PROGRAM
Life, the Universe, Everything Ñ and More:
Plato's Timaeus Today
September 13Ð16, 2007
University of Illinois at UrbanaÐChampaign
THURSDAY September 13, 2007
Thursday. Session I: 7:30Ð10pm
Keynote I
Love and Beauty in Plato's Symposium:
"Only in the Contemplation of Beauty is Human Life Worth Living"
MillerComm Endowment Lecture
Alexander Nehamas, Princeton University
Location: Levis Faculty Center, 3rd floor
919 W. Illinois Street Ð Urbana
Three blocks east of the south entrance to the Illini Union
http://www.levis.uiuc.edu
Reception following, 8:30pmÐ10pm, Levis Faculty Center, Lobby and Reading Room, 1st floor,
underwritten by Parmenides Publishing | Hyele Institute.
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FRIDAY September 14, 2007
Friday. Welcomes 8:30am
Remarks by Sarah Mangelsdorf, Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, UIUC
General Lounge Illini Union (Room 210)
(http://www.union.uiuc.edu)
Friday. Session II: 9Ð10:30am
General Lounge Illini Union (Room 210)
God
Chair: Barbara Sattler, Philosophy, Yale University
Sarah Broadie, University of St. Andrews, "Divine and Natural Causation in the Timaeus"
Anthony Long, University of California, Berkeley, "Plato's Craftsman God and the Stoics' Zeus"
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break
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Friday. Session III: 10:45amÐ12:15pm
General Lounge Illini Union (Room 210)
RepublicÐTimaeusÐCritias
Chair: Laurie Johnson, German, UIUC.
Allan Silverman, Ohio State University, "Philosopher-Kings and Craftsman-Gods"
Kathryn Morgan, UCLA, "Narrative Orders in the Timaeus and Critias"
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Lunch Break
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Friday. Session IV: 1:30pmÐ3:45pm
General Lounge Illini Union (Room 210)
Space and Motion
Chair: Patricia Curd, Philosophy, Purdue University.
Stephen Menn, McGill University, "The Timaeus and the Critique of Pre-Socratic Vortices"
Donald Zeyl, University of Rhode Island, "Visualizing the Receptacle"
Zina Giannopoulou, University of California, Irvine, "Derridean Re-inventions of Plato's 'Chora'"
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Friday. 4pmÐ5pm
Release the Stars: A Rare Book Room Display on Plato's Timaeus
A special viewing of an exhibit of Platonic incunabula and other Timaeus-related rare books from the 15th to 17th centuries, plus geometrical and astronomical models.
Curated by Barbara Sattler, Dennis Sears, Bruce Swann, and Angela Zielinski.
Rare Book and Manuscript Library
University Library (Room 346):
The University Library is located immediately southwest of the Main Quadrangle that abuts the Illini Union on the south side.
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Friday. Session V: 5:00pmÐ7:45pm
Plato's Timaeus in Contemporary Architecture
Chairs: Paul Kruty, Architecture, UIUC and Richard Mohr, Philosophy and Classics, UIUC
Reception underwritten by the UIUC School of Architecture
5pmÐ6pm
Temple Buell Hall
611 Lorado Taft Drive (six short blocks due south of the Illini Union's west entrance and three block south of the University Library)
6:00pmÐ7:45pm
Keynote II
School of Architecture Max Abramovitz Distinguished Lecture
Anthony Vidler, Cooper Union, "The Atlantis Complex: Derrida and the Lost Origins of Architecture"
Plym Auditorium, Temple Buell Hall
and
School of Architecture Max Abramovitz Distinguished Lecture
Ann Bergren, UCLA, "Animate Ch™ra Form: The Architecture of Greg Lynn and Elena Manferdini"
Plym Auditorium, Temple Buell Hall
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SATURDAY September 15, 2007
Saturday. Session VI: 8:45amÐ10:00am
General Lounge Illini Union (Room 210)
Coloring the Cosmos
Chair: Debra Hawhee, Speech Communication and English, UIUC
Justin Broackes, Brown University, "Colors Ñ Ancient and Modern"
Katerina Ierodiakonou, University of Athens, "Basic and Mixed Colors in Plato's Timaeus"
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Break
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Saturday. Session VII: 10:15amÐ11:45am
General Lounge Illini Union (Room 210)
Whence and Whither the Primary Bodies
Chair: Barbara Sattler, Philosophy, Yale University
A poster session: George Francis, Mathematics, UIUC
Verity Harte, Yale University, "'The Receptacle and the Primary Bodies:
Something from Nothing?"
