Philosophical Reflections on Aristotle's Historia Animalium - mapping the complexity of life

Aristotle's Historia Animalium is perhaps one of his most intriguing and least explored works, particularly in the area of philosophy. The longest in the Corpus, the treatise collects data relevant to the phenomena of embodied sentient life, setting out an extensive array of differences in animals’ parts (moria), activities (praxeis), ways of life (bioi) and characters (êthê). This conference brings together a group of international scholars of Aristotle's biology and philosophy in order to discuss the many topics explored in the treatise, including: organism and environment, ecology, physiology, perception, voice, emotions, intelligence, human-animal relations, ethology, and gender and sex differences. As the first conference to be concerned solely with the Historia Animalium in the context of science and philosophy, this event will result in an edited volume on the work.

The conference will be held at the Faculty of Classics, University of Cambridge, from the 23rd to 25th of August. Attendance is free, but registration is required via the Eventbrite page. The event will be hybrid, allowing for both in-person attendance as well as online participation.

Confirmed speakers include:

Professor Sara Brill, Fairfield University

Professor David Bronstein, UNDA, Sydney

Dr Claire Bubb, New York University

Dr Sophia Connell, Birkbeck College

Professor Marguerite Deslauriers, McGill University

Dr Katharina Epstein, Ludwig-Maximilans University, Munich

Dr Myrna Gabbe, University of Dayton, Ohio

Dr Myrto Hatzimichali, University of Cambridge

Professor Devin Henry, University of Western Ontario

Dr Giouli Korobili, Utrecht University

Professor Mariska Leunissen, UNC Chapel Hill

Professor Thornton Lockwood, Quinnipiac University

Professor Robert Mayhew, Seton Hall University

Dr Diana Quarantotto, Sapienza University, Rome

Professor Christof Rapp, Ludwig-Maximilians University, Munich

Dr Anna Schriefl, University of Bonn

Professor Mor Segev, University of South Florida.

More information about the conference, including abstracts and programme, can be found at the following webpage: