‘Loss, grief, and its therapy: philosophical perspectives from ancient Greece, Rome, and Asia’

‘Loss, grief, and its therapy: philosophical perspectives from ancient Greece, Rome, and Asia’. 4-6 September 2025, Faculty of Classics, University of Cambridge.

Speakers:

• Han Baltussen (University of Adelaide)
• Douglas Cairns (University of Edinburgh)
• Amber Carpenter (Einstein Forum)
• Margaret Graver (Dartmouth College)
• David H. Kaufman (Transylvania University)
• David Machek (UC Louvain)
• Emily McRae (University of New Mexico)
• Chakravarthi Ram-Prasad (Lancaster University)
• Franco Trivigno (University of Oslo)
• Curie Virág (University of Warwick)
• James Warren (University of Cambridge)
• Sharon Weisser (Tel Aviv University)
• David B. Wong (Duke University)
• James Zainaldin (Vanderbilt University)
• Cristóbal Zarzar (University of Cambridge)

Although the last few decades have seen a growing interest in ancient theories of the emotions, the topic of grief (lupē; dolor) has not received the attention it deserves from scholars of ancient Greek and Roman philosophy. Strikingly, the studies on ancient philosophers’ views on grief remain largely underrepresented in the scholarly literature despite significant interest in their treatment of related emotions (e.g. fear of one's own death). For some reason, grief has not generated in scholars the level of interest generated by other emotions (e.g. anger), which is all the more surprising if we consider that the complex and ubiquitous character of grief makes it ripe for philosophical analysis.

The aim of this 3-day international conference is to provide a forum for academics specialising in different ancient philosophical traditions to engage in a dialogue about ancient conceptualisations of grief and the types of attitudes they thought appropriate for us to adopt towards it, including consolation therapy.

The programme will be announced soon on the conference website: https://griefconference.my.canva.site/

Registration: Those interested in attending should contact Cristóbal Zarzar: [email protected]

Sponsors

This conference has received generous financial support from:

• Faculty of Classics, University of Cambridge: https://www.classics.cam.ac.uk/
• The Mind Association: https://mindassociation.org/
• The British Society for the History of Philosophy: https://bshp.org.uk/
• The Institute of Classical Studies: https://ics.sas.ac.uk/
• The Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies: https://www.hellenicsociety.org.uk/

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