The IIS has continued its engagement with the Aquinas and the Arabs International Working Group Meeting this year, which runs online in May-June 2021.
On May 19th, the Institute sponsored the panel “Ismaili Thought: Between Neoplatonism and Aquinas” at the conference, which this year has the title Philosophy in the Abrahamic Traditions: Structures of Being, World and Mind.
The panel was organised and chaired by Dr Janis Esots, a Research Associate in the IISs Shi’i Studies Unit, and featured two IIS scholars,Dr F但r竪s Gillonand Professor Carmela Baffioni, as well as Dr Cristina DAncona of the Universit di Pisa.
Dr Gillon, who has also recently convened theIslamic History and Thought Lecture Seriesat the IIS, investigated the pre-philosophical roots of 畍am朝dal-D朝nal-Kirman朝s doctrine of two perfections.
Professor Baffioni, building on her work on the檎温壊偵i鉛油看韓油Ikhwn al-畊af, proposed to consider Ismailism as a philosophical medium between East and West.
Dr DAncona elaborated on the intellect and the intellection of the human soul as an Aristotelian problem and its non-Aristotelian solutions in Arabic philosophy.
On the conference, Dr Esots said The initial plan, drafted in 2019, was to hold this event live at the IIS, in June 2020, with much more involvement of our researchers and students. The programme was drafted and circulated in early 2020. Then the pandemic happened and the conference was postponed for a year. In late 2020, we decided to have a Zoom event instead.
I am very glad that everything went smoothly, and that the panel was well received. I would like to warmly thank the speakers, F但r竪s, Carmela and Cristina, for their well-prepared and insightful talks, and the audience for their interest and engagement. I hope we will be able to sponsor more events of this kind in the future.
