Call for papers

XIV Symposium Platonicum

Plato’s Theaetetus

Madrid, May 5th-9th (in person)

     May 19th-21st (online) 2025

The International Plato Society organizes a symposium on a single Platonic dialogue every three years. We are pleased to announce the Call for Papers for the XIV Symposium Platonicum: Plato’s Theaetetus.

The Symposium will take place in two separate modalities:

  1. In Person: May 5–9, 2025, at the Facultad de Filosofía (Universidad Complutense de Madrid) and
  2. Online: May 19-21, 2025, from the Facultad de Humanidades (Universidad Carlos III, Madrid).

Presentation length:

As we want to encourage discussion, speakers will be given double time on this occasion. Papers should be suitable for 40-minute presentations (suggestion: 20 minutes of reading plus 20 minutes of discussion).

Authors may be asked to expand their papers to be presented at one of the 1- hour plenary sessions.

Abstracts

We welcome abstracts from all IPS members, full and associate. If you are not yet a member of the International Plato Society, criteria for membership and information about joining are available at: https://platosociety.org/membership/.

Length: 500-800 words

Content: We would like to suggest to authors that their abstracts focus on a thesis and provide some arguments to support it. If possible, please indicate in the title the passage(s) from Stephanus’ pages on which your work will focus. This will help us organize the Symposium properly, following Plato’s dialogue.

Also, if possible, please indicate in which slot your paper would best fit:

  1. The texts of the Theaetetus;
  2. The Theaetetus and Plato’s dialogues;
  3. On stage and behind the scene: characters, dramatic setting, themes, structure of the dialogue;
  4. Method: Hypotheses and Self-refutation; Dialectic
  5. Perception and the Flux: Heraclitus and Protagoras
  6. The so-called ‘Digression’: maieutics, sophistry, philosophy
  7. The so-called ‘Digression’: The Source of Evil; Becoming like God
  8. True and false Opinion
  9. The Wax Block Model
  10. The Aviary Model
  11. Thinking and Logos
  12. Presence/Absence of the Forms
  13. The Soul
  14. Euporia and Aporia
  15. The Reception

Language: Your abstract should be written in two of the Society’s five official languages (i.e. English and French, Italian and Spanish, English and German…).

Identity information: To ensure blind-review by the IPS Executive Committee please remove any identifying information from the abstract and the file properties.

Modality: Please indicate your perspective on the modality in which you would like to participate:

  1. In person
  2. Online
  3. No preference

We will do our best to accommodate the chosen modality, but on occasion we may ask speakers to adapt to our possibilities.

Deadline: All submissions must be received by September 30, 2024. Submitters will be notified of the Committee’s decision by January 2025.

Ph.D. Theses on Plato

All ongoing theses on Plato from the second year of progress onwards or recently defended are welcome. Theses will be presented in the online modality.

We will select 6 thesis abstracts. Please submit your abstract following the same procedure. Please attach a brief letter of recommendation from your supervisor.

Length: 1200-2000 words.

Language: Your thesis abstract should be written in two of the Society’s five official languages (i.e. English and French, Italian and Spanish, English and German…).

How to submit your abstract

Please send us an e-mail to symposiumplatonicum@gmail.com including your name, affiliation and the modality you prefer, and attach your abstract.

Please ensure that you are a regular paid-up member for the three-year period 2022-2025. If you are not, please pay your IPS fee by bank transfer to the bank account indicated below and, for safety reasons, please send us the certificate of your transfer that your bank issues, to ipsinmadrid@gmail.com

(This is a different email address to deal exclusively with financial issues).

Bank account:

BIC/SWIFT ERSVES22

IBAN ES8030810262465000387421

COUNTRY CODE AND CHECK DIGIT ES80

BANK NAME: EUROCAJA RURAL 3081

OFFICE 0262

CONTROL DIGIT 46

ACCOUNT NUMBER 5000387421

Address of the Bank Office (if necessary)

Plaza de la Hontanilla, 8

28240 Hoyo de Manzanares

Madrid ESPAÑA

Membership fees:

Full membership 2022-2025: 120 Euro

Associate membership 2022-2025: 60 Euro

For any queries, please feel free to write to symposiumplatonicum14@gmail.com