Since the publication of Conti Rossini’s notes on Tekle Haymanot, an Ethiopian Catholic priest and Rossini’s testimony that made the Hatatas are of Giusto d’Urbino, in 1916, the controversy of authorship over the Hatatas remained hot debate amo

13. Teshome Abera - Zara Yacob's Hatata: Its Historical and Social Reality

Nov 23rd, 2022 37m 45s

The seventeenth century philosophical work of Zara Yacob, the Hatata, is the result of both internal and external issues that led to controversies. Zara Yacob as a philosopher exercised the use of logic over the immediate environment and develo

12. Henry Straughan & Michael O'Connor - Grace and Reason in the Hatata Zera Yacob

Nov 23rd, 2022 30m 1s

In this talk, Henry Straughan and Michael O'Connor seek to illuminate the philosophical method of the Ḥatäta Zär’a Ya‛ǝqob. In particular, they trace the interaction between reason and grace, and the role of discursive argumentation versus imme

11. John Marenbon - Does it Matter Who Wrote it? Zera Yacob, Forgery and Pseudonymity in the History of Philosophy

Nov 11th, 2022 34m 21s

Philosophers often talk as if it does not make much difference who wrote a piece of philosophy, when, and where, but only whether the arguments it contains are sound. Historians of philosophy should always treat that attitude with suspicion. Ph

10. Justin E.H Smith - Assessing the Evidence for Zera Yacob's Authenticity from the Point of View of the History of Philosophy

Nov 11th, 2022 35m 25s

There are several ways by which to approach the question of the authenticity of Zera Yacub's work. One is philological, by careful attention to the linguistic hints in the manuscripts that the work is not by a native writer of Ge'ez, or that ot

9. Anke Graness - Of Forgeries and Misinterpretations

Nov 11th, 2022 29m 5s

This paper discusses the authenticity debate on the Ḥatäta of Zera Yacob and Walda Heywat from the perspective of a historian of philosophy. From this perspective, the case of the Ḥatäta and the discourses that developed around the manuscript

8. Fasil Merawi - Examining the Hatetas as a Foundation of Ethiopian Philosophy

Nov 11th, 2022 50m 15s

In this talk Fasil Merawi argues that Ethiopian philosophy is grounded in an illusory foundation that takes the Hatatas as a foundation of philosophical criticism. It is an intellectual exercise that is born from a Eurocentric discourse that is

7. Anaïs Wion - The Place of the Hatata in African Philosophy since the 1960s

Nov 11th, 2022 41m 35s

As initially planned in the series of articles I dedicated to the Hatata (HZY and HWH) in 2013, I would like to examine the roles that these texts have played in the birth of the philosophical discipline, as an academic milieu and an intellectu

6. Neelam Srivastava - Italian Colonialism and Orientalism in Ethiopia

Nov 11th, 2022 37m 17s

This talk examines some aspects of Italy’s colonial relationship with Ethiopia in the 20th century, and how it can be brought to bear to the debate around the authorship of the Ḥatäta Zär’a Ya‛ǝqob, with especial reference to Carlo Conti Rossin

5. Eyasu Berento - Zera Yacob and Walda Heywat - 17th C Ethiopia Freethinkers: Exceptionality and Situated-ness of the ‘Hateta’ in the Ethiopian Intellectual Tradition

Nov 11th, 2022 36m 35s

This paper will assess the nature of the Ethiopian written intellectual tradition (mainly history of ideas), and its relation to the controversy on the authenticity of the texts, and their philosophical significance for Ethiopian and/or African

4. Mauricio Lapchik Minski - The Mäqśäftä hassätat or Against the Libel of the Ethiopians–A 17th Century Catholic Response [and Request] to the Christological Position of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church

Nov 11th, 2022 20m 37s

The Jesuit missionaries’ encounter with Ethiopian Christians at the outset of the 17th century was an unparalleled period of cultural and religious interchange. During this period, European Jesuit missionaries attempted to ‘clean out’ the ‘fla

3. Binyam Mekonnen - Critique and Emancipation in the Religious Sphere: the Däqiqä Ǝsṭifanos as a Foundation of Ethiopian Critical Theory

