Evil? The Bad, the Ugly, and the Depraved in Ancient Greek and Roman Philosophy

The Chicago Area Consortium for Ancient Greek and Roman Philosophy is holding its eleventh biennial conference on October 14–15, 2016. The topic will be on the question of “evil”, or what is “bad” (kakon). This is the complement of a previous conference, entitled “Beauty, Harmony, and the Good”, which explored the concept of kalon. This conference will confront the highly controversial question: is there a concept of “evil” in ancient Greek and Roman philosophy? Or is this primarily a Christian concept? The Greek term kakon is usually translated as “bad”. But what is the “bad”? It is discussed by the ancients under many aspects, such as misfortune in human life; the resistance of matter to the teleological ordering of the world; moral error or ignorance; and excess, or disharmony. In a moral context, can it signify “evil”, or is it merely a kind of disharmony or malfunction? Kalon, too, is an evasive concept. For want of a better term, it is often translated as “fine”, a term that straddles both “beautiful” and “good”. Students of ancient Greek and Roman philosophy have mostly focused on the goal of life, normally designated as kalon, giving only subordinate attention to its opposite. This conference will zero in on the opposite. We intend to explore the concept of “bad” over a wide historical period, from early Greek philosophy to late antiquity, with a forward look to contemporary issues. At first glance, it might seem that Greco-Roman philosophy has little to contribute on the question of “evil”. It is time to bring it in confrontation with later ideas, to see whether there is a continuity, and what is the difference. We expect this conference both to impel new research on the question and to shed new light on subjects of current philosophical concern.