Oxford Plutarch Conference

Oxford Plutarch Conference
14-15 July 2008

Plutarch and Philosophy- scholarship and/or dilettantism?


Plutarch quite possibly would have wanted to be remembered as a
philosopher or teacher of philosophy. Yet it is his monumental Lives of
Greek and Roman statesmen that, for the most part, have lent him a
standing reputation through the centuries. Plutarch’s philosophical side
remained more or less in the shadow of his moralist biographies partly, it
seems, because of its dilettante and popularised appearance and partly
because of its sometimes mystical obscurity. Fortunately, this no longer
seems to be the case: in the last few decades there has been a growing
interest in, and appreciation of, Plutarch as a philosopher-scholar. The
conference on ‘Plutarch and Philosophy’ seeks to appraise the changing
tide in the approaches to Plutarch’s philosophical activity and move the
debate forward, by bringing together international scholars with expertise
on different aspects of Plutarch’s oeuvre.

Keynote Address: Professor Donald Russell (Emeritus Professor, University
of Oxford)

Speakers: Prof. Keimpe Algra (Utrecht), Dr Mauro Bonazzi (Milan), Prof.
Frederick Brenk (Pontifical Biblical Institute of Rome), Prof. John Dillon
(Trinity College Dublin), Prof. Heinz Gerd Ingenkamp (Bonn), Prof. Judith
Mossman (Nottingham), Prof. Jan Opsomer (Cologne), Prof. Chris Pelling
(Oxford), Prof. Aurelio Pérez Jiménez (Málaga), Prof. Luc van der Stockt
(Leuven), Prof. Frances Titchener (Utah State University), Dr James Warren
(Cambridge)

Conference Organiser: Dr Eleni Kechagia (Keble College, Oxford)

Venue: Ioannou Centre for Classical and Byzantine Studies, 66 St Giles,
Oxford

STUDENT BURSARIES AVAILABLE

DEADLINE FOR BOOKINGS: 10 JUNE 2008

The Conference is funded by: the John Fell OUP Fund, the Hellenic Society,
the Classical Association and the Faculty of Classics, University of
Oxford.