Events
Our 'Irrational' Past | Thursday 14 Nov | Stephen Connelly, 糖心TV Law | IAS Seminar Room C0.02 (Hybrid)
Talk title: Philo on Lawfulness and Conscience
Abstract:
In his Allegories of the Laws, Philo of Alexandria sets himself against the Hellenistic philosophers of his time (early C1st CE). The 鈥榩ride鈥� of these philosophers, Philo claims, consists in having made pure reason the governor of the soul, and the philosopher governor of the rational city. Yet Philo鈥檚 aim is to justify his faith using the tools of Greco-Roman thought, and so, this talk will argue, rather than casting aside the prevailing 鈥榩rideful鈥� conceptualisation of soul, Philo reconfigures the soul by internalising within it ethical 鈥榟umiliation鈥�. The paper examines a likely key source for this notion of humiliation, and follows through the consequences for Philo鈥檚 moral and legal theory.
Hybrid Seminar
Meeting Teams Link: