Biography

Pantelis Golitsis is Assistant Professor of Ancient and Medieval Philosophy at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. He holds a PhD from the École Pratique des Hautes Études (Paris) and a Habilitation from Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität (Munich). His main research interests lie in Aristotle, Neoplatonism and the reception of Aristotle in Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages. He is the author of Les Commentaires de Simplicius et de Jean Philopon à la Physique d’Aristote. Tradition et innovation (De Gruyter, 2008; Prix Zographos de l’Association pour l’encouragement des Études Grecques en France). His recent publications include a critical edition of Aristotle’s Metaphysics Lambda (Crete University Press, 2021) and On Progression of Animals (Cambridge University Press, 2021), as well as a new edition of Alexander of Aphrodisias’ commentary on Aristotle’s Metaphysics I-III (De Gruyter, 2021).

Project Abstract

At the end of the ancient world, the Platonist Damascius (floruit 500 A.D. ca.) conceived of an innovative theory of time, according to which midway between time as a 'unifying measure' of sensible substances and eternity as the 'timeless' mode of life of intelligible forms stands "the whole of time", “all time at once”, in which past, present and future coincide. Damascius exposed his theory in a now lost treatise On Time, fragments of which are preserved in Simplicius’ commentary on Aristotle’s Physics. The present project aims at a philosophical reconstruction of Damascius' radically un-Aristotelian conception of time by linking Simplicius' report to Damascius' commentary on Plato's Parmenides and to the seminal poem On Nature of the pre-Platonic philosopher Parmenides. It is hoped that Damascius' conception of "all time at once", which puzzled Simplicius himself and still puzzles scholars today, will be better understood and our understanding of the ancient conceptions of time be enriched and refined.

Curriculum vitae

2021 | Habilitation, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München

2018-2020 | Scientific collaborator at the project Commentaria in Aristotelem Graeca et Byzantina,

Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften

2015-2017 | Research Scholarship of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft for research in Italy and France

2014 | Assistant Professor of Ancient and Medieval Philosophy, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki

2007-2014 | Scientific Collaborator at the Aristoteles-Archiv, Freie Universität Berlin

2001-2006 | PhD, École Pratique des Hautes Études (Paris)

2000-2001 | MSc,   École Pratique des Hautes Études (Paris)

1995-2000 | BA in Classics, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki

Selected Publications

2021. "Aristotle on ambiguity". In Strategies of Ambiguity in Ancient Literature, edited by M. Vöhler, T. Fuhrer, and S. Frangoulidis. Trends in Classics–Supplementary Volumes 114, 11-27. Berlin: de Gruyter.

2019. „Der Begriff der Physis im späten Neuplatonismus“. In Platon und die Physis, hrsg. von D. Koch, I. Männlein-Robert, und N. Weidtmann. Antike-Studien 4, 241-254. Tübingen: Attempto.

2018. "Aristotle on the Motion of Projectiles: A Reconsideration." Ancient Philosophy 38: 79-89.

2017. "La réception de la théologie d’Aristote chez Michel d’Éphèse et quelques auteurs néoplatoniciens". In Réceptions de la théologie aristotélicienne. D’Aristote à Michel d’Éphèse, édité par G. Guyomarc’h, et F. Baghdassarian. Aristote. Traductions et études, 239-256. Leuven: Peeters.

2016 (with Philippe Hoffmann). "Simplicius’ Corollary on Place: Method of Philosophising and Doctrines". In Aristotle Re-Interpreted, edited by R. Sorabji. New Findings on Seven Hundred Years of the Ancient Commentators, 531–540. London: Bloomsbury Publishing.