October – November 2017
A five week seminar on the classics for political theory and philosophy. It will be led by Dr Sara Diaco (PhD Cantab), a visiting CAPPE scholar this term.
Dr Diaco will guide our reading and discussion of core classical texts focusing on the role of truth and frankness in political and social life. We engage with the different ways in which relationships based on either truth and frankness (parrhesia) or lies and deceit shape and change the society we live in.
Dr Sara Diaco
Sara Diaco completed her PhD in Classics at the University of Cambridge with a thesis in Ancient Philosophy. The dissertation – “Plato and Lucretius on the origins and development of human society” – argued that it is possible to connect the features of Plato’s account of the first polis to the structure of thought experiments and that Lucretius’ narration of the birth of society is based on the use of Epicurean sign-inference as methodological procedure that allows the poet to re-construct the events in human prehistory. It further analysed the ethical and political concerns of the authors, the importance given to communication and frankness by their accounts, and the role of philosophy as remedy to the problems of society. Sara held a position as guest scholar at the University of Tübingen.
Leave a Reply