Franco Ferrari
Pavia
Host: Christoph Helmig
Philosophisches Seminar
01.06.–31.07.2026
Research Project
Plato’s dialogues as a public sphere
Plato’s dialogues constitute a comprehensive cultural and political reform project designed to transform Athenian society in the 4th century BC. As a literary genre, they belong to the logoi sokratikoi (‘Socratic dialogues’), which emerged after Socrates’ death and sought to defend the significance of his thought and life. Unlike the works of other authors, Plato’s dialogues are characterised by extraordinary diversity and depth: they bring together representatives of virtually all social groups in Athens, thereby enabling readers to identify with the characters in the dialogues. This dynamic allows readers themselves to enter into a process of ethical and intellectual renewal.
At the same time, Plato critically reflects on the limitations of written text and attempts to overcome them through the dialogical form: diverse characters, styles of speech and settings bring the texts to life and lend them complexity. The dialogues thus form a kind of public space in which fundamental questions of human and political life are addressed. Together with the founding of the Academy, this work serves the aim of establishing philosophy as a new, reason-guided educational tool – as a replacement for epic poetry and tragedy – and of renewing society both morally and politically.
Vitae
Franco Ferrari holds two PhDs: one in Philosophy (1993) from the University of Torino and one in History (1997) from the University of the Repubblica di San Marino. He was Fellow at the Unversity of Bern (CH) from 1994 to 1996.
From 1997 to 2001, he was an Alexander von Humboldt Fellow at the University of Münster. He served as Associate Professor and Full Professor of Ancient Philosophy at the University of Salerno from 1999 to 2019, and since 2020 he is Full Professor at the University of Pavia. He was also Alexander von Humboldt Fellow at the University of Tübingen, Philologisches Seminar (2010, 2012, 2024). In 2014, he was Scientific Director of the UNESCO project “La via dell’essere: Elea/Velia”. He serves as Director of the series “International Plato Studies”. He is member of numerous scientific Board. He is co-director of the Journal “Antiquorum Philosophia”.
Key area of Research
Ancient Philosphy: Plato, Platonism, Ontology, Ethics, Cosmology, Physics, Literary
Genres, Platonic Hermeneutic.
Selected Publications
Platone, Teeteto, Introduction and translation with a running commentary, Milano 2011.
Platone, Menone, Introduction and translation with a running commentary, Milano
2016.
Introduzione a Platone, Bologna 2018.
Mittelplatonisus und Neupythagoreismus, in C. Riedweg, C. Horn, D. Wyrwa (Hrsg.),
Die Philosophie der Antike, Bd. 5/1: Philosophie der Kaiserzeit und der Spátantike
(with I. Männlein), Basel 2018, pp. 545-705.
Chaldäische Orakel, in C. Riedweg, C. Horn, D. Wyrwa (Hrsg), Die Philosophie der
Antike, Bd. 5/2: Philosophie der Kaiserzeit und der Spätantike, Basel 2018, pp.
1202-1217.
Die Seele des Seienden bei Platon: Sophistes 248e-249a und Timaios 30a-31c, in C.
Helmig (ed.), World Soul – Anima mundi. On the Origins and Fortunes of a
Fundamental Idea, Berlin-Boston 2020, pp. 77-90.
La Repubblica di Platone, Bologna 2022.
La maschera di Parmenide: riduzionismo ed equiparazionismo nella prima parte del
Parmenide di Platone, “Philologia Philosophica” 1 (2022) pp. 63-89.
Platone, Timeo, Introduction, critical edition, translation and running commentary (with
Federico Petrucci), Milano 2022.
Platone, Timeo (2000/2020): rassegna critica degli studi, Lustrum Bd. 65, Göttingen
2026.
Contact
Prof. Dr. Franco Ferrari
Università di Pavia Dipartimento di Studi Umanistici - Sezione di Filosofia
Piazza Botta 6,
I 27100 Pavia, Italy
Erich Auerbach Institute for Advanced Studies
E-Mail: franco.ferrari(at)unipv(dot)it