Summary of the International Undergraduate Conference, Ancient Metaphysics and Its Modern Appropriations

The Philosophy Department of Central European University hosted the two-day international undergraduate conference “Ancient metaphysics and its modern appropriations”, on 27 and 28 August, organised by Gábor Betegh (Cambridge – CEU) and István Bodnár (ELTE – CEU). The eleven speakers of the conference came from universities in England, France, Iran, Italy, Spain, Slovakia, Turkey and the US, and delivered talks on a wide range of topics, spanning from the Presocratics to Plato and Aristotle, always opening the discussion to the contrasts and parallels with our contemporary debates. Each talk was first followed by the remarks of an invited commentator – delivered by CEU students or faculty, and also by colleagues from Eötvös University (ELTE) and the University of Milan. The discussions of the two days were framed by two keynote talks – first the opening keynote, by Howard Robinson on Problems with attempts to revive Aristotle's theory of substance, and then the closing keynote, by Hanoch Ben-Yami on Descartes and the possibility of idealism – both of them approaching the topics of the conference from the contemporary and modern perspective, and setting out where there is a major divide between ancient theories and their modern counterparts.

The two exhaustive days of talks and discussions were concluded on the third day with the field trip to Aquincum, the closest point one can get to antiquity within the Budapest city limits, and then a chill-out on the river bank of the Danube at Római-part.