-Zürich-New York, Olms, 2005, p. 271-291.

  3. « Ethics », dans M. van Ackeren (éd.), A Companion to Marcus Aurelius, Malden-Oxford, Wiley-Blackwell, 2012, p. 420-436.
  4. « La critique des stoïciens dans l’inscription d’Œnoanda », dans J. Hammerstaedt, P.-M. Morel, R. Güremen (eds.), Diogenes of Oinoanda. Epicureanism and Philosophical Debates / Diogène d’Œnoanda. Épicurisme et controverse, Leuven, Leuven University Press, 2017, ‘Ancient and Medieval Philosophy – Series 1’, n° 55, p. 165-185.
  5. « L’épistémologie stoïcienne », Lexicon Philosophicum, Special Issue (2018), p. 123-144.
  6. « L’athéisme antique, entre accusation et réalité »,  dans B. Collette-Ducic, M.-A. Gavray, J.-M. Narbonne (éds), L’esprit critique dans l’Antiquité. I. Critique et licence dans l’Antiquité, Paris, Les Belles-Lettres, 2019, p. 167-189.

Contribution to SPIDER: Prolepsis between Epicurean and Stoic Philosophy (Paris, 2021)

Curriculum vitae

  • 1978-1988 Studies in Classics at University of Cologne, Düsseldorf, Pisa, and St. John’s College, Oxford
  • 1988 Doctorate in Classics at University of Cologne
  • 1988-1991 Scholarship at the Centro Internazionale per lo Studio dei Papiri Ercolanesi, Napoli
  • 1991-1996 Researcher at Dölger-Institut für die Erforschung der Spätantike at Bonn University    (working on Reallexikon für Antike und Christentum)
  • 1996-2001 Researcher at Arbeitsstelle für Papyrologie, Epigraphik und Numismatik der Nordrhein-  Westfälischen Akademie der Wissenschaften at Cologne University
  • 1999 Venia legendi (Habilitation) in Classics
  • 2000 Substitute professur of Latin at University of Potsdam
  • 2000-2004 Chair of Greek Philology at Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena
  • since 2004 Chair of Classics and Papyrology (C4) at Cologne University

Appointments and assignments

  • Member of Committees Griechische Christliche Schriftsteller der ersten Jahrhunderte (2005-2010) and Die antiochenische und alexandrinische Bibelexegese in der Spätantike (since 2010) of the Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  • Ordinary member of North-Rhine Westphalian Academy of Sciences, Humanities and Arts (since 2005); Vice speaker (Stellvertretender Sekretar) of the Klasse für Geisteswissenschaften of the North-Rhine Westphalian Academy of Sciences, Humanities and Arts (since 2017), speaker (Sekretar) since 2019.
  • Member of the Zentraldirektion of Deutsches Archäologisches Institut (2010-2020)
  • Member of the Consiglio direttivo of the Centro Internazionale per lo Studio dei Papiri Ercolanesi in Napoli (since 2010), since 2017 vice-president.
  • Member of the Presidium of the Mommsen-Gesellschaft e.V. / Verband der deutschsprachigen Forscherinnen und Forscher auf dem Gebiete des Griechisch-Römischen Altertums (since 2011), since 2019 president (Erster Vorsitzender)
  • Member of the Comité International de Papyrologie of the Association Internationale de Papyrologues (since 2013)

Project: My contribution to the research on “Science and philosophical debates” will mainly focus on the fragments of the Epicurean inscription of Diogenes of Oinoanda (2nd Cent. AD). First of all, I will be available for any informations about the actual state of research on those fragments which appear to be important for the project. Moreover I will investigate all questions related to the project which concern Diogenes’ text and its interpretation. And at the final conference at Venice in 2021 I plan to give an account of the progress brought by the project for a deeper understanding of this singular inscription.

Useful links on Diogenes of Oinoanda:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1s-z7uZd9X8&t=222s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gvKjbuntLLA&t=11s

Relevant Publications: 

  1. J. Hammerstaedt, “Der Schlußteil von Philodems drittem Buch über Rhetorik”, in: Cronache Ercolanesi 22 (1992) 9-117
  2. J. Hammerstaedt, “Atomismo e libertà nel XXV libro Περὶ φύσεως di Epicuro”, in: Cronache Ercolanesi 33 (2003) 151-158
  3. J. Hammerstaedt / M.F. Smith, The Epicurean Inscription of Diogenes of Oinoanda. New discoveries and research (Bonn 2014)
  4. J. Hammerstaedt / M.F. Smith, “Diogenes of Oinoanda. The New and Unexpected Discoveries of 2017 (NF 214-219), with a Reedition of Fr. 70-72”, in: Epigraphica Anatolica 51 (2018) 43-79
  5. J. Hammerstaedt, “Keine Furcht mit Diogenes! Die Beherrschung von Empfindungen in der philosophischen Inschrift von Oinoanda”, in: Elenchos 39 (2018) 301-322

I have been working as a teaching assistant and lecturer at the Department of Classics of JMU Würzburg since 2007 where I also received my Master's degree in Classics for teaching purposes (German: Staatsexamen) in 2006 as well as my PhD in 2013. Since December 2015, I have been working at JMU Würzburg as post-doctoral researcher (German: Akademischer Rat) and preparing my habilitation thesis on Hellenistic Greek oratory and Rhetoric, intermitted by a stay as research fellow at the University of Roehampton (London) from January 2018 until June 2019.

Hellenistic rhetoric was already part of my dissertation on Epicurus, published as Epikur, Brief an Menoikeus. Edition, Übersetzung, Einleitung und Kommentar at Schwabe Verlag Basel in 2014 and topic of several articles as well as conference papers that I presented in Germany as well as abroad, e.g. in Rome, Moscow, and London.

Project: 

Ongoing research on the field of Epicureanism

My work on the field of Epicurean literature concentrates mostly on the cultural and literary framework of the texts.  I am especially interested in how the Epicureans refer to texts of other authors and use well-established genres of literature and literary techniques in their very own way to promote their teachings—even if they are considered as opponents of rhetoric, poetry, etc. My work in this area already began with my commented edition of Epicurusʼ Letter to Menoeceus.

Momentarily, I am preparing an article on Epicurean allegiance from the inside perspective, that is a reappraisal of the relationship between the master's absolute authority and the desire of his followers to interpret his texts and to develop own ideas which lead to remarkable results in texts of (not only) Lucretius and Philodemus. The fundament of this tension and the solution for alleged contradictions can be found in the texts of Epicurus himself.

In the near future, I am planning to work on echoes of Greek archaic lyric in Lucretiusʼ De rerum natura. I will also return to the desperate passage Letter to Menoeceus 124 to explore the wording ὁμοίους ἀποδέχονται ... ἀρεταῖς in view of Hellenistic art theory as well as of Greek cult terminology. Lastly, I would like to take another look at common features of Greek mystery cults and Epicureanism that might also help us to understand better expressions like ἀπλανής θεωρία. All these studies most of all examine the origin of concepts, literary strategies, and terminology used by Epicurus and his followers to free mankind from fear through their philosophia medicans based on natural science.

