Colloquium: Individuum and communitas. From metaphysics to politics
Individuum and communitas. From metaphysics to politics
Organizer: Société Internationale pour la Philosophie Médiévale
Venue: School of Arts and Humanities of the University of Lisbon
Date: 2-4 September 2026
Local Organizers: Filipa Afonso, Lidia Lanza, Inês Salgueiro Machado
Sponsor: Centre of Philosophy of the University of Lisbon
Scientific Committee: Filipa Afonso (Universidade de Lisboa), Christophe Erismann (Universität Wien), Lidia Lanza (Universidade de Lisboa), Gyula Klima (Fordham University), António Pedro Mesquita (Universidade de Lisboa), Pasquale Porro (Università di Milano), Maria Leonor Xavier (Universidade de Lisboa).
Introduction:
The questions revolving around the notions of individuum—and related notions (person, suppositum, numerical identity)—and communitas recur throughout medieval philosophy and touch the various fields of philosophy. From logic to metaphysics, from philosophy of nature to ethics and politics, the answer to the questions ‘what makes this individual what it is and distinct from all the others’ and ‘what constitutes a community as a whole’ are inescapable for any philosophical orientation. Whatever the answer to these questions or even to each one separately, it implies a view about what kind of relations stand between individual and species, unity and plurality, and individual and community. In other words, these questions touch on the central themes of philosophical reflection: from the individuation principle to the dispute over universals, to mention only the two most directly involved in the question.
The Colloquium aims to examine the concept of individuality and its relationship to a whole, i.e., a communitas, from every philosophical perspective and in every tradition and thereby to establish a new framework for future research. More than a quarter of a century after the symposium that resulted in the publication of Individuum und Individualität im Mittelalter (edited by J.A. Aertsen and A. Speer, Miscellanea Mediaevalia 24, 1996), several factors have emerged that make it desirable to bring together scholars from different fields in a conference: (1) the available body of texts has been augmented by the publication of new critical editions, (2) the question of subjectivity, personhood and identity has come to the fore and, with it, all the questions of ontology, noetic, and ethics connected to it (e.g., A. de Libera, Archéologie du sujet, I: Naissance du sujet; II: La quête de l’identité, 2007-2008; Id., L’invention du sujet moderne, 2015; D. Perler, Eine Person sein. Philosophische Debatten im Spätmittelalter, 2020), (3) matter and hylomorphism, along with related issues such as individuation and the relation between the powers of the soul, are at the heart of a renewed interest (cf. the research carried out by R. Friedman and N. Polloni). Following these new textual and historiographical acquisitions, new contributions have been published. Some of them are limited to a specific aspect (cf. Hylomorphism and Mereology, eds. G. Klima and A. Hall, 2018) or to a precise author (cf. Peter of John Olivi. Construction of the Human Person. Anthropology, Ethics, and Society, eds. S. Bobillier and R. Thornton, 2021) and some focus more on institutional issues (cf. Individuals and Institutions in Medieval Scholasticism, eds. A. Fitzpatrick and J. Sabapathy, 2020). The recent award of two ERC grants—one to R. Freedman to explore hylomorphism, and the other to P. Porro to examine the relationship between species and individuals from various perspectives—bears witness to the growing interest in subjects closely related to the Colloquium’s topic.
Taking all these contributions into account, we aim to promote an approach to the problem that incorporates the different traditions and areas of medieval philosophical thought as inclusive as possible. It is, moreover, the purpose of the Colloquium to encourage the study of recently published texts to determine whether they confirm or challenge the current historiographical views.
Against this backdrop, our goal is to consider the broad spectrum of issues surrounding the notion of the individual in relation to the communitas to which it belongs. To mention just a few: How can a common trait be attributed to several individuals? Is individuality merely the sum of common properties? In which sense are individuals of the same species related to each other? Epistemologically speaking, how is an individual distinct from a community? How can an individual element be transformed and subsumed under a whole (e.g., the case of food in the body)? In the sphere of practical philosophy, is the individuum-moral agent inclusive of the individuum-member of a community, or are they distinct? Is the civis part of a specific communitas, or do the two terms denote a universal condition? Finally, can a community carry out an act and be held responsible for it in the same way as an individual?
Procedure for call for papers:
Should you be interested in presenting a paper at this meeting, please send us an abstract for a 30-minute presentation, with no more than 500 words, including the author’s name and affiliation, to siepm.individuumcommunitas@gmail.com, by 7th February 2026.
Deadlines:
Submission of abstracts: 7th February 2026.
Notification of accepted proposals: 15th April 2026.
Registration: 29th May 2026 (registration will be available after the 15th of April; registration procedures to be announced)
Registration Fee: 60€