Week 8 (MT 2026), 3 December

Arianna Piazzalunga (University of Geneva / KU Leuven): 'Was Aristotle impious?  Plato, Aristotle and the early Academy on soul, motion and teleology' 

Chair: Amber Carpenter 

Abstract: This paper discusses a possible debate between Plato and the early Academy, on the one hand, and Aristotle, on the other, concerning the cause of heavenly motion. It also suggests that Aristotle may be among the polemical targets of Plato’s Laws 10 and the Epinomis, particularly in their claim that any theory that neglects the causal priority of the soul over the body is bound to atheism.