It was with great sadness that we learned of the passing of Anne Gabrièle Wersinger in January 2024. A. G. Wersinger studied literature and philosophy (in preparatory classes and at the Université de Strasbourg), was awarded first place in the Agrégation de philosophie (1979), and taught in secondary schools (1979-1994), before becoming a lecturer at the Université Paris 1 from 1994 to 2006, and then full Professor at the Université de Reims Champagne-Ardenne and a member of the Centre Jean Pépin, CNRS.
Always on the lookout for the subtleties of the text, A. G. Wersinger’s research has explored the full complexity of the Platonic dialogues, paying attention to the variety of ways in which dialectical operations were carried out in the dialogues. In her dissertation, L’usage des amphibologies dans les dialogues de Platon: essai sur l’interprétation pré-philosophique de la différence, defended under the supervision of Pierre Aubenque in 1992, A. G. Wersinger highlighted the way in which Plato’s thought was deployed within and against other traditions, particularly that of Homer, with which she was intimately familiar. In Platon et la dysharmonie. Recherches sur la forme musicale (Paris, Vrin, 2001), she aimed at unveiling the concept of ‘chromaticist’ harmony in all its variety, extending beyond the realm of music. This research continued in La Sphère et l’intervalle, Le schème de l’harmonie dans la pensée des anciens Grecs d’Homère à Platon (Grenoble, J. Millon, 2008), which was awarded a Prix de l’Académie Française in 2009; her reading of the pre-Socratics, Parmenides and Heraclitus first and foremost, has enabled her to clarify schemes underlying the notion of infinity in Greek thought, both in its physical and cosmological dimensions and in the moral and psychological realms. A. G. Wersinger has presented her work at several Symposia organized by the IPS in Dublin, Pisa and Paris.
The IPS will always remember her as a great scholar and a highly esteemed colleague.