HPhil Seminar: May 14, 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, Gerd Van Riel (KU Leuven) will present a paper, entitled “Plato’s Open Metaphysics”. (abstract below)

The session will take place on May 14, 2026 at 5 p.m., in the Room 201.J (Room Mattos Romão, Department of Philosophy). Admission is free.

Streaming available here.

 

Abstract

Plato came under heavy fire during the 20th century: Nietzsche, Heidegger, Popper, and many others accused Plato of having led Western rationality astray by introducing an eternally unchanging ideal reality. Along the same lines, Plato’s allegedly final insight into the nature of goodness and justice brought 20th century philosophers to discredit his design of an ideal state as a collectivist project of a closed society, and as a justification of totalitarianism.
We want to see whether this criticism is justified, and whether it was not motivated by certain presuppositions among twentieth-century readers of Plato. Perhaps a new reading of Plato will provide new insights that re-value Plato’s possible contribution to addressing contemporary political and societal challenges.

 

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).