Alan Code, Rutgers, "Weight"
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Lunch Break
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Saturday. Session VIII: 1Ð2:30pm
General Lounge Illini Union (Room 210)
Plato's Timaeus 2004
Authors-Meet-Critics on Thomas Johansen's Plato's Natural Philosophy and
T.M. Robinson's The Cosmos as Art Work
Chair: Richard Mohr, Philosophy and Classics, UIUC
Critic: Thomas Robinson, University of Toronto
Author: Thomas Johansen, Brasenose College, Oxford University
Critic: Kirk Sanders, UIUC
Author: Thomas Robinson, University of Toronto
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Break
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Saturday. Session IX: 2:45pmÐ3:45pm
General Lounge Illini Union (Room 210)
Myth and Reason in the Timaeus:
Author-Meet-Critics on Myles Burnyeat's "EIKOS MYTHOS"
Chair: Mary Lenzi, Philosophy, University of WisconsinÐPlatteville
The critics: G‡bor Betegh, Central European University, and
Alexander Mourelatos, University of Texas at Austin
The author: Myles Burnyeat, All Souls College, Oxford University
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Saturday. 4pmÐ5pm
The Spurlock Museum
Special viewing for conference attendees of the Museum's holdings
bearing on the ancient world
Docent: James Dengate, Classics, UIUC
The Spurlock Museum ( http://www.spurlock.uiuc.edu )
600 S. Gregory St., Urbana, just south of the Levis Faculty Center
and to the east of the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts.
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Saturday. Session X: 5Ð6pm
Keynote III
Plato's Timaeus: Some Resonances in Modern Physics and Cosmology
Welcoming remarks: Linda Katehi, Provost, UIUC, and the conference's Honorary Chair
Anthony Leggett, 2003 Nobel Laureate for Physics, Center for Advanced Study, UIUC
Location: Knight Auditorium
Spurlock Museum
600 S. Gregory Street, Urbana
Reception following, 6pmÐ7pm in Spurlock Museum Lobby (the Museum's exhibits will be closed during the lecture and reception).
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SUNDAY September 16, 2007
Sunday. Session XI: 8:45amÐ10:00am
General Lounge Illini Union (Room 210)
God and Goodness in Plato's Philebus and Timaeus
Chair: William Calder, Classics, UIUC
Charles Kahn, University of Pennsylvania, "Cosmology in the Philebus and Timaeus"
Mitchell Miller, Vassar College, "The Unwritten Teachings in the Philebus, in the Timaeus?"
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Break
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Sunday. Session XII: 10:15amÐ11:30am
General Lounge Illini Union (Room 210)
The Timaeus' Neoplatonic Afterlife
Chair: Bruce Rosenstock, Program for the Study of Religion, UIUC
Matthias Vorwerk, Catholic University of America, "Maker or Father? Plotinus on the Demiurge"
Ian Mueller, University of Chicago, "What's the Matter? Simplicius on the Receptacle"
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Break
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Sunday. Session XIII: 12:15pmÐ2pm
General Lounge Illini Union (Room 210)
The Platonic Cosmology
Chair: Philip Phillips, Physics, UIUC
Barbara Sattler, Yale University, "Planetary Motions as a Guide through History?:
Plato's Astronomy and Philosophy of History in the Timaeus"
Sean Carroll, California Institute of Technology, "From Eternity to Here: Time and Change in an Eternal Universe"
Session commentator: Alan Code, Rutgers
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END OF CONFERENCE
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But wait, there's more . . .
Sunday. 2:30pmÐ4pm
A Post-Conference Treat:
A Journey into the CAVE
Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology, Room B650 (lower level)
405 North Mathews Avenue, Urbana (North campus area)
The CAVE, named after the cave of Plato's Republic VII, is a total immersion virtual reality experience. Several people at a time stand inside a closed cube, which then generates three and higher dimensional virtual realities. Mathematics and Beckman Institute Professor George Francis has arranged a demonstration for conference speakers and attendees that allows the viewer to navigate non-Euclidean space, observe four-dimensional phenomena, and manipulate virtual shapes and processes. The images of The Cave allow one to visualize what one cannot normally imagine on one's own. For more information see, http://elim.isl.uiuc.edu/Labs/room_b650.htm The Beckman Institute is a walking distance from the Illini Union, but we will also have a van running between it and the Union.