Ongoing collaborative projects

  1. Collective volume Authority and Use of Authoritative texts in the Epicurean Tradition. Role: Editor with Michael Erler and Federico Petrucci. 
  2. Second edition of Michael Erler, ‟Epikur – Die Schule Epikurs – Lukrez”, in: Michael Erler (ed.): Grundriss der Geschichte der Philosophie. Begründet von Friedrich Ueberweg. Völlig neu bearbeitete Ausgabe. Die Philosophie der Antike, 4. Die hellenistische Philosophie. Role: Project coordinator and author of article revisions.
  3. Third edition of Graziano Arrighetti, Epicuro: Opere. Role: Part of the editorial team of the universities of Pisa, Würzburg, and Naples under the lead of Mauro Tulli. Edition and Commentary of the Letter to Menoeceus. 
  4. Participation in the development process of various other projects planned by members of the Würzburger Zentrum für Epikureismusforschung (Würzburg Center of Epicurean Studies)

Relevant Publications:

  1. Ergebnisse der Arbeit am Kommentar zu Epikurs Brief an Menoikeus: Ep. Men. 124, in: Studi Classici e Orientali 54 (2008, publ. 2010) 11-67.
  2. Proposte sulla data di composizione e il destinatario dell’Epistola a Meneceo, in: Cronache Ercolanesi 41 (2011) 7-11. 
  3. Epikur, Brief an Menoikeus. Edition, Übersetzung, Einleitung und Kommentar, Basel 2014.
  4. Art. “Epikur(eismus)”, in: H. Heinen et al. (ed.), Handwörterbuch der antiken Sklaverei (CD-ROM IV 2013). 
  5. Das Gedenken an Verstorbene in der Schule Epikurs in der Tradition der ἐπιτάφιοι λόγοι, in: D. De Sanctis, E. Spinelli, M. Tulli, F. Verde (edd.), Questioni epicuree, Sankt Augustin 2015, 95-112.
  6. τὸν σοφὸν οὐ δοκεῖ ῥητορεύσειν καλῶς? Rhetorik in Texten Epikurs, in: I. Männlein-Robert, W. Rother, S. Schorn, C. Tornau (edd.), Philosophus orator. Rhetorische Strategien und Strukturen in philosophischer Literatur, Basel 2016, 138-158.
  7. Socratic protreptic and Epicurus: Healing through philosophy, in: C. Moore, A. Stavru (edd.), Socrates and the Socratic Dialogue, Philosophia Antiqua, Leiden/Boston 2017, 665–681.
  8. Plato, Hyperides, and Hellenistic cult practice. On the commemoration of the dead in the school of Epicurus, in: Mnemosyne 71 (2018) 408-433. 
  9. Protreptic and Epistolography, in: in: O. Alieva, A. Kotzé, S. van der Meeren (edd.), When Wisdom Calls: Philosophical Protreptic in Antiquity, Turnhout 2018, 155-175. 
  10. ἄφθαρτός μοι περιπάτει καὶ ἡμᾶς ἀφθάρτους διανοοῦ. Korrespondenz unter gottgleichen Freunden und Lehrbriefe in der Schule Epikurs, in: G.M. Müller, S. Retsch., J. Schenk (edd.), Adressat und Adressant: Kommunikationsstrategien im antiken Brief (in print, 2019).
  11. Ein Gott unter Menschen. Epikur und die ὁμοίωσις θεῷ in Isokrates’ Euagoras in ihrem Verhältnis zu Platon (under review)

 

 

David Konstan is Professor of Classics at New York University.   

He is the author of The Emotions of the Ancient Greeks (2006); “A Life Worthy of the Gods”: The Materialist Psychology of Epicurus (2008); Before Forgiveness: The Origins of a Moral Idea (2010); Beauty: The Fortunes of an Ancient Greek Idea (2014); and In the Orbit of Love: Affection in Ancient Greece and Rome (2018).  He is a past president of the American Philological Association, and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and Honorary Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities.

Project: I propose to set out the essential features of Epicurean atomic theory, in the context of ongoing debates in ancient Greek and Roman philosophy concerning the natural universe.  In particular, I aim to show that Epicurean atomism constitutes a coherent system, and that it is not vulnerable to the attacks that ancient and modern have levelled at it – in particular, the idea that the Epicurean theory of minima is incompatible with mathematics.

Relevant Publications: 

  1. Lucrezio e la psicologia epicurea.  Milan: Vita e Pensiero, 2007 
  2. “Περíληψις in Epicurean Epistemology,” Ancient Philosophy 13 (1993) 125-37
  3. “Epicurus,” in The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (www. http://plato.stanford.edu/ archives/spr2005/entries/epicurus) 2005; revised 2009, 2014. 
  4. “L’âme,” in Alain Gigandet and Pierre-Marie Morel, eds., Lire Épicure et les épicuriens (Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 2007) 99-116 
  5. “Epicurus on the Gods,” in Jeffrey Fish and Kirk Sanders, eds., Epicurus and the Epicurean Tradition (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011) 53-71 
  6. “Epicurean Happiness: A Pig’s Life?,” Journal of Ancient Philosophy 6 (2012) 
  7. “Epicurus on the Void,” in Graziano Ranocchia, Christoph Helmig, and Christoph Horn, eds., Space in Hellenistic Philosophy: Critical Studies in Ancient Physics (Berlin: de Gruyter, 2014) 83-99. 
  8. “Minima and the Speed of Images in Epicurus,” in Francesca Guadalupe Masi and Stefano Maso, eds., Epicurus on Eidola.  Peri Phuseos Book II: Update, Proposals and Discussions (Amsterdam: Adolf M. Hakkert, 2015) 135-50
  9. “Freedom of the Will in Epicurus,” Bollettino della Società Filosofica Italiana 215 (2015) 3-14
  10. “Where in the Psyche Are Mental Pleasures Experienced?” in Dino De Sanctis, Emidio Spinelli, Mauro Tulli and Francesco Verde, eds., Questioni epicuree (Sankt Augustin: Akademia Verlag, 2015) 151-58
  11. “Epicurean phantasia,” in Ermanno Malaspina and Jula Wildberger, eds., Axiological Confusion and its Causes, special issue of Πηγη/Fons: Revista de Estudios sobre la Civilización Clásica y su Recepción
  12. “Lucrezio e la scienza moderna: alcuni punti di contatto,” Griseldaonline 17 (2018) https://doi.org./10.6092/issn.1721-4777/9396/9169
  13. “Lucretius and the Conscience of an Epicurean,” Politeia 1.2 (2019) 68-80

Giuliana Leone is Associate Professor in Papyrology in the University of Naples Federico II. Her area of specialization is Herculaneum Papyrology. She published critical editions of Epicurus’ On Nature Books XIV (1984), XXXIV (2002: Theodor Mommsen International Award 2003), and II (2012, with a multi-medial CD-ROM). In view of these editions she published several preparatory works about problems of reconstructing carbonized rolls and about some aspects of Epicurus’ doctrine. She also published some works on the digitalization of ancient inventories of Herculaneum Papyri and on the history of the studies of Herculaneum Papyrology.

She is now working or is going to work at the critical editions of Epicurus’ On Nature Books XI (PHerc. 1042 e 154), XXI (PHerc. 362), and XXVIII (PHerc. 1479/1417); in «Cronache Ercolanesi» 48/2018 she proposed to identify the third book of the same work in PHerc. 1811/335.

Since 1983 she has presented papers at several International Congresses. In 2011 she was Visiting Professor in Würzburg. She taught in PhD courses in Naples, Milan, Pisa, Aix-en-Provence, Wien, and Rome. She works in collaboration with the National Library in Naples, the University of Pisa, the Julius-Maximilians University at Würzburg, the Friends of Herculaneum Papyri in Oxford.

Since 2018 she is one of the Directors of «Cronache Ercolanesi»; since 2002 she has been in the Editorial Board of «Cronache Ercolanesi», and since 2012 in the Scientific Committee of the same review. Since 2009 she is a member of the Centro Internazionale per lo Studio dei Papiri Ercolanesi ‘Marcello Gigante’. 

Project: Giuliana Leone plans to work on the edition on Book 11 of Epicurus’ On nature, an absolutely crucial text for the present project which – aside from the one Arrighetti produced back in 1973 – lacks a reliable critical edition offering a historico-philosophical commentary, as well as on the re-editing of Books 21 and 28. She also plans to revise those passages from Book 34 useful for the investigation of Epicurean science.

