Institut für Religionswissenschaft
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Aktuelles
Gastvortrag von Herrn Prof. Franco Ferrari
(Universitá di Pavia, Dipartimento di Studi Umanistici)
Das Sonnengleichnis in Platons Politeia
14.07.2026, 18:00-20:00 Uhr c.t.
PH20 (Humboldtallee 19/21, 37073 Göttingen)
Sommerwerkstatt Göttingen/Bern: "Pythagoreische Texte der Kaiserzeit und Spätantike", Göttingen/Kloster Bursfelde, 14.-17. Juli 2026
This year the Sommerwerkstatt focuses on the many-faceted and elusive corpus of texts attributed ot the Pythagorean tradition, whose roots go back to Hellenism. At least from the 1st century B.C., 'Pythagorean' texts are closely intertwined with the history of Platonism. Pythagorean-sounding mathematical speculations resurface in Philo or Plutarch. The Doric pseudo-Pythagorica offer theological schemes remarkably close to those found in Platonists of the second century, so much so as to prompt considerations about an Alexandrian origin in the context of Eudorian Platonism. Philosophers deeply anchored in Plato are treated by their contemporaries as Pythagoreans and explicitly seek to reconnect with tthe authority of Pythagoras: not only Numenios, but also the less conspicuous Moderatus, who may offer the first secure attestation of the theological reading of the "Parmenides", a hallmark of Platonism from the third-century onwards. How much of this reading is a transposition of ideas developed in 'Pythagorean' circles, and how are these ideas related to Plato's principle theory and the accounts of it found in Aristotle and beyond? We are thus faced with a plethora of texts, but also figures and ideas designated as 'Pythagorean' that fuel the discussion about how to describe the origins and history of Platonism.
The Sommerwerkstatt will take a broad approach, focusing on the period 1st century BC-2nd century AD, and thence looking both to the Hellenistic history and to Late Antique treatments of Pythagoras, Pythagoreans and Pythagorean philosophy. Its main goal is a better understanding of the role such texts play in the history of ancient theology in general, and Platonic theology in particular. An opening keynote lecture on Plato's sun analogy by Franco Ferrari (University of Pavia) will lead into the topic by highlighting Plato's principle theory and enable us to better gauge to what extent the 'Pythagorean' texts can be seen as its afterlife.
Neuerscheinungen
Neola, Benedetto: Drunk the Potion, No Whit Charmed, Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht (erscheint im Dezember 2025).
von Alvensleben, Jörg: Symphonisches Mysterium. Einheit und Vielfalt der Darstellung in der Theologia Platonica des Proklos (Buch I-III), Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht (erscheint im Oktober 2025).
Tanaseanu-Döbler, Ilinca: „Das daimonion des Sokrates im Mittelplatonismus. Die Gegenwart des Göttlichen im Weisen?", in: B. Schliesser, R. Feldmeier, J. Frey (Hgg.), Geist. Phänomenologie – Religionsgeschichte – Theologie. Ein Kompendium (WUNT 542), Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck 2025, 125-170.
Tanaseanu-Döbler, Ilinca (Hg.): Libraries, Handbooks, Encyclopedias. Ancient and Early Medieval Repositories of Knowledge and Their Religious Aspects, Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck 2024.