OZSW Autumn Course ‘Uncommon Notions: Fragments, Obscurities, Authority’ open for registration

The course Uncommon Notions will discuss how the historian of philosophy deals with sources that are not immediately intelligible or whose status is not immediately intelligible on account of their fragmentary, disputed or obscure character.

What is an appropriate use of such sources, and how do we determine their status in order to justify their use? These crucial questions are relevant not only to the history of ancient philosophy, where scholars are notoriously confronted with fragments, quotes of uncertain origins, glosses, annotations, etc., but also to the history of modern and contemporary thought, where a great variety of sources (such as epistles, diverging editions of the same text, aphorisms, student notes, etc.) pose particular problems for the historian. During the course, we will discuss case studies and methods which can help us deal with this kind of texts.

As a graduate researcher in philosophy, have you encountered, or are you encountering such problems? Have you made headway in developing techniques to address them? Would you like to gather contributions on a specific textual problem?

All Research Master and PhD students in the History of Philosophy are invited to participate in this event. You are also very welcome to volunteer for a presentation during one of the student sessions. To do so, send us a proposal in which you specify a small number of texts you will be addressing and will require attendees to familiarise themselves with, as well as a formulation of the specific problem you wish to address during the session.

The course will take place on 6 and 7 October, 2017. Further information can be found here.

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