This workshop, which was held from 14-16 February 2020, brought experts from Dublin and elsewhere in Europe to the Trinity Plato Centre to read closely and discuss a new manuscript by Professor Vasilis Politis, titled: Plato’s Essentialism: Reinterpreting the theory of forms (Cambridge University Press).
Friday 14 February
2pm-3pm
Vasilis Politis (TCD)
Plato’s theory of forms as a theory of essence
3:15pm-4:30pm
Margaret Hampson (TCD)
Why cannot the ti esti question be answered by example and exemplar?
5pm-6:15pm
Peter Larsen (DCU)
Why cannot essences, or forms, be perceived by the senses?
6:30pm-7:45pm
Pauline Sabrier (Erlangen)
Why are essences, or forms, unitary, uniform and non-composite? Why are they changeless? Eternal? Are they logically independent of each other?
Saturday 15 February
10am-11:15am
Philipp Steinkrüger (Bochum)
The relation between knowledge and enquiry in the Phaedo
10:30am-12:45pm
Kristian Larsen (Bergen)
Why are essences, or forms, distinct from sense-perceptible things?
2:30pm-3:45pm
Tianqin Ge (TCD)
Why are essences, or forms, separate from physical things?
4pm-5:15pm
David Meißner (Munich)
The role of the essence of oneness in judgements about sense-perceptible things
5:45pm-7pm
Daniel Hoyer (Berlin)
Why does thinking of things require essences, or forms?
Sunday 16 February
10am-11:15am
Giulio Di Basilio (TCD)
Why are essences, or forms, the basis of all causation and explanation?
10:30am-12:30am
Daniel Vázquez (Barcelona)
What yokes together mind and world?