Between Sophocles and Dante: Three Ideas That Created Europe

Between Sophocles and Dante: Three Ideas That Created Europe

What happened between Greek tragedy and Dante's Divine Comedy? How did Europe move from a world of fate and heroes to a world of the individual, conscience, and freedom? Why, two thousand years later, do we still read Plato, think in Aristotle's categories, and find support in the Christian tradition?

At the new meeting of the "Summer Reading" series we will discuss three ideas without which European culture cannot be imagined.

Three ideas indispensable to understanding European culture

Truth

Plato was the first to formulate the notion of eternal ideas — the Good, Beauty, and Justice — as the highest reality. It was his philosophy that shaped the European understanding of truth, goodness, beauty, the immortality of the soul, and the moral ideal.

Reason

Aristotle created the language in which Europe learned to think for almost two thousand years. We will talk about logic, the nature of knowledge, virtue as a deliberate choice, and why reason became the primary instrument for understanding the world.

Freedom and mercy

Christianity radically changed how people understood themselves. We will discuss how Christian thought entered into dialogue with ancient philosophy and why that conversation became the foundation of European civilization.

At the end of the lecture we will compile a reading circle of texts without which it is impossible to truly understand Dante, Shakespeare, Milton, Rembrandt, and European culture as a whole.

The lecture will be given by Sonya Minina — philologist (Saint Petersburg State University), specialist in classical languages and literature, and Latin instructor.

• Date and time: 25 Aug (Tuesday) 19:00
• Cost: 1500 RSD; mandatory advance registration required
• Location: Map