Nov 11th, 2022 34m 14s

The Däqiqä Ǝsṭifanos is one of the medieval Ethiopian texts which predates the Hatatas of Zär’a Ya‛ǝqob and his disciple, containing profound ideas regarding the relationship between the public and private spheres, the critical role of religio

2. Peter Adamson -The Place of Ethiopian Philosophy in the History of Philosophy

Nov 11th, 2022 39m 57s

In this talk Peter Adamson will attempt to set a context for the other contributions in the volume, by discussing the whole phenomenon of philosophy in Ethiopia and, more specifically, how it fits into the broader landscape of philosophy in the

1. Ralph Lee - Reflections on Translating the Hatata into English

Nov 11th, 2022 39m 40s

In making a new translation into English of the Hatata I have developed some reflections on the work, its authorship, and its context. In particular I will focus on the writers use of the bible in the works, and what this tells us about the aut

0. In Search of Zera Yacob Conference - Jonathan Egid, Lea Cantor, Justin Holder; Introductory Remarks

Nov 11th, 2022 22m 58s

Introductory remarks for the In Search of Zera Yacob Conference, contextualising the aims and intentions of the conference, the texts of the Ḥatäta Zär’a Ya‛ǝqob and the Ḥatäta Walda Heywat themselves and their historical context. These texts h

Ellie Robson

Dec 20th, 2021 32m 32s

The history of philosophy is a history of men talking to men, about other men. Our answer to the question ‘What is philosophy for?’ has been shaped by this historical narrative. My talk explores an answer to this question posed by the woman phi

Sharon Stein, "The Challenges and Possibilities of Decolonizing Higher Education in VUCA Times"

Dec 20th, 2021 39m 44s

Discussions about the decolonization of philosophy take place within the wider context of efforts to interrupt inherited hierarchies of knowledge and reimagine higher education as we know it. In this presentation I offer some insights from rece

TAN Sor-Hoon, “Confucian Democracy and the Analects”

May 31st, 2021 39m 49s

There has been a lively debate over the relationship of Confucianism to democracy. Samuel Huntington’s dismissal of Confucian democracy as an oxymoron has been overtaken by a variety of different proposals on whether or not the Confucian politi

Li Chenyang, "Li as Cultural Grammar: On the Relation between Li and Ren in Confucius' Analects"

May 17th, 2021 45m 4s

A major controversy in the study of the Analects has been over the relation between the two central concepts of li (rites, rituals of propriety) and ren (humanity, human excellence). Confucius seems to have said inconsistent things about this r

Stephen C. Angle, “The Analects and Modern Moral Philosophy”

May 13th, 2021 45m 15s

This talk explores the advantages and disadvantages of viewing the Analects through the lens of contemporary moral theory. It looks in particular at Kantian deontology, which Sinophone scholarship on the text has tended to stress; virtue ethics

Barbara Jikai Gabrys, “Zen and Science: The Search for Meaning”

Nov 10th, 2019 15m 57s

There is an apparent contradiction between Zen way of life and scientific studies of nature. However, on the fundamental level they have in common search for reality: through critical examination of facts, acceptance of impermanence of thin

Livia Kohn, “The Daoist Dimensions of Tai Chi”

Nov 10th, 2019 39m 56s

Tai Chi is a popular method of self-cultivation and health enhancement that goes back to a 17th-century combination of martial arts and healing exercises (daoyin). The latter are first documented in the 3rd century BCE and today activated, unde

Adrian Kreutz, "The Soteriology of Contradiction"

Nov 10th, 2019 20m 42s

Contradictions (and, arguably, the acceptance thereof) pervade Buddhist Philosophy. What is the point of those contradictions? In this talk, I shall argue that contradictions are an important soteriological instrument (upāya) for the practit

Graham Parkes, “Being-Here: There’s No App for That”

Nov 10th, 2019 43m 18s

The purpose of many computer products in the area of information and communications technology is to capture the user’s attention, distract it from the actual place where the user is situated, and export it to some virtual space where adver

Elisabeth Huh, "Unifying The Eating-Disordered Soul: Treating Anorexia Nervosa Through Ancient Greek Ethics and Psychoanalysis."

Nov 10th, 2019 22m 32s

A growing number of philosophers are recognizing the value of psychoanalysis in enriching our understanding of rational psychic integration—a central task within the Platonic-Aristotelian ethical tradition. Here, I join their ranks by propos