skip to content

The Cambridge Centre for the Study of Platonism

Prof. Rob Koons - Tolkien, Barfield, and Neoplatonism: How Metaphysics Moulded Middle Earth

Lecture delivered via Zoom

On 8 June, the Cambridge Centre for the Study of Platonism hosted Prof. Robert C. Koons via Zoom to deliver his talk, 'Tolkien, Barfield, and Neoplatonism: How Metaphysics Moulded Middle Earth'. 

 

Prof. Rob Koons is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Texas, Austin and has recently been a Visiting Fellow at Corpus Christi College, Oxford. Prof. Koons specialises in Logic and Metaphysics, but also writes and teaches in philosophy of religion, philosophy of science, and the history of philosophy. Notably, Koons is co-author of Metaphysics: The Fundamentals and co-editor of Neo-Aristotelian Perspectives on Contemporary Science. His lecture today will focus on the Neoplatonic thought of Owen Barfield and its influence on the development of Tolkien’s Middle Earth.

Subject: 

Latest news

New Volume | Douglas Hedley and Daniel J. Tolan, 'Participation in the Divine'

6 January 2025

The Cambridge Centre for the Study of Platonism is proud to announce the publication of a new volume exploring the philosophical history of the concept of participation from antiquity to modernity: Participation in the Divine , edited by Prof. Douglas Hedley and Dr Daniel J. Tolan. The concept of participation in a...

Book Launch | Mateusz Stróżyński, 'Plotinus on the Contemplation of the Intelligible World' | 28th January 2025

20 December 2024

On Tuesday 28th January 2025, the Centre will host a launch event for Mateusz Stróżyński's new volume, Plotinus on the Contemplation of the Intelligible World: Faces of Being and Mirrors of Intellect . This event can be joined remotely via the following link: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/83321325592 Further details to follow.

Seminar | Neoplatonic Texts: Plotinus' Ennead I.8

7 October 2024

This term, the Centre's Neoplatonism reading seminar will study Ennead I.8, in which Plotinus discusses the nature and origin of evils. This seminar will take place on Thursdays, 9-10:30 (UK time). For more information and how to join, please contact Ben Davidson ( bcd31@cam.ac.uk ).

Seminar | Hadi Fakhoury & Douglas Hedley: Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit

7 October 2024

The Phenomenology of Spirit is perhaps the most decisive text in the history of German idealism. It was in this text that Hegel achieved, albeit in a provisional form, the structure of his mature thought that has come to be known as Absolute Idealism. It was this Absolute Idealism that furnished a point of critique for...

Book Launch | Anthony O'Hear, 'The Prism of Truth | 14th October 2024

4 October 2024

On Monday 14th October, the Centre will host a launch event for Prof. Anthony O'Hear's new volume, The Prism of Truth: Reflections on Myth . Further details of the volume can be found here: https://wipfandstock.com/9781666781014/the-prism-of-truth/#:~:text=After... . This event will take place in the Lightfoot Room of the...