Relevant Publications for the project:

Forthcoming

  • G. Leone, Epicuro e ‘le voci delle cose’, in G. Leone-F.G. Masi-F. Verde (a cura di), ‘Vedere’ l’invisibile. Rileggendo il XXXIV libro Sulla natura di Epicuro, Sesto Supplemento a «Cronache Ercolanesi», Napoli 2020, pp. 71-83, forthcoming
  • G. Leone, «Connessioni» scorrette e «connessioni» insospettate nell’XI libro Sulla natura di Epicuro, «CErc» 50/2020, pp. 15-25, forthcoming
  • G. Leone, Orthodoxy and Auctoritas: Περὶ φύϲεωϲ in the Tradition of the School of Epicurus, in M. Erler-J.E. Heßler-F.M. Petrucci (eds.), Allegiance, System, and Use of Texts. On Auctoritas of the Master and Dealing with Authoritative Texts in Platonism and Epicureanism in the Hellenistic and Imperial Age, forthcoming
  • G. Leone, Tracce del lessico del comico in Filodemo, in G. Massimilla-F. Conti Bizzarro-M. Lamagna (a cura di), Studi in onore di Giuseppina Matino, forthcoming
  • G. Leone, La stabilità della terra nella dottrina di Epicuro: Lucrezio lettore dell’XI libro Sulla natura, in M. Paladini (a cura di), Studi in onore di Enrico Flores, forthcoming
  • G. Leone, “Edizioni” e “riedizioni” di testi filosofici nella Villa ercolanese dei Papiri tra tarda repubblica e prima età imperiale, in C. Capaldi (a cura di), Augusto e la Campania: da Ottaviano a Divo Augusto (14-2014 d.C.), Atti dell’Incontro Internazionale di Studio, Napoli 14 e 15 Maggio 2015, forthcoming
  • G. Del Mastro-G. Leone, PHerc. 986 cr 8, pz 1: un aneddoto su Alessandro?, in G. Bastianini-F. Maltomini-D. Manetti-D. Minutoli-R. Pintaudi (a cura di), “e me l'ovrare appaga”. Papiri e saggi in onore di Gabriella Messeri, Firenze 2020, pp. 351-369, forthcoming
  • G. Del Mastro-G. Leone, Il P.Herc. 986: un testo etico di Filodemo?, in M. Capasso-P. Davoli, Atti del XXIX Congresso Internazionale di Papirologia, Lecce 2019, forthcoming

 

  1. F. Longo Auricchio-G. Indelli-G. Leone-G. Del Mastro, La Villa dei Papiri. Una residenza antica e la sua biblioteca, Roma 2020, ISBN-10: 8843098942 ISBN-13: 978-8843098941
  2. G. Indelli-G. Leone, Gli Epicurei e il culto della memoria, in V. Lucherini-M. Squillante (a cura di), La memoria post mortem dall’Antichità al Medioevo, Roma 2019, pp. 27-41, ISBN 978-88-3313-153-5
  3. G. Leone, Maria Amalia di Sassonia nel ‘lavoratorio’ dei Papiri Ercolanesi, in M. Osanna-C. Capaldi (a cura di), La cultura dell’antico a Napoli nel Secolo dei Lumi. Omaggio a Fausto Zevi nel dì genetliaco - Atti del Convegno Internazionale, Napoli 14-16 novembre 2018, Roma 2020, pp. 77-87, ISBN: 9788891320414
  4. G. Leone, La biblioteca di Filodemo, dopo Filodemo, in G. Polara (a cura di), OMNE TULIT PUNCTUM QUI MISCUIT UTILE DULCI, Studi in onore di Arturo De Vivo, Napoli 2020, pp. 557- 573, ISBN 978-88-7607-208-6
  5. G. Leone, Empedocles in the Herculaneum Papyri: An Update, in C. Vassallo (ed.), Presocratics and Papyrological Tradition. A Philosophical Reappraisal of the Sources (Berlin-Boston 2019), pp. 299-232
  6. G. Leone, (con S. Carrelli) Per l’edizione di Epicuro, Sulla natura, libro incerto (P.Hercul. 1811/335), in A. Nodar, S. Torallas Tovar (eds.), Proceedings of the 28 International Congress of Papyrology (Barcelona 2019), pp. 274-288
  7. G. Leone, Il PHerc. 1811/335: Epicuro, Sulla natura, libro III?, «CErc» 48 (2018), pp. 5-24
  8. G. Leone, Lucrezio tra poesia, filosofia e scienza, «CErc» 47 (2017), pp. 295-304
  9. G. Leone, Diogène d’OEnoanda et la polémique sur les meteora, in J. Hammerstaedt, P.-M. Morel. R. Güremen (eds.), Diogenes of Oinoanda, Epicureanism and Philosophical Debates/Diogène d'Oenoanda, Epicurisme et Controversies (Leuven 2017), pp. 89-110
  10. G. Leone, Epicuro e la forza dei venti, in D. De Sanctis, E. Spinelli, M. Tulli, F. Verde (a cura di), Questioni epicuree (Sankt Augustin 2016), pp. 159-177
  11. G. Leone, I papiri del Περὶ φύϲεωϲ di Epicuro nella storia dell’Officina dei Papiri Ercolanesi, in A. Casanova, G. Messeri, R. Pintaudi (a cura di), “e sì d’amici pieno”. Omaggio di studiosi italiani a Guido Bastianini per il suo settantesimo compleanno, Papyrologica Florentina XLV/1 (Firenze 2016), pp. 233-250
  12. G. Leone, Nuovi spunti di riflessione sulla dottrina epicurea degli eidola dalla rilettura del II libro Sulla natura, in F.G. Masi, S. Maso (a cura di), Epicurus On eidola. Peri phuseos Book II. Update, Proposals, and Discussions (Amsterdam 2015), pp. 35-53
  13. G. Leone, Appendice, in F.G. Masi, S. Maso (a cura di), Epicurus On eidola. Peri phuseos Book II. Update, Proposals, and Discussions (Amsterdam 2015), pp. 191-209
  14. G. Leone, Osservazioni sui papiri ercolanesi di Epicuro, «Studi di Egittologia e di Papirologia», XI (2014), pp. 83-109
  15. G. Leone, Epicuro, Sulla natura, libro II. Edizione, traduzione e commento a cura di Giuliana Leone. La Scuola di Epicuro, Collezione di testi ercolanesi fondata da Marcello Gigante e diretta da Graziano Arrighetti e Francesca Longo Auricchio, vol. XVIII (Napoli 2012)
  16. G. Leone, Reconstructing PHerc. 1783/1691/1010 and PHerc. 1149/993 (Epicurus, On nature, Book II), in M. Erler-W. Rother (eds.). Philosophie der Lust. Studien zum Hedonismus (Basel 2012), pp. 105-112
  17. G. Leone, Il P.Herc. 1149/993 (Epicuro, Sulla natura, libro II): una nuova ipotesi di ricostruzione, in P. Schubert (éd.), Actes du 26e Congrès International de Papyrologie (Ginevra 2012), pp. 429-435
  18. G. Leone, Il PHerc. 1010 (Epicuro, Sulla natura, libro II): anatomia del rotolo, in Proceedings of the 25th International Congress of Papyrology (Ann Arbor 2010), pp. 409-426
  19. G. Leone, Per la ricostruzione del PHerc. 1149/993 (Epicuro, Della natura, libro II), in Proceedings of the 24th International Congress of Papyrology (Helsinki 2007), vol. II, pp. 549-558
  20. G. Leone, Rileggendo il XXVIII libro Della natura di Epicuro: riflessioni e proposte, «CErc» 33 (2003), pp. 159-164
  21. G. Leone, Epicuro, Della natura, libro XXXIV (PHerc. 1431), «CErc» 32 (2002), pp. 7-135
  22. G. Leone, Epicuro, Della natura, libro XIV, «CErc» 14/1984, pp. 17-107

Stéphane Marchand (Link) is Lecturer in Ancient Philosophy at the University Paris 1 - Panthéon Sorbonne, member of the research center Gramata (Link).

His main field of research lies on Ancient Scepticism on which he wrote several papers and the book Le scepticisme (Vrin, 2018).

