[Usyd_Classics_Events] Emeritus Professor Stephen Gaukroger Seminar Thursday 7th November 4.15pm

[Kirsten Parkin]

Dear Friends and Colleagues,



The Department of Classics and Ancient History invites you to attend the next instalment of our Seminar Series. Please join us on Thursday 7th of November to hear to hear Stephen Gaukroger, Emeritus Professor in History of Philosophy and History of Science at the University of Sydney. Stephen will deliver a paper entitled:



Plato’s Conception of Philosophy and the Problem of Understanding Morality

Plato provided a model for what philosophy was in the classical world, but just what this model was requires some reconstruction. By comparing pre-philosophical thought with philosophical enquiry in Plato, we can see that the use of reason is not the distinguishing feature. One of the crucial features of genuinely philosophical discourse is its second-order approach: rather than engaging issues directly on their own level, it abstracts from them, raising everything to a panoramic metalevel. This helps resolve some immediate problems, such as the moral conventionalism of the sophists, but it generates other far more profound ones, raising the question whether philosophy has intrinsic limits, evident in its failure to deal adequately with morality.



The paper will commence at 4.15pm at the Centre for Classical and Near Eastern Studies of Australia (CCANESA) Boardroom, Madsen Building, University of Sydney. The paper will be followed by light refreshments.



If you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to contact either James Winestock (jwin7052 at uni.sydney.edu.au) or myself.



All best wishes,

Kirsten


Kirsten Parkin | Postgraduate Representative

Department of Classics and Ancient History

THE UNIVERSITY OF SYDNEY

E kpar0133 at uni.sydney.edu.au<mailto:kpar0133 at sydney.edu.au>| W sydney.edu.au/arts/classics_ancient_history



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