Aristotelian and Neoplatonic Ethics between Alexandria and Baghdad
1-12-2022
Abstract
The Arab learned men had at their disposal a wonderful survey of the books circulating in the capital of the Abbasid empire: the Book of the Catalogue by Ibn al-Nadim (end of the 10th cent.). Here, in the entry on Aristotle, a «Summary by the Alexandrians» of the Nicomachean Ethics is mentioned. A convoluted history of transmission of a work which is lost in Greek begins with this piece of information. The talk discusses the data left in Arabic and Latin, as well as the possibility, suggested by some, that the Arabic tradition bears the traces of Porphyry's lost commentary on the Nicomachean Ethics.
Bio
Cristina D’Ancona: Professor at the Department «Civiltà e forme del sapere», University of Pisa. Her teaching includes late Antique philosophy, Medieval Philosophy, and Arabic Philosophy. Between 2010 and 2015 she acted as the P.I. of the ERC Project Ideas, Advanced Grant «Greek into Arabic. Philosophical Concepts and Linguistic Bridges». Her fields of research include Greek Neoplatonism and Medieval Philosophy, both Arabic and Latin.
For more information, please contact: viltanioti@uoc.gr