Project:  

  • (with P.-M. Morel) Organisation of the third meeting in Paris (January 2021)
  • (with J. Giovacchini) Digital edition of Diogenes Laertius book X (XML-TEI) with an index
  • personnal contribution : The sceptical use of epicurean notion of prolepsis

Relevant Publications:

  1. Machuca D., Marchand S., (2019), Les Raisons du doute. Études sur le scepticisme antique, Machuca, Diego E. and Marchand, Stéphane. Classiques Garnier, 2019, Études de philosophie, 978-2-406-07735-0. ⟨10.15122/isbn.978-2-406-07737-4⟩
  2. Marchand S., (2019), Énésidème et le phénomène commun Relativisme, empirisme et scepticisme, Les Raisons du doute Études sur le scepticisme antique, Classiques Garnier, pp.241-270, 2019, Études de philosophie, 978-2-406-07735-0. ⟨10.15122/isbn.978-2-406-07737-4.p.0241⟩
  3. Marchand S., (2018), Les sceptiques : vivre sans opinions, Vrin, 2018, Bibliothèque des philosophies
  4. Marchand S., (2015), Sextus Empiricus : les effets politiques de la suspension du jugement, Elenchos (Rivista di studi sul pensiero antico), 2015, XXXV (2), pp.311-342
  5. Marchand S., (2015), Sextus Empiricus, Scepticisme et philosophie de la vie quotidienne, Philosophie antique - problèmes, renaissances, usages , Presses universitaires du Septentrion, 2015, Questions sur le scepticisme pyrrhonien, pp.91-119. ⟨10.4000/philosant.366⟩
  6. Marchand S., (2016), Religion et piété sceptique selon Sextus Empiricus, Anne-Isabelle Bouton-Touboulic; Carlos Lévy. Scepticisme et Religion : constantes et évolutions de la philosophie hellénistique à la philosophie médiévale, Brepols, pp.103-117, 2016, Monothéismes et philosophie, 978-2-503-56545-3
  7. Marchand S., (2013), Le statut particulier de l'épicurisme dans le néo-pyrrhonisme, S. Marchand et F. Verde. Épicurisme et Scepticisme, ⟨Sapienza Università Editrice⟩, pp.63-82, 2013, 978-88-98533-10-7
  8. Marchand S., Verde F., (2013), Épicurisme et Scepticisme, Sapienza Università Editrice, pp.189, 2013, 978-88-98533-10-7

Craig Martin (PhD Harvard 2002) is trained as a historian of science. He works on the reception of ancient thought in Renaissance natural philosophy and medicine. He has written extensively on the development of Aristotelian meteorology during the early modern period and religious debates surrounding Aristotle. He currently is associate professor at Università Ca' Foscari.

Project: Pierre Gassendi discussed Epicurean meteorological theory in two works  published towards the end of his life:  Syntagma philosophiae Epicuri cum refutationibus dogmatum quae contra fidem christianam ab eo asserta sunt (1649) and Animadversiones in decimum librum Diogenis Laertii: qui est De vita, moribus, placitisque Epicuri (1649). This project aims to explain the ways in which Gassendi interpreted and modified Epicurean meteorological theories in light of contemporary scientific discoveries, his commitment to Catholicism, and his use of other ancient authors as sources of knowledge about meteorology.

Francesca Masi is Associate Professor of History of Ancient Philosophy at the University Ca’ Foscari of Venice. She is the author of several articles on Epicurean and Aristotelian Philosophy. She is particularly interested in Ancient Philosophy of Mind, Ethics, Ontologies.

Project: She is the PI of Spider and, a part from coordinating and supporting all the other members’ activities, she will work mainly on Epicurus’ theories of imagination and of language.

Relevant Publications:

  1. Masi, Francesca (2018) Passione e immaginazione in Lucrezio: il caso dell’inganno onirico in ELENCHOS, vol. 39, pp. 257-279
  2. Masi, Francesca; Verde, Francesco (2018), Mind in an Atomistic World. Epicurus and the Epicurean Tradition , Philosophy of Mind in Antiquity, London-New York, Routledge
  3. Masi, Francesca (2017), Virtue, Pleasure, and Cause. A case of muti-target polemic? Diogenes of Oenoanda, fr. 32-33 Smith , Diogenes of Oinoanda. Epicureanism and Philosophical Debates. Diogène d’Oenoanda Epicurisme et controverses, Lovanio, Leuven University Press, vol. LV, pp. 111-141
  4. Masi, Francesca (2016), ”A mutual horizon of events”: Epicurus’ Letter to Herodotus between philology and philosophy in EIRENE, vol. LII, pp. 485-500
  5. Masi, Francesca (2015) Memory, self and self-determination. The mind-body relation in Epicurus’ psychology , Anthropologie in Antike und Gegenwart. Biologische und philosophische Entwürfe vom Menschen, Freiburg, Verlag Karl Alber, pp. 203-230
  6. Masi, Francesca (2014), The Method of Multiple Explanations. Epicurus and the Notion of Causal Possibility , Aitia II, Avec ou sans Aristote, Louvain, Louvain-La-Neuve Peeters, pp. 37-63 (ISBN 9789042930933)
  7. Masi, Francesca (2012) La natura del moto volontario: ut sit in nostra potestate , Cicerone, De Fato. Seminario Internazionale, Venezia 10-12 luglio 2006, Venezia, Cafoscarina, pp. 151-162  
  8. F.G. Masi (2006), Libertà senza clinamen: il XXV libro del Peri physeos di Epicuro in CRONACHE ERCOLANESI, vol. 36, pp. 9-46;
  9. Masi, Francesca (2006) Swerves and Voluntary Actions. Critical Notice of Tim O'Keefe, Epicurus on Freedom, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2005 in RHIZAI, vol. 4, pp. 311-328
  10. Masi, Francesca (2005),  La nozione epicurea di apogegennemena in CRONACHE ERCOLANESI, vol. 35, pp. 27-51 

Books

  1. Masi, Francesca; Maso, Stefano (2015), Epicurus on eidola. Peri phuseos book II. Update, Proposals,and Discussions , Amsterdam, Hakkert, vol. 10, pp. 1-221;
  2. MASI, Francesca (2006), Epicuro e la filosofia della mente. Il XXV libro dell’opera Sulla natura , Sankt Augustin, Academia Verlag

Researcher (from 2005) and Full Professor (from 2020) in History Ancient Philosophy at Department of Philosophy and Cultural Heritage, Ca’ Foscari University (Venice -Italy)
 
Co-director,  with V. Citti, P. Mastandrea, E. Medda, of «Lexis Poetica, retorica e comunicazione nella tradizione classica». Founded in 1988 and published at Hakkert-Amsterdam, from 2020 «Lexis» is published at Edizioni Ca'Foscari. Link
 
Co-director (with C. Lévy - Paris Sorbonne) of “Lexis Ancient Philosophy”, scientific series, Hakkert-Amsterdam, now published at Edizioni Ca’Foscari. Link
 
Visiting professor (LLP/Erasmus teaching) at Université Grenoble-Alpes, Georgia State University - Atlanta, Tübingen Philosophische Seminar (Eberhard-Karls Universität), U.S.P. São Paulo (Brezil), Liège University - Belgium

From 2007: member of scientific commettee of ESAP (European Society for Ancient Philosophy).
From 2008: president of SFI - Venezia (Società filosofica italiana)
From 2009: member of board and chief financial officer of SISFA (Società italiana di storia della filosofia antica)
From 2009: member of scientific commettee of SIAC (Société internationale des amis de Cicéron), Neuilly sur Seine

Project: "Greek Epicurean Vocabulary of Cicero".

Analysis of the Latin translation of the principal philosophical words of Epicureanism used by Cicero. My aim is to highlight the coherence of the Ciceronian project and, at the same time, the possible differences with respect to the Lucretius approach. The linguistic characteristics of Latin with respect to Greek constitute the general background.

Relevant Publications:

