Conference Presentations by René de Nicolay
Talks by René de Nicolay
That Plotinus' interests lay not exclusively in high-flying metaphysics, but included an ambition... more That Plotinus' interests lay not exclusively in high-flying metaphysics, but included an ambition to account for the more down-to-earth phenomena of human psychology is now commonly acknowledged. At least since Blumenthal's groundbreaking study, Plotinus' Psychology (1971), scholars have striven to give a coherent picture of his doctrine of the soul.
Conference & invited talks by René de Nicolay
Papers by René de Nicolay
Gnomon/Gnomon bibliographische Datenbank, 2024
Historia , 2023
Pour Polybe, la πίστις est une spécificité de la πολιτεία romaine (6.56). Or c'est cette πολιτεία... more Pour Polybe, la πίστις est une spécificité de la πολιτεία romaine (6.56). Or c'est cette πολιτεία qui explique la conquête romaine de la Méditerranée (1.1.5-6). D'autres États pratiquent la πίστις (l'Achaïe sous Aratos et Philopoemen, la Macédoine au début du règne de Philippe V) mais de façon moins durable et efficace. Le présent article étudie la conception polybienne de la πίστις et montre les avantages comparatifs de la πίστις romaine pour la conquête (cohésion intérieure et fiabilité internationale). Il mesure enfin le rôle de πίστις dans le jugement polybien sur la valeur de la domination romaine.
Archiv für Geschichte der Philosophie
Late antique political Platonism was not unoriginal in its thought. The paper takes as an example... more Late antique political Platonism was not unoriginal in its thought. The paper takes as an example the Justinianic dialogue On Political Science (ca. 550), which creatively engages with Plato’s political works. It shows that the dialogue tries – and manages, as I argue – to combine two apparently inconsistent Platonic models: what I call the “divine” model, in which a philosopher-king endowed with divine knowledge rules unhindered by civic laws; and the “human” model, characterized by the rule of law. The divine model comes mostly from Plato’s Republic and Statesman; the human one, from the Laws. On Political Science demonstrates that its (anonymous) author was acquainted with these three Platonic texts, in addition to other texts. That is philologically noteworthy, but also philosophically interesting: the dialogue manages to integrate the two models into a common framework. It puts forward an original political model, in which a philosopher-king, although endowed with divine knowle...
The Cambridge Classical Journal, 2023
The intention of Theophrastus’ Characters still escapes us. This paper offers a new answer to tha... more The intention of Theophrastus’ Characters still escapes us. This paper offers a new answer to that centuries-old question by looking closely at the one political sketch of the collection: ‘The Oligarch’ (C.26). We argue that C.26 reveals a political intention in the Characters, presenting oligarchy as the inherently flawed projection of a character trait onto political events. Read in this way, C.26 appears as a medium through which Theophrastus can take a definite but careful stance in contemporary Athenian politics.
Archiv für Geschichte der Philosophie, 2022
Late antique political Platonism was not unoriginal in its thought. The paper takes as an example... more Late antique political Platonism was not unoriginal in its thought. The paper takes as an example the Justinianic dialogue On Political Science (ca. 550), which creatively engages with Plato’s political works. It shows that the dialogue tries – and manages, as I argue – to combine two apparently inconsistent Platonic models: what I call the “divine” model, in which a philosopher-king endowed with divine knowledge rules unhindered by civic laws; and the “human” model, characterized by the rule of law. The divine model comes mostly from Plato’s Republic and Statesman; the human one, from the Laws. On Political Science demonstrates that its (anonymous) author was acquainted with these three Platonic texts, in addition to other texts. That is philologically noteworthy, but also philosophically interesting: the dialogue manages to integrate the two models into a common framework. It puts forward an original political model, in which a philosopher-king, although endowed with divine knowledge, still has to be bound by civic laws because of his human frailty. The article concludes by discussing the polemical import the dialogue could have had in its Justinianic context.
