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The Cambridge Centre for the Study of Platonism

Making Forms. Matter, Life, and Plastic Natures from Classical Antiquity to Romanticism
19th and 20th of May 2022
Organised by Anna Corrias (University of Cambridge) and Douglas Hedley (University of Cambridge)
Runcie Room, Faculty of Divinity, Sidgwick Site, West Road Cambridge CB3 9BS
Zoom link: https://cam-ac-uk.zoom.us/j/91785948199?pwd=b2hFRm1IdFJIQzJZL1VVZFhxamVC...

 

Thursday 19th of May

6 PM Opening Lecture Rupert Sheldrake (Cambridge University). Forms and the Causes of Forms

7 PM Drinks Reception

 

Friday 20th of May

9.10 AM Introduction
Anna Corrias (University of Cambridge)

Session I.

9.30 AM Harold Tarrant (University of Newcastle, Australia). Early interpretation of the Platonic World-Soul and its Limitations
10.15 AM Clelia Attanasio (University of Cambridge). The Faculty of Imagination in Richard of St. Victor’s Benjamin Major: Empirical Knowledge and its Movement
11.00AM Justin Begley (Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München). The Nature of Spirit and the Spirit of Nature: Margaret Cavendish Against the Cambridge Platonists
11. 45AM Stephen Gersh (University of Notre Dame, USA). Plastic Formation in Athanasius Kircher's Musurgia Universalis, Book X
 

12.30 PM Lunch

Session II.

Chair: Valery Rees (School of Philosophy and Economic Science, London)
3.00 PM Gregory Shaw (Stonehill College). Philosophy and Religion in Later Platonism: Who are the Bacchoi?
3.45 PM Guido Giglioni (Università degli Studi di Macerata). The Elective Affinities of Francis Glisson’s Biousia
4.30 PM Christian Hengstermann (University of Wuppertal). Cosmic Psychologies: The Soul of the World in Henry More, Anne Conway, and Gottfried W. Leibniz

Session III.

Chair: Stephen Gersh
5.15 PM Adrian Mihai (University of Cambridge). Diderot on Plastic Nature
6.00 PM Douglas Hedley (University of Cambridge). The Romantic World Soul

7.00 PM Dinner

 

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This event is has taken place; a recording of the talk can be found here . --- On 20th October 2025, the Centre will host Prof. Robert Goulding, who will give a talk 'What are eyes for? Taking a second look at Plotinus' visual theory'. This event will take place in the Lightfoot Room of the Faculty of Divinity, beginning...

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