  1. Maso S., Epicureans, Earlier Atomists, and Cyrenaics in K. Arenson, The Routledge Handbook of Hellenistic Philosophy, New York, Routledge, pp. 58-70 (ISBN 978-0-8153-4791-0)
  2. Maso S., Alesse F., Fermani A. (eds.), Studi su ellenismo e filosofia romana, Roma, Edizioni di Storia e Letteratura 2017, pp. vii-xi (ISBN 978-88-9359-059-4; eISBN 978-88-9359-060-0).
  3. Maso S., La causa di ciò che è e di ciò che diviene secondo Epicuro, in  C. Viano (a cura di), Materia e causa materiale in Aristotele e oltre, Roma, Edizioni di Storia e Letteratura, 2016, pp. 99-122  (ISBN 978-88-6372-981-8   eISBN 978-88-6372-982-5).
  4. Maso S., Percezione e bellezza: un problema della fisica epicurea, "Quaderni degli argonauti", 2016 (31), pp. 41-56 (ISSN 1722-3962).
  5. Maso S., L'atomo di Lucrezio, "Lexicon Philosophicum", vol. 4/2016, pp. 173-182 (ISSN 2283-7833).
  6. Maso S., Grasp and Dissent. Cicero and Epicurean Philosophy, Turnhout : Brepols 2015 (ISBN 978-2-503-55030-5).
  7. Maso S., Masi F.G. (eds.), Epicurus on ‘eidola’. ‘Peri phuseos’ Book II, Update, Proposals, and Discussions, Amsterdam : Hakkert 2015 (ISBN: 9789025613020).
  8. Maso S., Images and Truth, in F.G. Masi - S. Maso (eds.), Epicurus on ‘eidola’. Peri phuseos Book II, Update, Proposals, and Discussions, Amsterdam : Hakkert 2015, pp. 67-82 (ISBN  978-90-256-1302-0   ISSN 2405-7053).
  9. Maso S., Motus animi voluntarius. The Ciceronian Epicurus from libertarian free will to free choice, in P. Destrée, R. Salles, M. Zingano (eds.), What is Up to Us? Studies on Agency and Responsibility in Ancient Philosophy, Sankt Augustin, Academia Verlag 2014, pp. 235-250 (ISBN 978-3-89665-634-6).
  10. Maso S. - Masi F.G. (eds.), Fate, Chance, Fortune in Ancient Thought,
Amsterdam : Hakkert, 2013 (ISBN 9789025612887).
  11. Maso S., L.Ph.G. Lingua philosophica Graeca. Dizionario di Greco filosofico, Milano-Udine : Mimesis 2010 (ISBN 978-88-5750-256-4).
  12. Maso S., rev. to J. Warren (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Epicureanism, Cambridge : Cambridge University Press 2009, pp. 342. ISBN 978-0-521-69530-5, in Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2010.10.54
  13. Maso S., Ta perata tou biou. L’esperienza del limite nella prospettiva epicurea, in C. Chiurco e I. Sciuto (a cura di), Verità, fede, interpretazione. Saggi in onore di Arnaldo Petterlini, Padova : il Poligrafo 2009, pp. 175-86 (ISBN 978-88-7115-667-5)
  14. Maso S., Dove sta l’errore? Sesto Empirico confronta Epicuro e Aristotele, in Antiaristotelismo, a cura di C. Natali e S. Maso, Amsterdam, Hakkert, 1999, pp. 185-205 (ISBN 90-256-1135-4).
  15. Maso S., Il giardino/porcile di Epicuro, “Lexis”, 11 (1993), pp. 135-50 (ISSN 2210-8823).
  16. Maso S., Il problema dell’epicureismo nell’epistola 33 di Seneca, “Atti Istit. Veneto di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti”, CXXXVIII (1979-80), pp. 573-89

Phillip Mitsis is Academic Director of the American Institute for Verdi Studies and A.S. Onassis Professor of Hellenic Culture and Civilization at New York University.

He has pubished on Ancient and Early Modern Philosophy, Greek poetry and drama, and Latin poetry.  He previously taught at Cornell and has been visiting professor at the University of Pittsburgh, Princeton, and the University of Aberdeen.

Project: Phillip Mitsis and Enrico Piergiacomi will be examining the scientific vocabulary of Epicurus' On Nature Book 25 in the light of previous atomistic texts and contemporary medical terminology in an attempt to throw some light on Epicurus' conception of the mind, its atomic consituents, and its nature and extension.  They will be preparing a detailed commentary on On Nature 25 and presenting papers on the nature of the mind and its relation to its material foundation in atoms with indeterminate movements.

Relevant Publications:

  1. La libertà, il piacere, la morte.  Studi sull'Epicureismo e la sua influenza (Biblioteca di Testi e Studi 1222), edited and translated with an afterword by Enrico Piergiacomi (Carocci, 2018);  
  2. La teoria etica di Epicuro. I piaceri dell'invulnerabilità (Studia Philologica, 22), edited and translated by Enrico Piergiacomi (L'Erma di Bretschneider, 2019);  
  3. Natura Aut Voluntas?  Études sur la pensée politique et éthique hellénistique et romaine, et sur son influence postérieure, translated by Vincent Jolivet (Brepols, 2020);  
  4. The Oxford Handbook of Epicurus and Epicureanism (editor), Oxford University Press, 2020; 
  5. How to be Happy:  An Ancient Guide to the Epicurean Life (translation of texts with an introduction) in Ancient Wisdom for Modern Readers (Princeton University Press, 2020)

(core member of SPIDER) is Professor of Ancient Philosophy at the University Paris 1 – Panthéon-Sorbonne, Director of the research centre GRAMATA (http://gramata.univ-paris1.fr/), and Honorary Member of the Institut Universitaire de France. He is the author of several books and articles on Aristotle and the Aristotelian tradition, on Democritus and on Epicureanism. He has translated into French Epicurus’ Letters and Maxims and, in 2010, the fragments of Diogenes of Oinoanda.

Project: Organisation of the third meeting in Paris (January 2021) – Personal contribution : Epicurean epistemology in Diogenes of Oinoanda’s inscription (Venice, 2021)

Relevant Publications:

  1. Épicure. La nature et la raison, Paris, Vrin, Coll. “Bibliothèque des philosophies”, 2009, 20132, 222 p.
  2. Épicure, Lettres, maximes et autres textes, Introduction, traduction, dossier et notes, Paris, GF-Flammarion, 2011.
  3. Diogène d’Œnoanda, Fragments, Traduction, introduction et notes dans le volume de la Pléiade « Les Épicuriens », Gallimard, sous la direction de J. Pigeaud et D. Delattre, 2010.
  4. Diogenes of Oinoanda – Diogène d’Œnoanda. Epicureanism and Philosophical Debates – Épicurisme et controverses, en codirection avec Jürgen Hammerstaedt et Refik Güremen, Leuven University Press, ‘Ancient and Medieval Philosophy – Series 1’, n° 55, Leuven, 2017.
  5. « Corps et cosmologie dans la physique d’Épicure. Lettre à Hérodote, § 45 », Revue de Métaphysique et de Morale, 2003-1, p. 33-49.
  6. « Method and Evidence : On the Epicurean Preconception », Proceedings of the Boston Area Colloquium in Ancient Philosophy, Volume XXIII, 2008, p. 25-48.
  7. « Epicurean Atomism », in J. Warren (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Epicureanism, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2009, p. 65-83.
  8. « I primi atomisti nel II Libro ‘Sulla natura’ di Epicuro », in F.G. Masi, S. Maso (a cura di). Epicurus on eidola. Peri Phuseos Book II: update, proposals and discussions. Lexis ancient philosophy, 10, Amsterdam, Adolf M. Hakkert - Publishing, 2015, p. 55-66.
  9. « Esperienza e dimostrazione in Epicuro », in D. De Sanctis, E. Spinelli, M. Tulli, F. Verde (a cura di), Questioni Epicuree, Sankt Augustin, Academia Verlag, 2015, p. 132-147.

Wim Nijs holds a Master’s degree in Greek and Latin, and one in in Italian linguistics and literature. In 2018 he obtained a doctoral grant from the Research Foundation - Flanders (FWO). As a PhD student at the KU Leuven and La Sapienza Università di Roma, and under the supervision of Geert Roskam and Emidio Spinelli, he is currently working on a contextual study of Philodemus’ ethical writings.

Project: Within the context of this project I will study the Epicurean concept of διάθεσις as part and parcel of both ethics and physics. Epicureans such as Philodemus and Diogenes of Oenoanda explicitly present themselves as doctors of the soul, and describe character flaws caused by a disturbed diathesis as sicknesses of the soul. Their attachment to a concept of a philosophia medicans indicates that for the Epicureans the gap between philosophy and science was not impossible to bridge. Moreover, it shows that Epicureans believed that one’s διάθεσις is curable and therefore controllable, thus supporting a model of self-determination. This seemingly medical practice in regard to curing a patient’s disposition will be an important theme within my research, which will primarily be based upon Philodemean therapeutics and Oenoanda’s inscription.

