International Plato Society·Société Platonicienne Internationale · Associazione Internazionale dei Platonisti · Sociedad Internacional de Platonistas · Internationale Platon-Gesellschaft

(supported by the C.J. De Vogel Foundation)

Dublin 15.02.06

Dear Colleagues,

I send this message in the aftermath of the ‘mid-term’ meeting of the Executive Committee of the Society, held in the pleasant surroundings of Como, in conjunction with a most stimulating colloquium on the theme ‘Anima e Interiorità: Psychè in Platone,’ organised by our colleague Maurizio Migliori, and supported by the International Plato Society. The most practical purpose of this meeting is, of course, to agree upon the format of the up-coming triennial meeting of the Society in Dublin in July 2007 (July 23 – 28) – though the details are the responsibility of the local committee – and to fix on deadlines and other conditions for the submission of abstracts of proposed papers. Of this there will also be a special notice below, but I would emphasise here that, since there will be – to judge by previous occasions – a considerable excess of papers submitted over what we can handle (which will be about 75 papers in all), if members can be flexible as to preferred length (i.e. as to panel presentations of 20 mins., versus plenary papers of 45-50 mins., of which there will be just ten), they will have that much a better chance of being accepted. All papers will be evaluated (with the utmost sympathy!) by the Executive Committee, and every effort will be made to maximize the accommodation of both ideological and geographical perspectives, but inevitably hard decisions will have to be made.

In general, all papers will be judged in open competition with one another, but one innovation has been proposed in which we found merit, in view of the particular interest taken by H.-G. Gadamer in the Philebus, and that was to establish a panel, under the presidency of Prof. François Renaud, devoted to discussions of Gadamer’s exegesis of the dialogue; so members might like to bear that in mind!

Other than this, all I wish to do in this message is to draw attention once again to developments on the website. In particular, the institution of a ‘notice-board’, called the Forum, on which members may post items of interest, such as the holding of meetings or publication of books or journals, and on which they may even post queries, seems to me a most useful innovation, and one which I would urge that we make good use of.

On a related topic, could I urge members to give their support to the electronic journal of the Society, currently under the editorship of Prof. Gretchen Reydams-Schils, which

provides a good and reasonably prompt means of publishing one’s ideas, and can serve also as a forum for ‘work in progress.’

2007 MEETING: DEADLINES FOR SUBMISSION OF ABSTRACTS

The Executive Committee, at its meeting in Como, has fixed Monday, Oct. 2, 2006, as a deadline for the receipt of abstracts of papers to be considered for presentation at the July, 2007 meeting in Dublin on the Philebus. Such abstracts should not exceed 500 words, and should be presented on not more than two pages. Topics may concern any aspect of the dialogue itself, or of the history of its interpretation, ancient or modern. The privilege of submitting papers is confined to paid-up members of the Society. The papers will be evaluated by the members of the committee over the following two months, and notifications will be sent out early in January 2007, well before the deadline for registration for the conference, which will probably be February 1.

ELECTION OF NEW REGIONAL REPRESENATIVES, AND CHOICE OF VENUE FOR 2013 MEETING

Two other issues arising from the recent Executive Meeting were:

(1) Two members of the committee, Prof. Francisco Bravo, representing South America, and Prof. Maurizio Migliori, one of the two members representing Europe, are due to retire in 2007, and must be replaced. It was decided that the proper procedure for electing replacements will be a postal vote by paid-up members of the society from the two regions concerned, and accordingly such an election will be held early next spring. Nominations, however, signed by at least two members in good standing, may be sent to the President, c/o School of Classics, Trinity College, Dublin 2, Ireland, at any time before Feb. 1, 2007.

(2) Similarly, bids are invited for a venue for the meeting of 2013, since this must be decided at the Dublin meeting, and considerable thought needs to go into any such proposal. Statements of willingness to host such a meeting should be submitted to the President, at the above address – or by e-mail – detailing the venue proposed, and the expected degree of support. The venue will be decided, as usual, by a vote of the members present at the meeting, but such undertakings should not be entered into lightly, so advance planning is desirable.

In conclusion, could I say how pleased and honoured we are in Dublin to be hosting the next meeting of the Society. We will be back to you later in the year concerning technicalities of registration and so on.

John Dillon

Centre for the Study of the Platonic Tradition School of Classics

Trinity College (Dublin)

College green

Dublin 2

Eire/Ireland

Tel.: +353 1 6081150/1208 Fax: +353 1 671 0862 e-mail: dillonj@tcd.ie http://www.platosociety.org