Hellenic Colloquia

The CENTER FOR HELLENIC TRADITIONS and the DEPARTMENT OF PHILOSOPHY at CEU cordially invite you to the next lecture of the 3rd series of the HELLENIC COLLOQUIA by Nikos Tz. Sergis Greek philosophy before the national revolution (1821): mysticism, enlightenment and the transformations of the battle between Platonism and Aristotelism Time: 17:30, Wednesday, 27 February 2008 Place: Gellner Room, CEU, 1051 Budapest, Nador 9 Abstract: In this lecture, Greek philosophical thought from 1453 (“Fall of Constantinople”) till 1821 (“National Revolution”) will be discussed. Except the various names the research gave to the period, two major antitheses will be studied: mysticism ≠ Enlightenment and Platonism ≠ Aristotelism, which are important elements in order to interpret Greek philosophy. The hypothesis discussed in the lecture, namely the homogeneity between Byzantine and post-Byzantine philosophical thought, contains fundamental characteristics of Byzantine philosophical debate that survive after the “Fall”, as the “equation” of philosophy and education, the ancient language – philosophical “instrument” or the theological “condemnation” of the philosophers. The lecture finishes with three main problems of approach that the researcher faces dealing with the epoch: the “problem of the sources”, the “problem of the outset” and the “problem of period division”. Provided the hypothesis gets accepted, “New Greek philosophy” is supposed to exceed the region of a “national” philosophy.