HPhil Seminar: February 12, 2026

The HPhil (History of Philosophy) Research Group of the Centre of Philosophy of the University of Lisbon announces the 2025/26 edition of its permanent seminar on the history of philosophy, devoted to the presentation of conferences by renowned specialists while also creating opportunities to emerging scholars, aiming to promote advanced studies in groundbreaking debates and the permanent training of its academic community.

In this session of the seminar, Andrea Falcon (Concordia University) will present a paper, entitled “Aristotle’s De anima and the Science of Living Beings”. (abstract below)

The session will take place on February 12, 2026 at 5 p.m., in the Room 201.J (Room Mattos Romão, Department of Philosophy). Admission is free

Abstract

In The Architecture of the Science of Living Beings (Cambridge UP 2024) I argue that Aristotle can speak of a science of living beings if we narrow down its scope so as to concentrate on perishable living beings. This is so even though animals and plants do not constitute a genuine genus but are at most a quasi-genus. In this essay I would like to explore the relation that Aristotle envisions between his study of the soul and his science of perishable living beings. My main goal can be restated by saying that I want to reflect on how best to unpack the “and” connecting the first part of the title  (“Aristotle’s De anima”) to the second (“the Science of Living Beings”). It does not take long to see that this is not only a delicate question but also one that calls for a genuine exploration. We want to know what idea controls the project attempted by Aristotle in his De anima.

 

This activity is funded by Portuguese national funds through FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, I.P., within the project UID/00310/2025, Centro de Filosofia da Universidade de Lisboa (https://doi.org/10.54499/UID/00310/2025)