International Plato Society, Newsletter, Issue 1 (2007-10) Tokyo, December, 2007

Dear Colleagues,

It was a great pleasure to meet many IPS members and to discuss Plato again in Dublin this summer. We thank the former President, John Dillon, and his team for organizing such a wonderful symposium. We look forward to seeing you again at least in Tokyo in 2010.

At the Dublin symposium, the new Executive Committee started to work, and are now dealing with various issues through electronic communication. We have also set up the IPS Tokyo office with the Tokyo Organizing Committee. We hope all the IPS members will participate in the activities we shall be planning, and warmly invite other scholars to join the Society. Below we offer basic information about our Society.

Shinro Kato, President of the IPS Noburu Notomi, Co-President of the IPS

1. Executive committee

(1) The new Executive Committee

At the General Assembly at the Dublin Symposium, the new members of the Executive Committee were elected. Following the decision made at the Würzburg Symposium in 2004, Shinro Kato (Tokyo Metropolitan University, emeritus) became President, and Noburu Notomi (Keio University, Tokyo) Co-President. We shall together organize various activities for the IPS during the next triennium.

Luc Brisson (CNRS, Paris) is appointed as Vice-President. John Dillon (Trinity College, Dublin) remains in the Executive Committee as Ex-President, and Mauro Tulli (Pisa) is elected as Next President to host the X Symposium Platonicum in 2013.

The regional representatives are Álvaro Vallejo Campos (Granada, continuing) and Arnaud Macé (Paris, new), from Europe, François Renaud (Moncton, continuing) from North America, María Isabel Santa Cruz (Buenos Aires, new) from Latin America, and David Runia (Queen’s College, Melbourne, new) for Asia, Australia, and Africa. Carlos Steel (Leuven) represents the C. J. de Vogel Foundation, whose continuing support for the IPS we truly appreciate. The Executive Committee already held two meetings during the Dublin Symposium on 27 and 28 July, and thereafter has exchanged views by e-mail. If you have any inquiry or suggestion about the IPS, please contact the Tokyo office, or any one of the members of the Executive Committee:

Shinro Kato: shinkato@bk9.so-net.ne.jp Noburu Notomi: notomi@z8.keio.jp

Luc Brisson: lbrisson@agalma.net

John Dillon: dillonj@mail.tcd.ie ; jmdillon@eircom.net

Mauro Tulli: m.tulli@flcl.unipi.it

Álvaro Vallejo Campos: avallejo@ugr.es

Arnaud Macé: arnaud.mace@univ-fcomte.fr François Renaud: francois.renaud@umoncton.ca María Isabel Santa Cruz: maritasantacruz@aol.com David Runia: runia@queens.unimelb.edu.au

Carlos Steel: Carlos.Steel@hiw.kuleuven.ac.be

(2) Advisory Board

Because in 2010 the Symposium will be hosted in Asia for the first time, we have asked the Ex-Presidents to become advisors for this triennium. The Advisory Board consists of Livio Rossetti (Perugia), Christopher Rowe (Durham), Tomás Calvo (Madrid), Thomas Robinson (Toronto), Samuel Scolnicov (Jerusalem), and Michael Erler (Würzburg). All have kindly accepted our request.

(3) Editorial Board

The main function of the Editorial Board – consisting of five members, each representing one of the official languages of the Society – is to edit the series International Plato Studies, published under the auspices of the Society. The new Executive Committee has decided on a wholesale change of the membership of the Board. In place of the retiring members, namely Mauro Tulli (chief editor, Italian), Christopher Rowe (English), Luc Brisson (French), María Santa Cruz (Spanish), and Thomas Szlezák (Tübingen, German), the following members have kindly agreed to take on the task: Franco Ferrari (Salerno, Italian), Louis-André Dorion (Montreal, French), Marcelo Boeri (Chile, Spanish), Michael Erler (German), and Lesley Brown (Oxford, English). Mauro Tulli and Christopher Rowe are continuing to work with the new members of the Board for another year in order to provide a degree of continuity. We heartily thank the former Board members for their enormous efforts in maintaining the high standard of the series, and we wish the new Board every success.