Relevant Publications:

  1. Nijs, W. (2021), ‘Diogenes of Oenoanda on Jews and Egyptians: Some Thoughts on Theol. V, 7–VI, 2’, Classical World 114 (4) (forthcoming).
  2. Nijs, W. (2021), ‘Straightening the Uterus with Epicurus. Some Parallels for PHerc.908/1390’, Mnemosyne. A Journal for Classical Studies (forthcoming).
  3. Nijs, W. (2021), ‘Graeculus et adsentator: Philodemus’ Defence of Epicurean Friendship and Frank Speech in Roman Society’, in P. d’Hoine – G. Roskam – S. Schorn – J. Verheyden (eds.), Polemics, Rivalry and Networking in Greco-Roman Antiquity, Turnhout: Brepols Publishers (forthcoming).
  4. Nijs, W. (2020), ‘The Parasite and the Philosopher: The Transformation of Epicurean Doctrine in Lucian’s De parasito 14-15’, Eirene. Studia Graeca et Latina 56 (forthcoming).
  5. Nijs, W. (2020), ‘Failing Epicureans and Cynics Hiding in Plain Sight: Lucian of Samosata’s Alexander Revisited’, Quaderni Urbinati di cultura classica 125 (2), 153-176.
  6. Nijs, W. (2019), ‘“Then truly the life of the gods will pass to men”: Contemplating Diogenes of Oenoanda’s Golden Age’, Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies, 59 (2), 242-261.
  7. Nijs, W. (2018), ‘Philodemus van Gadara: Griekse filosofie in een Romeinse wereld’, Hermeneus. Tijdschrift voor Antieke Cultuur, 90 (2), 50-55.

Enrico Piergiacomi was awarded his PhD in Philosophy at the PhD School Humanistic Studies at the University of Trento in April 2016. His thesis has been dedicated to the theologies of the ancient atomists and their ethical consequences. He is a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Trento and was recipient of the Grant The Reception of Lucretius and Roman Epicureanism from the Middle Ages to the 18th Century granted by the association Italia Fenice of Sutri, in partnership with the Société Internationale des Amis de Cicéron in Paris. He is also a Visiting Fellow at the Centre for Religious Studies – Bruno Kessler Foundation (FBK-ISR) of Trento. 

Link: https://unitn.academia.edu/EnricoPiergiacomi/CurriculumVitae 

Project: My study aims to reconstruct the philosophical background of book XXV of Epicurus’ On Nature and of its idea that there are three powers operating upon our souls: necessity or the influence of the environment, chance, and a deliberative faculty entirely under our control (παρ' ἡμᾶς). I will try to highlight two possible sources of inspiration. On the one hand, Epicurus may have followed thinkers like Empedocles and Democritus, who explained both physiological processes and the activity of thought mostly by invoking materialistic principles, while at the same time confuting their reductionist account of the human soul. From the Epicurean perspective, these Presocratic philosophers apparently negated that there is something παρ' ἡμᾶς, and hence only recognized necessity and chance as explanatory principles for our behavior. On the other hand, Epicurus may have been influenced by certain medical doctrines or treatise, especially Hippocrates’ On Airs, Waters and Places. These texts also provide a complex explanation of human autonomy in relation to the environment and other external forces (indeed, physicians show that they accept this principle when, e.g., they prescribe a diet or a change of behavior to their patients). In order to defend my case, I will try to build some textual parallels between Epicurus’ On Nature and fragments by Presocratics / medical authors, as well to identify the terminology that Epicurus shares with these thinkers.

Relevant Publications:

  1. Storia delle antiche teologie atomiste, Roma, Sapienza Università Editrice, 2017
  2. Language, in P. Mitsis (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Epicurus and Epicureanism, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2020, pp. 308-332.
  3. Azione o moto? Gli Epicurei su piante, animali, bambini, in F. de Luise, I. Zavattero (a cura di), La volontarietà dell’azione tra Antichità e Medioevo, Trento, Università degli Studi di Trento, Università degli Studi di Trento, 2019, pp. 262-294.
  4. La libertà: un evento?, in P. Mitsis, La teoria etica di Epicuro. I piaceri dell’invulnerabilità, edizione italiana a cura di E. Piergiacomi, Roma, L’Erma di Bretschneider, 2019, pp. 198-202
  5. Gli Epicurei romani sulla medicina: Senocle, Alessandro, Zopiro e Lucrezio, in «Ciceroniana On Line», 3.1 (2019), pp. 191-228
  6. Fisica ed etica del sé in Epicuro?, in «Cronache Ercolanesi», 48 (2018), pp. 51-66
  7. Conflicts of Atomisms. Some major differences between Democritus and Colotes, in «Elenchos», 37.1-2 (2016), pp. 149-180
  8. Παρ' ἡμᾶς. Note di confronto su due studi recenti sull’etica di Epicuro, in «Syzetesis», 2.2 (2016), pp. 131-154 

Geert Roskam obtained his Ph.D. 2001 in Classics. He is currently Professor of Greek at the KU Leuven. He has published several books and many articles on Hellenistic philosophy (especially Epicureanism) and Middle-Platonism (especially Plutarch of Chaeronea). He is currently running a big research project on the ideal of perfection in late antiquity.

Project: Epicurus' ethical thinking is characterized by many qualifications and restrictions, and thus stands out as a particularly nuanced philosophy. I’ll examine whether the same holds true in the domain of physics as well. Atomism, for instance, is a general principle, but the question remains whether this always entails standard answers or whether Epicurus here as well makes room for qualifications. If so, can we perhaps detect a more general methodological approach that is valid for Epicurus' philosophical thinking as a whole, and on what principles does it rest?

Relevant Publications:

  1. G. Roskam, (2020). Epicurus on Marriage. In: J. Beneker, G. Tsouvala (Eds.), The Discourse of Marriage in the Greco-Roman World, Wisconsin: The University of Wisconsin Press, 119-141.
  2. G. Roskam, (2019). Metrodorus of Lampsacus in Plutarch. In: D. Leão, O. Guerrier (Eds.), Figures de sages, figures de philosophes dans l'oeuvre de Plutarque, Coimbra: Coimbra University Press, 109-126.
  3. G. Roskam, (2017). One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six. Counting with Demosthenes and Diogenes of Oenoanda. Quaderni Urbinati di Cultura Classica, 115, 119-126.
  4. G. Roskam, (2017). Considering Tit for Tat: The Programmatic Introduction to Non posse suaviter vivi secundum Epicurum. In: M. Sanz Morales, R. González Delgado, M. Librán Moreno, J. Ureña Bracero (Eds.), La (inter)textualidad en Plutarco, Universidad de Extremadura, 345-356.
  5. G. Roskam, (2017). “Diogenes’ Polemical Approach, or How to Refute a Philosophical Opponent in an Epigraphic Context”, in J. Hammerstaedt – P.-M. Morel – R. Güremen (eds.), Diogenes of Oinoanda, Epicureanism and Philosophical Debates, Leuven, 241-269.
  6. G. Roskam, (2015). “Epicurean Philosophy in Open Access. The Intended Reader and the Authorial Approach of Diogenes of Oenoanda”, Epigraphica Anatolica 48, 151-174.
  7. G. Roskam, (2014). Epicurus (341-270 BCE). In: M.T. Gibbons (Eds.), The Encyclopedia of Political Thought, Wiley, 1108-1116.
  8. G. Roskam, (2012,). ‘Will the Epicurean Sage Break the Law if He is Perfectly Sure that He Will Escape Detection? A Difficult Problem Revisited’, in TAPhA 142, 23-40.
  9. G. Roskam, (2007). A Commentary on Plutarch's De latenter vivendo, Leuven.
  10. G. Roskam, (2007). 'Live unnoticed' (Λάθε βιώσας). On the Vicissitudes of an Epicurean Doctrine (Philosophia antiqua 111), Leiden – Boston.

Emidio Spinelli is Full Professor of History of Ancient Philosophy at the University of Rome “La Sapienza”, Department of Philosophy and President of the ‘Società Filosofica Italiana’. Major interests: ancient scepticism, Presocratics, Atomists, Socrates/Socratics, Plato, Stoics, Epicureans, literary and philosophical papyri, reception of classical antiquity, and Hans Jonas.

