Doctoral Education 2022: cycle of seminars
Byzantium and Us
Channel Teams "Byzantine Studies 2022" (Code 71jwl4r)
Wednesday, April 20, 2022 at 14:30 - AULA MAGNA (Balbi2)
Ἐπιστήμη and μαθήματα between 'theory' and 'practice': two examples from the classical and Byzantine worlds.
Martina Savio (UniGe)
'Star maps': 'theoretical' knowledge and 'practical' function in the classical world
The knowledge of the name, shape and position of the constellations was evidently part of the potential 'baggage' of individuals of (medium-)high socio-cultural level: besides being an intellectual enrichment, such knowledge is also conceived, at least in some contexts, as a practical life tool, a means to use the night sky as a 'calendar' and a 'clock'.
Francesco Monticini (UniRomaTre)
Action as praxis. Reflections on science and knowledge in Manuele Gabalas and Simone Weil
The lecture will focus mainly on the analysis of a letter addressed by the metropolitan of Ephesus Matthew (born Manuel Gabalas) to the scholar Nicephorus Gregora in the early thirties of the fourteenth century. In the text, Matthew tells of his own personal crisis and addresses, in this regard, the Neoplatonic concept of theoria, which he contrasts with that of praxis. The conclusions reached by the metropolitan of Ephesus in this letter will then be compared with some reflections - related to the comparison between ethical and technical action - published by the French philosopher Simone Weil in her essay Science and Us of 1941.