Philosophy summer school winds down

The objectives of the project are the following

• the support of research concerning the development of knowledge and innovative ideas as a contributing factor to social and economic progress

• the development of a network of cooperation connecting Greek and overseas educational establishments, as well as individual researchers and research institutions

• the utilization of a historical neighborhood of Athens and its cultural heritage as the starting point for the acquisition of knowledge and for the development of alternative learning methods.

Within the framework of this project, FHW organizes and runs a multidisciplinary summer school the overall theme of which will be to consider the impact of Platonic (mainly) philosophy on contemporary issues relevant to science and technology.

This year’s summer school hosted some of the leading philosophers and thinkers from USA and EU Universities with special emphasis on ancient Greek and modern philosophy. Academics such as John Cooper from Princeton University/USA, Hans-Johann Glock from Zurich University/Switzerland, Alexander Mourelatos from Texas University/USA, Eric Schliesser from Ghent University/ Belgium and Genia Schönbaumsfeld, Southampton University /United Kingdom as well as Vaso Kindi, Theodoros Arabatzis and Stelios Virvidakis from the University of Athens.

The Summer School of Philosophy and Applied Research is addressed to postgraduate students and researchers from all over the world, from mainly scientific and technological backgrounds who are interested in investigating the relationship between applied research and its underlying principles, and the ways in which applied research supplies feedback for, and occasionally overturns, these same principles.

Twenty three students participated in this year's school. Coming to Greece to revive Plato's Academy. They came from Israel, Pakistan, France, Ukrawine, China, South Africa, Peru, USA, Saudi Arabia, Azerbaidzan, and eight more countries.

Lessons took place daily, and wound up on Friday. They included two two-hour seminars in the morning, and two two-hour sessions, mainly workshops in the evening. Three evenings a week were free so students could prepare for next day's lectures. The students also went on two field trips to the Heraion at Loutraki and Elefsis, and the other at Nafplio and Mycenae. Visits were also undertaken to sites in Athens.

The Project covered the teaching expenses and the educational materials provided. Additionally, it fully covered the students' meals and accommodation in twin bedrooms, as well as their daily transportation to and from the teaching venues. The students paid for the transportation cost from their place of residence to Athens and back.

The Summer School will run for three consecutive years, starting 2012. The venue will be the facilities of FHW in Athens, specifically the Hellenic Cosmos (www.hellenic-cosmos.gr/). The opening date for the current year (2014) was Sunday, July 13th and the closing date was Sunday, July 27th.

The language of instruction will be English and the teachers/instructors will be academics, researchers and specialized scientists whose research focuses on seeking the connection between philosophy, science and technology either from a scientific or a philosophical point of view.

During the summer school the issues that were examined and presented were both practical and methodological, drawn from various themes such as the basic principles of Platonic Philosophy, Bioethics, Theory of Knowledge, Philosophy of Language and Communication, Ethics, Logic, Philosophy of Mathematics, Philosophy of Science, Artificial Intelligence, Philosophy of the Mind etc.