Links: Uniroma , Daphnet

Project: Main Area: Theoretical and epistemological assumptions for ethics, and especially politics. Since epistemology grounds and structures all aspects of human existence, it also represents the crucial foundation for a philosophical approach orientated towards happiness and even towards a precise kind of political praxis. Given for granted such fundamental aspect of atomistic/Epicurean epistemology and in order to broaden the scope of the discussion linked to the project SPIDER, I shall specifically investigate about the role of concepts and pre-conceptions (prolepseis) in the Epicurean doctrine about politics (see e.g. RS 37 and 38). In addition and against the background of a wider polemical dialogue/negotiation with other philosophies, I shall also try to inquiry on the differences between Epucurean politics and some previous solutions proposed especially by the Sophists as well as by Plato (in this last case see e.g. the peculiar Epicurean ‘utopia’ presented by Diogenes of Oinoanda, fr. 56 Smith).

Relevant Publications:

  1. Spinelli (2019). Justice, Law, and Friendship: Ethical and Political Topics in Epicurus. In: C. Riedweg. Philosophie für die Polis. p. 379-408, Berlin/Boston:De Gruyter, ISBN: 978-3-11-066252-8
  2. Emidio Spinelli (2019). 'Physiologia medicans': the Epicurean Road to Happiness. In: Luca Castagnoli-Paola Ceccarelli (eds.). Greek Memories: Theories and Practices. p. 278-291, Cambridge:Cambridge University Press, ISBN: 978-1-108-47172-5
  3. E. Spinelli (2018). Cittadini e amici: legge, giustizia e comunità filosofica nel Giardino di Epicuro. ARCHIVIO DI STORIA DELLA CULTURA, vol. XXXI, p. 5-28, ISSN: 1124-0059
  4. Spinelli E. (2016). Atomisti antichi: Leucippo e Democrito. In: M. Bonazzi (a cura di). Storia della filosofia antica, vol. 1, Dalle origini a Socrate. p. 177-193, Roma:Carocci, ISBN: 9788843080434
  5. E. Spinelli (2016). Epistemologie ellenistiche: il problema del criterio. In: E. Spinelli (a cura di). Storia della filosofia antica, vol. 3, L'età ellenistica. p. 169-196, Roma:Carocci, ISBN: 9788843080458
  6. E. Spinelli (2016). “L’âme aussi est insaisissable…”. Sextus Empiricus et la question psychologique. In: P. Galand et E. Malaspina (éds.). Vérité et apparence. Mélanges en l’honneur de Carlos Lévy offerts par ses amis et ses disciples. p. 551-562, TURNHOUT:Brepols, ISBN: 9782503549361, doi: D/2016/0095/104
  7. E. Spinelli (2016). “Le dieu est la cause la plus active” : Sextus Empiricus contre la théologie dogmatique. In: A.-I. Bouton-Touboulic-C. Lévy. Scepticisme et religion. Constantes et evolutions, de la philosophie hellénistique à la philosophie médiévale. p. 89-102, TURNHOUT:Brepols, ISBN: 978-2-503-56545-3, doi: D/2016/0095/124
  8. Spinelli E. (a cura di) (2016). Storia della filosofia antica, vol. 3, L'età ellenistica. Roma:Carocci, ISBN: 9788843080458
  9. E. Spinelli (2015). La traccia dell’anima: spunti critici di psicologia pirroniana. In E. Canone (a cura di), Anima-corpo alla luce dell’etica. Antichi e moderni, p.  97-116, Firenze: Olschki, ISBN 978 88 222 6391 9
  10. Spinelli E. (2015). Senza teodicea: critiche epicuree e argomentazioni pirroniane. In: D. De Sanctis-E. Spinelli-M. Tulli-F. Verde (eds.). Questioni epicuree. p. 213-234, SANKT AUGUSTIN:Academia Verlag, ISBN: 978-3-89665-681-0
  11. E. Spinelli (a cura di) (2015). Razionalità e prassi. Modelli ellenistici e post-ellenistici. IRIDE, p. 545-639, BOLOGNA: Il Mulino, ISSN: 1122-7893
  12. De Sanctis D., Spinelli E., Tulli M., Verde F. (a cura di) (2015). Questioni epicuree. SANKT AUGUSTIN: Academia Verlag, ISBN: 978-3-89665-681-0
  13. E. Spinelli (2015). Sesto Empirico: contro il corpo, contro l’anima. L’uomo non può essere criterio. SYZETESIS, Anno II (Nuova Serie), p. 7-14, ISSN: 1974-5044

Voula Tsouna is Professor and Chair at the Department of Philosophy at UC Santa Barbara.  She earned her undergraduate degree in Philosophy from the University of Athens, and completed her graduate studies at the University of Cambridge under the direction of Myles Burnyeat and the University of Paris X under the direction of Jacques Brunschwig.  She has been fellow of the Instituto per lo studio dei papyri ercolanesi in Naples,  Fellow of the National Endowment for the Humanities, Senior Fellow of the Onassis Foundation, Centenary Fellow of the Scottish Philosophical Association for 2016, Beaufort Fellow at St John's College (Cambridge, 2015), and Distinguished Visiting Scholar at Christ's College (Cambridge, 2016).  Since 1997 she has been Professor in the Department of Philosophy at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Project: There are three areas of research on Epicureanism that I intend to pursue in the near future. 

  • First, I should like to continue working on the nature of Epicurean scientific concepts, their relation to ordinary concepts, the ways in which they are dependent on experience or can reliably depart from it, and their integration in Epicurean methods of doing science. 
  • Second, I intend to revisit an original and important feature of Epicurean science, namely the method of multiple explanations.  I wish to take into consideration recent work on that method, for instance by Francesca Masi and Juliana Leone, in order to reassess the epistemological and ontological assumptions on which the method is based. 
  • Third, I would like to address an objection against Epicurean epistemology and science raised by Plutarch, namely that the Epicurean theory is just as vulnerable to skeptical doubt as the doctrine of the Cyrenaics.  I believe that this objection is worth considering seriously, and I should like to explore ways in which the Epicureans might have been able to answer it.

Relevant Publications:

Voula Tsouna's publications include the following books:   

  1. [Philodemus] [On Choices and Avoidances] (Naples 1995), co-authored with Giovanni Indelli and recipient of the Theodor Mommsen Award 1995;
  2. The Epistemology of the Cyrenaic School (Cambridge University Press:  Cambridge 1998), also translated and published in modern Greek (PEK:  Athens 2018); 
  3. The Ethics of Philodemus (Oxford University Press:  Oxford 2007); 
  4. Philodemus On Property Management (Society of Biblical Literature, 2012); and a volume of collected essays translated into modern Greek with the title Knowledge, Virtue, Happiness (Ekkremes editions:  Athens 2012). 

Moreover, she has written over seventy articles on Socrates, the Minor Socratics, Plato, Aristotle, and the Hellenistic and Roman philosophers.

Degree in Greek Literature in 1981 and Specialization in Classical Philology in 1983 at the "Sapienza" University of Rome.

1987: PhD in Greek and Latin Philology at the University of Florence.

From 1992 to 1995 Alexander-von-Humboldt-Stiftung scholarship at the Universities of Cologne and Würzburg.

Associate Professor of Greek Grammar since 1998 at the University of Pisa and since 2006 Full Professor of Greek Literature. From 2012 to 2016 Director of the Department of Philology, Literature and Linguistics and member of the Academic Senate at the University of Pisa.

Member since 2006 of the Greek University Council (CUG), in the Council since 2010 with the offices of Secretary and Treasurer, since 2013 he is President.

Member since 2010 of the International Center for the Study of Herculaneum Papyri (CISPE), since 2013 he is on the Board.

Founder in 1989 of the International Plato Society (IPS): since 2002 he has coordinated the activity of the Editorial Committee, since 2007 in the Executive Committee, since 2010 President, since 2013 in the Executive Committee, since 2106 in the Advisory Board.

Project: Il focus della ricerca sarà concentrato sui rapporti tra il pensiero scientifico del Kepos e l'Accademia e Peripato. 

