The approach of this paper is a retrospective one. It is an attempt to show that many important ideas of Herodotus, a great ancestor of Aristotle, have influenced his practical philosophy. The paper focuses specially on several topics from the Histories of Herodotus, which have found a resonance in the Nicomachean ethics and in the Politics of Aristotle. The main ones in respect of the ethical theory are: the different forms of justice and the just as for example the super-human (...) justice, the just in the family relations, the judicial just and the just in the polis or the larger human community. Book Epsilon of the Nicomachean Ethics is indebted to Herodotus in several points. In respect of Aristotles' political theory, there are two topics in the History of Herodotus which deserve a special interest: firstly, the conversation of the three noble Persians, who discuss the six basic types of political order and organization of power-and-submission in a state or city-state ; this becomes a paradigm for the next typologies of Plato and Aristotle ; secondly, the importance of personal freedom, the equity of the speaking men on the agora, and the supremacy of law for the well-being of any community and its peaceful future. The legacy of Herodotus is obvious in many anthropological and ethical concepts of Aristotle, especially in his most read and quoted ethical writing and in his Politics. (shrink)

The piece sketches in brief the history of the Southeast-European Association for Ancient Philosophy, established in Delphi in 2002. It became respected academic community and unites scholars from the region regularly, usually once a year, for several days. Already fifteen such seminars have happened, dedicated to the close reading of (a section of) a writing, belonging to some of the most influential ancient thinkers. The topics of the previous fourteen seminars are mentioned in the text and special attention is paid (...) to the seminar held recently in the Faculty of Philosophy in the Charles University in Prague (19– 22 September 2023). It was entitled Difficulties concerning the soul and was devoted to the Enneads of Plotinus, IV.3.1 – IV.4.5. (shrink)

Edited by Svetla S. Griffin and Ilaria L.E. Ramelli. Harvard University Press, Hellenic Studies 88, 2019, ca 600 pages. ISBN-10: 0674241320; ISBN-13: 978-0674241329. Contributors: Luc Brisson, Kevin Corrigan, John Dillon, Harold Tarrant, John Turner, John Finamore, Ilaria Ramelli, Karla Pollmann, Carlos Lévy, Lenka Karfíková, Pauliina Remes, Mark J. Edwards, Pier Franco Beatrice, Svetla Slaveva-Griffin, Aaron Johnson, Dimka Gocheva, Olivier Dufault, and Robert Hannah.