(4) The Tokyo Organizing Committee

The Tokyo Organizing Committee has started to take care of the organization and activities of the IPS, and of the preparation for the 2010 Symposium Platonicum. The TOC members are Shinro Kato, Noburu Notomi, Yasuo Iwata (Tohoku University, emeritus), Teruo Mishima (Aoyama Gakuin University), Satoshi Horié (Keio University), Yuji Kurihara (Tokyo Gakugei University), and Satoshi Ogihara (Tohoku University). The contact address (IPS Tokyo office) is as follows:

c/o Noburu Notomi, Faculty of Letters, Keio University

4-1-1, Hiyoshi, Kohoku-ku, Yokohama, 223-8521, Japan

E-mail: notomi@z8.keio.jp

Fax: +81-(0)45-566-1102

2. Membership

The conditions of membership of the IPS remain as before.

have published one or more papers on Plato or the Platonic tradition are eligible for full membership; those who are working on their dissertations may apply to be Associate members. The membership fees, payable by all members, will for 2007-2010 remain roughly as they were for 2004-2007

Scholars who

(taking account so far as possible of variations in currency rates):

Full Membership: 75 euro or the equivalent (100 US dollars, 50 UK pounds, 12,000 Japanese yen)

Associate Membership: 30 euro or the equivalent (40 US dollars, 20 UK pounds, 5,000 Japanese yen)

Some members have already paid their fees, at the Dublin symposium. Others are kindly requested to send their fees by International Postal Money Order to the IPS Tokyo office, or to transfer the money to one of the two bank accounts of the IPS Tokyo (please check which offers lower costs). The account details are as follows:

SUMITOMO MITSUI BANKING CORPORATION

Mita-Dori branch

Address: 5-28-1 Shiba, Minato-ku, Tokyo, 108-0014, Japan

Bank code: 0009623

Swift address: SMBCJPJT

Account number: 7953939

International Plato Society Tokyo (representative Noburu Notomi)

JAPAN POST BANK

Keio-Gijuku-mae branch

Address: 5-13-18 Shiba, Minato-ku, Tokyo, 108-0014, Japan

Bank code: 9900

Account number: 00180-4-726193

International Plato Society Tokyo (representative Noburu Notomi) (remittances to the Japan Post Bank can be made from the following countries: Austria, Belgium, Czech, Republic, Germany, Israel, Korea, Liechtenstein, Luxemburg, Spain, Serbia, Slovakia, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey; transfer can be made from/to Giro / Post bank accounts in the following countries: Denmark, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Romania, UK. But please check with your post office).

Please remember that any transmission charges must be paid by the sender.

If you happen to meet TOC members, e.g. at a meeting organized by the IPS, you can of course pay by cash. In any case we would appreciate prompt payment of membership fees.

We are sorry that we cannot accept cheques/checks or credit cards. This is because the commissions for such transactions are extremely high. For the fees for the Tokyo Symposium in 2010, we shall try hard to make it possible to pay by credit card.

3. Five Main Activities in 2007-2010

The IPS will organize the five categories of activities during the triennial, in which it is hoped that members will participate. These are: the Symposium Platonicum 2010; the series of International Plato Studies; the Plato Website; the Internet Journal; and regional meetings.

(1) Symposium Platonicum 2010, in Tokyo

The IX Symposium Platonicum will be held at the Mita Campus of Keio University. The campus is located in the centre of Tokyo, and the TOC and Executive Committees have now fixed the dates: 2-7 August, 2010. We must confess that it was a difficult decision. Initially the last week of July was suggested, but since many Japanese universities still have classes in that week, we had to move the Symposium to the first week of August. Though it is often very warm in August, all places (the university, hotels, and transportation) are air-conditioned. Moreover, there are fewer possibilities of typhoons hitting Japan in early August.

The topic of the Symposium is the Republic; we are thinking of inviting, as guest speakers, Myles Burnyeat (Cambridge), Gerald Boter (Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam), and Mario Vegetti (Pavia).

(2) International Plato Studies

Thanks to the efforts of the Editorial Board, new volumes in the International Plato Studies series from Academia Verlag continue to come

out, with further volumes planned or in preparation. Most members will

by now have seen The Selected Papers of the Seventh Symposium Platonicum “Gorgias-Meno” (edited by Michael Erler and Luc Brisson, 2007),

published this year. We hope the series will continue to flourish under the new Board; for details of the series, see the Academia Verlag website (http://www.academia-verlag.de/).

