On 16 and 17 June 2025, Professor Michael Griffin visited our Graduiertenkolleg. He is a renowned specialist in ancient philosophy and Neoplatonism, and is the current editor of the Ancient Commentators series. During his visit, Prof. Griffin gave a lecture entitled 'The One of the Soul and the Authentic Self in Late Neoplatonism', in which he discussed the relationships between the soul, body, virtues and cosmos.

He also showed us how authors of Late Antiquity read and interpreted the Platonic dialogues. One aspect that Prof. Griffin highlighted in particular was the influence of religious beliefs in philosophical exegesis. Both pagans and Christians commonly used Plato's dialogues to interpret the natural world and ground their ascetic and ethical practices. Each religious group offered a different interpretation of the passages, revealing different degrees of autonomy and heteronomy in their commentaries on Plato's work.

In addition to his lecture, Professor Griffin gave a masterclass in which we read and translated De Aeternitate Mundi Contra Proclum', XI, 3–6. During this four-hour session, we discussed Philoponus's theory of matter and his criticisms of Neoplatonic cosmology. This provided another opportunity to observe how a Christian author challenged the cosmological perspectives of pagan writers. In this case, religious beliefs were not the only motivation for Philoponus to distance himself from the authority of Plato and Proclus. There were also scientific reasons that led him to develop a theory of matter closer to scientific experimentation than metaphysical speculation.

As a good philosopher, Prof. Griffin left us with more questions than answers, which we hope to discuss when he next visits. <u1:p></u1:p>