2026 German Graduate Workshop (Berlin-Munich-Tübingen-Heidelberg) in Ancient Philosophy

15.04.2026, Wednesday

19:00Informal get-together and dinner

16.04.2026, Thursday

9:00-10:20

Keynote Speaker ass. Prof. Dr. Pauline Sabrier (The American University of Paris): Are Plato’s kinds genuinely 'kinds'? Reasons to think they are not

10:30-11:30

Leonardo Mazzanti (LMU Munich): Anaxagoras on the Νοῦς: The Problem of ἄπειρον in B12 DK

Respondent: Martina Buston (Oxford)

11:40-12:40

Bennet Salzmann (Heidelberg): Is Cicero’s Argument in De Officiis III a Kantian Argument?

Respondent: Paweł Trzciąkowski (LMU Munich)

Lunch

14:10-15:10

Clea Wurster (HU Berlin): Socrates on the Ruler as Craftsman: Republic Book I

Respondent: Bennet Salzmann (Heidelberg)

15:20-16:20

Gisela Sedrakjan (HU Berlin): Spirit opposing Reason at Republic 441b

Respondent: Xinkai Xu (LMU Munich)

16:30-17:30

Fabian Staffel (Heidelberg): True rhetoric as guiding desires

Respondent: Martin Thorsen (Tübingen)

19:00 Formal conference dinner in Alte Gundtei

17.04.2026, Friday

9:00-10:20

Keynote Speaker Dr. Christopher Izgin (Oxford): Themistius on the Nature and Axioms of Contradiction in Aristotle

10:30-11:30

Johannes Busch (LMU Munich): The Dramaturgy of the Soul: A Tripartite Reading of Plato’s Philebus

Respondent: Clea Wurster (HU Berlin)

11:40-12:40

Simiao Cheng (Heidelberg): Pure Pleasures in Plato’s Philebus

Respondent: Johannes Busch (LMU Munich)

Lunch

14:10-15:10

Martin Thorsen (Tübingen): The Relation Between Excellence and Wisdom in Plato and Aristotle

Respondent: William Nolan (LMU Munich)

15:20-16:20

Martina Buston (Oxford): Changes, motions, and the metaphysics of generation in Aristotle’s Physics 5.1

Respondent: Leonardo Mazzanti (LMU Munich)

16:30-17:30

William Nolan (LMU Munich): Against the De-motion of Lesser Psychic Faculties

Respondent: Simiao Cheng (Heidelberg)

17:40-18:40

Michele Pecorari (Oxford): Perceiving Body in an Epicurean World

Respondent: Arianna Castelli (LMU Munich)

19:00 Informal dinner

18.04.2026, Saturday

 9:00-10:20

Keynote Speaker Dr. Giulia Weißmann (Prince-ton/HU Berlin): No one to blame? Rethinking Plotinus on Moral Responsibility

10:30-11:30

Arianna Castelli (LMU Munich): Memory as a Storehouse of Presentations: Stoic Ontology and the Status of Memory

Respondent: Michele Pecorari (Oxford)

Coffee break / Light lunch

11:50-12:50

Xinkai Xu (LMU Munich): Scepticism and Plotinus’ Criticism of Impression Theory

Respondent: Gisela Sedrakjan (HU Berlin)

13:00-14:00

Paweł Trzciąkowski (LMU Munich): Varieties of the Inner Word in Augustine’s De Trinitate XV

Respondent: Fabian Staffel (Heidelberg)