(3) Plato Website

The IPS Website was created several years ago and maintained by Livio Rossetti and his team, but following the Dublin IPS meeting, the Internet task force began work, moving the site to a secure server at Michigan State University. Livio Rossetti and Debra Nails have been working together since August to transfer files to the new site, to establish a refurbished forum (managed by Brendan O’Byrne), to post ‘Local Reports’ (provided by

members – soon to be approached – from different countries or regions on Plato-related activities: publications, meetings, etc.), to keep abreast of conferences and calls for papers, and to construct a password-protected members-only section of the site. Debra and her team have faced a few surprises, however, that have delayed progress (for example, all passwords to the site were mysteriously randomized at one point). Technicians at Michigan State University, who have taken over when Livio and Debra reached aporia, now hope to see the site up and running by the end of 2007. The task force welcomes further suggestions from IPS members.

Internet task force: Debra Nails (head: nails@msu.edu); Brendan O’Byrne; Dennys Xavier; Dimitri El Murr; and Olivier Renaut.

(4) Internet Journal Plato

Dimitri El Murr (Paris I-Panthéon-Sorbonne) was appointed in Dublin as the new editor of the Internet Journal and is now in charge. We appreciate the tremendous work done by the former editor, Gretchen Reydams-Schils and her University (Notre Dame) over the past three years. Several articles are already currently in the process of being reviewed for the next issue, due out in March or April 2008; new contributions are warmly encourage, and should be sent to the editor (at Dimitri.EL.MURR@ens.fr).



Gretchen plans a new Review Series (starting in 2008) in which recent monographs and articles on specific topics will be discussed: art of writing/genre (Pierre Destrée); “Socratic” dialogues (Noburu Notomi and others); ethics and politics (Stephan Schorn); natural philosophy (to be fixed); ontology/philosophy of language (Francesco Fronterotta); individual dialogues (Francisco Gonzalez).

(5) Regional Meetings

During this triennium, small conferences on Plato and the Platonic tradition will be co-organized or supported by the IPS. Those who plan such conferences are invited to contact the Executive Committee for further information. The main idea is to promote Platonic studies in different regions of the world; a condition of co-organization is that at least some IPS members (from different countries) should participate and read papers at the conference. Information on regional meetings will be circulated among the IPS membership (as well as being put on the Website).

The IPS will also take part in the World Congress of Philosophy (organized by the FISP) to be held in Seoul in 30 July-5 August, 2008 (see the website: http://www.wcp2008.or.kr/). The Korean Organizing Committee kindly invites the IPS to organize a three-hour session. Shinro Kato is in the chair and arranging the session “Plato and Greek Philosophy in the Contemporary World”, in collaboration with Nam-duh Kim (Seoul National University), Yasuo Iwata, Álvaro Vallejo Campos, John Dillon, and Noburu Notomi (possibly with one further speaker).

4. Other information

(1) FIEC meeting

Noburu Notomi attended the general assembly of FIEC (Federation Internationale d’Études Classiques: http://www.fiecnet.org/) in Barcelona in August 2007. The Berlin conference, 24-29 August, 2008, was announced. The organizers wish to have as many participants from different backgrounds to discuss classical topics together; please look at the website



of the conference (http://www.fiec2009.org/). We are also happy to inform the members that our contribution as a Member Association to the FIEC promotes such international projects as L’Année Philologique and Thesaurus Linguae Latinae.

(2) Reports from Dublin

Reports on the activities and financing of the last three years will be circulated later by the former President, John Dillon.

The deadline for the Dublin Proceedings (14 December) has already passed, but if you have any questions, please contact John Dillon or Luc Brisson (editors of the Proceedings of the VIII Symposium Platonicum). Papers read at the Gadamer panel will be published separately under the editorship of Christopher Gill and François Renaud.

(3) Communication

Finally, on communication. We normally send newsletters (and other important information) via e-mail. But if you prefer to receive them by surface mail, PLEASE let us know immediately. We are sending – to all members – a hard copy only of this first Newsletter of the present triennium.

While the newsletters and other communications are written in English, those who have difficulty in reading English are invited to ask one of the representatives of the Executive Committee (or the Advisory Board) to translate them into their own languages. E-mails (questions, comments, suggestions, etc.) may be written to us in any one of the five official languages (English, French, German, Italian, and Spanish), or in Japanese. For the contact address, see the IPS Tokyo office address indicated above.