Sage Business Cases 2022, 2022
Ancient leaders had a complicated relationship with sleep. In Iliad 2, Agamemnon is told by a god... more Ancient leaders had a complicated relationship with sleep. In Iliad 2, Agamemnon is told by a godsent dream that kings should not sleep all night; they are supposed to wake up before dawn to carry out their kingly business. The idea that leaders should wake up before others pervades Greek thinking, and finds a prominent expression in Plato’s Laws. This is the “Wake Up At Dawn” paradigm. Leaders could choose to go further and adopt a “No Sleep” paradigm, like the late Roman emperor Justinian. In his legislation, he mentions the sleepless nights he spends worrying for his people, and contemporary historians like Procopius depicted him as an unnatural man, who expressed his will to control the whole state by not sleeping at all.
This case develops and compares the two paradigms. Students are encouraged to question the iconic figure of the leader as a superhuman, and to evaluate the contribution of a leader’s personal sacrifice to group success. Students will consider the value of the leader striking a healthy work-life balance to establish sustainable leadership, especially with respect to sleep.
Polis: The Journal for Ancient Greek and Roman Political Thought
Classical Philology, 2021
This paper studies the term and concept of licentia in the Latin Republican corpus, focusing on C... more This paper studies the term and concept of licentia in the Latin Republican corpus, focusing on Cicero’s political theory. Its first part is a philological analysis of the term. It concludes that in the first century BCE licentia had three core meanings: permission, permission to do wrong, and permissiveness. The second part is a study of the concept licentia in Cicero’s rhetoric and political theory. It shows Cicero’s awareness of the effect of permissions unduly given and permissiveness on the force of social standards at Rome.
Polis: The Journal for Ancient Greek and Roman Political Thought, 2021
Plato’s pronouncements about political freedom in the Laws have sparked renewed interest in the l... more Plato’s pronouncements about political freedom in the Laws have sparked renewed interest in the literature. The present paper takes a new angle on that vexed question. It focusses on Plato’s account of the birth of unlawful freedom, or ‘theatrocracy’, at the end of book 3. By studying the transition from moderate to excessive freedom, it
wishes to shed light on what sets the two apart. The paper provides a causal analysis of the key passage (700a3–701c2), suggesting four compatible and complementary explanations for the process it describes. The first is presented as the main one, but it
is made more likely by the addition of the three others.
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Conference Presentations by René de Nicolay
Talks by René de Nicolay
Conference & invited talks by René de Nicolay
Papers by René de Nicolay
This case develops and compares the two paradigms. Students are encouraged to question the iconic figure of the leader as a superhuman, and to evaluate the contribution of a leader’s personal sacrifice to group success. Students will consider the value of the leader striking a healthy work-life balance to establish sustainable leadership, especially with respect to sleep.
wishes to shed light on what sets the two apart. The paper provides a causal analysis of the key passage (700a3–701c2), suggesting four compatible and complementary explanations for the process it describes. The first is presented as the main one, but it
is made more likely by the addition of the three others.
This case develops and compares the two paradigms. Students are encouraged to question the iconic figure of the leader as a superhuman, and to evaluate the contribution of a leader’s personal sacrifice to group success. Students will consider the value of the leader striking a healthy work-life balance to establish sustainable leadership, especially with respect to sleep.
wishes to shed light on what sets the two apart. The paper provides a causal analysis of the key passage (700a3–701c2), suggesting four compatible and complementary explanations for the process it describes. The first is presented as the main one, but it
is made more likely by the addition of the three others.
Contributors: A. Sorensen (Univ. Copenhagen), P. Horky (Univ; Durham), A. Bonnemaison (ENS Paris), D. El Murr (ENS Paris), M. Schofield (Univ. Cambridge), M.L. Bartels (Univ. Pisa), R. de Nicolay (ENS-Paris/Princeton), S. Sauvé Meyer (Univ. Pennsylvania), M.-K. Lee (Univ. Colorado, Boulder), K.M. Vogt (Columbia Univ.), S. Marchand (Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne Univ.), V. Arena (UCL London), D. O'Meara (Univ. Fribourg, Switzerland)