A Stream on “Welcome back, Epictetus!”

Memo

The Arts and Humanities Division (AHRD) of the Athens Institute for Education and Research (ATINER) is organizing A Stream on “Welcome back, Epictetus!”, 3-6 January 2018, Athens, Greece as part of the 5th Annual International Conference on Humanities & Arts in a Global World sponsored by the Athens Journal of Humanities & Arts.



Welcome back, Epictetus! “Man, what is special about you? The creature? No. The mortal? No. The use of impressions? No. The ability to acknowledge the nature of things is the special element that you have: adorn and embellish that”. According to Epictetus, what is the rightly understood human nature? It is the ability to recognize the nature of things and then to behave in every situation in a way consistent with it. And which is the nature of things? The nature of things is their essential bipartition in proairetic things and in aproairetic things. And which is the human faculty specifically dedicated to put in place this diairesis and to recognize the difference between what is proairetic and what is aproairetic? It is the proairesis. Is Epictetus the only philosopher who has been able to define the issue at stake in its exact terms and who has given the correct answer? The characteristic that distinguishes the man from all other creatures is it the ‘reason’, or the human faculty that he calls ‘proairesis’?. Is this solution absolutely valid both for those, philosophers and non-philosophers, who understand it and for those who do not understand or deny it?



Fee structure information is available on http://www.atiner.gr/2018fees.



Special arrangements will be made with a local hotel for a limited number of rooms at a special conference rate. In addition, a number of special events will be organized: A pragmatic symposium (as organized in Ancient Athens but fine tuned to synchronous ethics), a special one-day educational island tour, an Athens educational walking tour, and an one-day visit to Delphi.