The Human and the Divine

nb: the conference will be held at the university of chicago on fri nov 7 (franke institute, regenstein library 1st floor, 1100 e 57 st.) and at northwestern university on sat nov 8 (location tba)

Paper Titles

what a god of refutation knows: elegchos and dialektike in plato’s sophist
- jonathan beere -

knowing me: it’s the best I can do
- charles brittain

does god have a choice? human and divine volition in early Stoicism
- margaret graver

the divinity of (a) human life
- aryeh kosman

tbd
- stephen menn -

assimilation to god in plato’s ethics
- suzanne obdrzalek -

Topic

how do greek and roman philosophers define the contours
of our human nature in relationship to divine beings? we hope
to explore both the formal and the substantive aspects of this
topic. as to form, can we understand human beings only on
their own terms, or are they something (imperfectly) divine,
perhaps subject to standards only a higher kind of being will
satisfy? the divine, in addition to being something the human
approximates or tries to be like, purports also to be something
human beings can interact with. thus arise substantive questions
such as: what is it to know or understand god(s)? can we in any
sense pray to, hear from, give to, or be aided by the divine?