Pre-tenure FAS faculty members are invited to submit proposals in support of the cost of organizing a book workshop at AUB on topics in Anthropology, Economics, Education, Gender, Media Studies, Political Science, Psychology, Sociology, or other related fields. Bobst-AUB has limited funding for this opportunity, and applications will be considered on a case-by-case basis.
Eligibility: Pre-tenure FAS faculty members. Priority will be given to first-time applicants.
Budget: Up to $5,000
Application materials: Apply online. Please upload in PDF: 1. Proposal (1-2 pages) including abstract (no more than 200 words), the anticipated budget for air travel (if applicable), accommodation (if applicable), honoraria, and a meal event with the speaker; and 2. Information on funding source, status, and coverage amount if additional funds have been received or sought from other sources.
Application deadline: October 1; March 15
Contact: [email protected]
2024-25
- Book Production: The Philosophy of Ptolemy and Its Late Antique and Medieval Reception
Emma Gannage, Department of Philosophy
The project of gathering scholars to reflect on Ptolemy’s “philosophy” stemmed from my interest in the classification of mathematics as an intermediary science in al-Kindī’s philosophy that scholars used to trace back to the Greek Neoplatonist philosopher Proclus (d. 485) when, in fact, I found out, al-Kindī was directly inspired by Ptolemy and particularly the two-page preface of the Almagest (See Gannagé (2016), “al-Kindī, Ptolemy (and Nicomachus of Gerasa) Revisited,” Studia Graeco-Arabica 6:110).
Al-Kindī (ca 801–ca 870) was the first philosopher to write in Arabic and a polymath who wrote on an astonishing range of interests stretching from philosophy to medicine, mathematics, and astronomy to name but a few. Ptolemy (ca 100–170) was perhaps the most famous astronomer and astrologer of his time, whose astronomical models served as the reference in the West for about 1400 years. Yet al-Kindī seems to have considered him also to be a philosopher. For Ptolemy, beyond the production of “a sure and unshakable knowledge”, mathematics is also a science “desirable for itself” and, moreover, the best means to reach not only a better understanding of the celestial movements but also a harmonious ethical disposition.
How does Ptolemy see himself and his project as presented in Almagest 1.1. and how others and particularly later writers, whether in late antiquity or early Islam interpreted his project? Who is he writing for and why does he write in this way? This is the framework within which the chapters of our volume unfold. At the same time, our book aims at facilitating the study of the impact of Ptolemy’s work on later philosophers for whom he was an authority. It also includes the recent discovery of a hitherto unknown translation of the Almagest into Arabic.