Michael Frede Memorial lecture

Ursula Coope, “Is happiness cumulative over time? An argument from Plotinus”

Professor Ursula Coope (Keble College, Oxford), "Is happiness cumulative over time? An argument from Plotinus" Abstract Is happiness the kind of thing that is cumulative over time? To many modern philosophers it has seemed obvious that the answer is yes. For example, Richard Kraut, in his recent book The Quality of Life, argues that the […]

Lesley Brown, “Self-sufficiency in Aristotle and others: what’s so good about Autarkeia?”

Professor Lesley Brown (University of Oxford), "Self-sufficiency in Aristotle and others: what’s so good about Autarkeia?" Abstract  Self-sufficiency – autarkeia – is a familiar Greek cultural value, and one of the hallmarks of the best life according to Aristotle. But what makes a life self-sufficient? I probe his claim that the life of philosophical reflection […]

Professor Charles Brittain, “Protagorean Hermeneutics”

(Image: Iliad 1.1, excerpt from British Library Add MS 8232, f.184) Professor Charles Brittain (Cornell University), "Protagorean Hermeneutics" Michael Frede Memorial Lecture, in partnership with the Department of the History & Philosophy of Science, National & Kapodistrian University of Athens. Abstract In this paper I argue that Protagoras’ method of poetic interpretation was not eristic. […]