Ancient Philosophy Society, Second Post: Rethinking Plato's "Republic"

I would not like my readers to think that I have said all I intend to concerning the Ancient Philosophy Society. Rather, I will be bouncing back and forth between discussions of the APS and the Heidegger Circle. What I will do in this post is discuss two papers I deeply enjoyed dealing with Plato's Republic. They both appeared on Friday in the session "Plato's Reframing of Ownership and the Common Root of Tyranny and Philosophy".

Sara Brill "Plato's Critical Theory"

Heidegger Circle, Third Post: The "Inner Truth and Greatness" Scandal

Julia Ireland: Heidegger and the "Inner Truth of National Socialism": A New Archival Discovery

As I had suggested previously, there was a moment during this year's meeting of the Heidegger Circle that I believe is historically important. This is the case not simply because the work presented by Julia Ireland carries important implications for the study of Heidegger's thought generally but more because it is also an intercession into a larger debate concerning the status of Heidegger's thought within world historical events generally.

Heidegger Circle, Second Post: Still Troubling the Ontological Difference

Before I get down to business I would like to take a moment to thank Andrew Mitchell and Emory University for an exceptionally well organized and smoothly run conference, to say nothing of a very enjoyable and important meeting. In some posts to follow this one I intend to discuss what I saw as some of the most (historically?) important work presented at this year's meeting. Particularly a new archival discovery concerning Heidegger's claims about the "inner truth of National Socialism" offered by Julia Ireland and the panel discussion of/with Thomas Sheehan concerning his proposed paradigm shift in Heidegger interpretation.

Christopher Ruth "Dwelling and the Ontological Difference"

Heidegger Circle, First Post: Troubling the Ontological Difference

My first posts concerning the Heidegger Circle will deal with two papers, both by very talented Villanova graduate students, which were given on different days but share the theme of tracking changes in the status of the Ontological Difference throughout the course of Heidegger's work.

Raoni Padui's "From the Facticity of Dasein to the Facticity of Nature: Naturalism, Animality, and the Ontological Difference"

Ancient Philosophy Society: First Post

Keynote Address: Anastasia-Erasmia Peponi's "Dance, Aesthetics and the Polis"


One of the highlights of this year's meeting of the Ancient Philosophy Society for me was the keynote presented by Dr. Peponi of Stanford University. Peponi is an accomplished Classicist and expressed some trepidation about addressing an audience primarily made up of philosophers. Her work, however, deals extensively with philosophy and often focuses on Ancient Greek aesthetic experience. Ultimately her trepidation was misplaced as her paper was very well received and was also very philosophically productive. In particular the question period following her paper was exceptionally rich.

A Brief Note

Before I begin my posts concerning the A.P.S. and Heidegger Circle I wanted to note a rich new post over at Seynsgeschichte on the subject of Das Selbe. Check it out.

2012 Ancient Philosophy Society and Heidegger Circle

I just returned from Atlanta where I was attending the 2012 meeting of the Heidegger Circle at Emory University. Two weeks earlier I was in San Francisco for the meeting of the Ancient Philosophy Society at the University of San Francisco. Both meetings were, as usual, amazing.

I am planning on sharing some summaries and thoughts about several of the papers I attended at these two meetings. Unlike last year, when I promises to post about each day of the meeting of the A.P.S. and failed to do so, I will make no specific promises here. I will write something about those papers which I attended, found interesting, feel I have something to say about, remember well or have time for. In other words, I wont be mentioning everything that was presented at each conference and those papers I fail to mention are in no way left out based on an assessment of their quality or importance. As always, everyone is welcome to comment especially the authors of the work I mention particularly if there is any question of the accuracy of my memory and (admittedly partial) summaries. Also feel free to email me with any concerns.

My organization wont be as neat as last year's posts about the A.P.S., rather I shall move back and forth between discussions of each meeting at will. I will make clear, however, which group I am discussing at any moment. More to follow soon.