Relevant Publications:

  1. Dialettica e scrittura nella VII Lettera di Platone, Pisa, Giardini, 1989
  2. POxy 1624, in “Corpus dei Papiri Filosofici Greci e Latini” I 1***, Firenze 1999, 310-334
  3. L'epitome di Epicuro e la trasmissione del sapere nel Medioplatonismo, in M. Erler, R. Bees (ed.), “Epikureismus in der späten Republik und der Kaiserzeit”, Stuttgart 2000, 109-121
  4. Una Spaltung: Platone, la poikilia e il sapere, in E. Berardi, Francisco L. Lisi, D. Micalella (ed.), “Poikilia: variazioni sul tema”, Acireale-Roma 2009, 227-238
  5. La tradizione indiretta del Timeo, in F. Celia, A. Ulacco (ed.), “Il Timeo: esegesi greche, arabe, latine”, Pisa 2012, 25-56
  6. Platone, la forma del testo e il personaggio: il giudice nello Ione, in G. Cornelli (ed.), Plato’s Styles and Characters, Brasília 2012, 383-391
  7. Edizione di [Plato], Epinomis, in F. Aronadio, M. Tulli, F. M. Petrucci, [Plato], Epinomis, Napoli 2013, 209-269
  8. Epicuro a Pitocle: la forma didattica del testo, in M. Tulli (ed.), Philia: dieci contributi per Gabriele Burzacchini, Bologna 2014, 67-78
  9. Mimesis und neue Dichtung: Platon als Maler, in D. Koch, I. Männlein-Robert, N. Weidtmann (ed.), Platon und die Bilder, Tübingen 2016, 149-165

Francesco Verde (Rome 1983) achieved in 2011 the Ph.D. degree (Philosophy) from Sapienza University of Rome’s Department of Philosophy with a doctoral dissertation about the Epicurean doctrine of minimal parts, published by Leuven University Press (Leuven 2013) in the Series “Ancient and Medieval Philosophy” (vol. XLVIII). In 2014 he was awarded from Sapienza University of Rome (on the occasion of the 30 years of PhD programs) a Certificate of Merit for his special scientific and professional merits and recognitions. He was (2011-2014) a post-doctoral researcher in the History of Ancient Philosophy at the “Istituto per il Lessico Intellettuale Europeo e Storia delle Idee” (ILIESI-CNR/Rome). Finally, he acquired from the Italian Ministry of Education, Universities and Research (MIUR) the National Scientific Qualification as Associate Professor of the History of Philosophy (Periods: 2015-2021 and 2018-2024 Scientific Disciplinary Sector 11C/5). In 2014-2015 he was a post-doctoral researcher in the History of Ancient Philosophy at Sapienza University of Rome’s Department of Philosophy. From 2016 he is adjunct professor of the History of Ancient Philosophy and History of Ancient Scientific Thought at the same Department. In December 2016 he has been awarded a Humboldt Research Fellowship for Experienced Researchers (18 months / University of Würzburg, Germany / Institut für Klassische Philologie). From 01.04.2019 he is tenure-track Assistant Professor of the History of Ancient Philosophy (M-FIL/07) at the Department of Philosophy of Sapienza – University of Rome. In the same Department he is member of the Teaching Board of the Ph.D. course in Philosophy. His scholarly interests focus mainly on History of Ancient Philosophy, especially on Ancient Atomism (Leucippus and Democritus), Ancient Physics from Aristotle to Epicurus, Hellenistic Philosophies, and Herculaneum Papyrology. In addition to some papers devoted to Ancient Scepticism and Epicureanism, he published an Italian translation with a detailed commentary of Epicurus’ Letter to Herodotus (Rome 2010; with Emidio Spinelli’s Introduction), and an anthology of texts on the notions of Freedom, Fate and Grace from the Stoics to Augustine (Rome 2010). He is also the editor of the Italian edition of D. Sedley’s book (Berkeley 2007) on “Creationism” in Antiquity (Rome 2011). He will publish a volume on the Hellenistic Peripatos on some specific topics such as time, knowledge and soul (Palgrave Macmillan). Moreover, he published an introduction to Epicurus’ philosophy (Rome 2013). He edited (with Stéphane Marchand) a volume on "Épicurisme et Scepticisme" (Rome 2013), (with D. De Sanctis, E. Spinelli, and M. Tulli) "Questioni epicuree" (Sankt Augustin 2015), (with F. G. Masi, and S. Maso) the special section of "Elenchos" (2018) on the "Materialistic Pathe", and (with M. Catapano) the special issue of "Lexicon Philosophicum" (2018) on the "Hellenistic Theories of Knowledge".

Project: My research proposal in the SPIN-SPIDER Project is mainly concerned with two areas.

  1. First, with the collaboration of Dino De Sanctis, I am concluding a new Italian translation and a historical-philosophical running commentary of Epicurus’ Letter to Pythocles. The central purpose of this work is to show the originality of the Epicurean position in the field of ancient meteorology and epistemology (method of multiple explanations or causes).
  2. Secondly, I am carrying out an extensive study of the philosophical relationship between Plato’s Theaetetus and Epicurus’ canonic (the epistemological part of his philosophical system). The main aim is to try to show how not only the ancient Stoics, but also Epicurus knew well this crucial dialogue of Plato. It is very likely that Epicurus’ relationship with the Platonic text was, so to speak, “dialectical”: by taking its cue from the Theaetetus or criticizing it, Epicurus could refine and improve his doctrine of the criteria of truth especially with regard to the epistemological status of sense-perceptions (aistheseis) and preconceptions (prolepseis).

Relevant Publications:

  1. F. Verde (Translation and Commentary by), Epicuro: Epistola a Erodoto, Introduction by Emidio Spinelli, “Classici” 5, Carocci, Roma 2010 
  2. F. Verde, Elachista: La dottrina dei minimi nell’Epicureismo, “Ancient and Medieval Philosophy - Series 1” XLVIII, Leuven University Press, Leuven 2013
  3. F. Verde, Epicuro, “Pensatori” 36, Carocci, Roma 2013
  4. F. Verde, Cause epicuree, «Antiquorum Philosophia» 7 (2013), 127-142
  5. F. Verde, Percezione, errore e residuo percettivo in Aristotele, Epicuro e Alessandro di Afrodisia, «Giornale Critico della Filosofia Italiana» 97/1 (2016), 44-62
  6. F. Verde, Ancora sulla matematica epicurea, «Cronache Ercolanesi» 46 (2016), 21-37
  7. F. Verde, Posidonius against Epicurus’ Method of Multiple Explanations?, «Apeiron» 49/4 (2016), 437-449
  8. F. Verde, Alexis’ The Achaean Woman (PCG II, 31 K.-A.) and Epicurus’ Science of Nature, «Historia Philosophica» 16 (2018), 9-17
  9. F. Verde, I pathe di Epicuro tra epistemologia ed etica, «Elenchos» 39/2 (2018), Special Section: F. G. Masi - S. Maso - F. Verde (eds.), Materialistic Pathe, 205-230
  10. F. Verde, Ancora sullo statuto veritativo della sensazione in Epicuro, «Lexicon Philosophicum: International Journal for the History of Texts and Ideas» Special Issue (2018): F. Verde - M. Catapano (eds.), Hellenistic Theories of Knowledge, 79-104 [http://lexicon.cnr.it/index.php/LP/article/view/562].
  11. F. Verde, L’empirismo di Teofrasto e la meteorologia epicurea, «Rivista di Filosofia Neo-Scolastica» 90/4 (2018), 889-910.
  12. F. Verde, Fenomeni fisici e spiegazioni multiple in Lucrezio e nell’Aetna pseudovirgiliano, «Giornale Critico della Filosofia Italiana» 99/3 (2018) 523-544
  13. F. Verde, I Kanonika di Antioco di Ascalona e Asclepiade di Bitinia (Sext. Emp. M VII 200-202), «Rheinisches Museum für Philologie» [forthcoming]
  14. F. Verde, Antiochus and the Epicureans on the Doctrinal Agreement between Plato and
    Aristotle, «Bruniana & Campanelliana»25/2 (2019), pp. 363-384.
  15. F. Verde, Asclepiade tra Epicuro e Stratone di Lampsaco, «Technai» 10 (2019), pp. 45-67.
  16. F. Verde, Momenti di riflessione sull’animalità nel Kepos: Epicuro, Lucrezio, Ermarco e
    Polistrato, in S. Gensini (ed.), La voce e il logos: Filosofie dell’animalità nella storia delle idee, ETS, Pisa 2020, pp. 53-78.
  17. F. Verde, The Partition of the Soul: Epicurus, Demetrius Lacon, and Diogenes of Oinoanda, in B. Inwood-J. Warren (eds.), Body and Soul in Hellenistic Philosophy, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2020, pp. 89-112.