According to ancient biological theories, nutrition is, along with reproduction, one of the functions of the soul shared by men, animals and plants. At the same time, however, eating habits are among the starting points on which differences between humans, animals and plants are culturally built. This means that a transversal biological praxis can be used as an anthropological device, in order to to fix and identify specific boundaries and thresholds, either symbolic or theoretical, between both animality and vegetality on the one hand, and zoosphere and  anthroposphere on the other hand.

Argument

According to ancient biological theories, nutrition is, along with reproduction, one of the functions of the soul shared by men, animals and plants. At the same time, however, eating habits are among the starting points on which differences between humans, animals and plants are culturally built. This means that a transversal biological praxis can be used as an anthropological device, in order to to fix and identify specific boundaries and thresholds, either symbolic or theoretical, between both animality and vegetality on the one hand, and zoosphere and  anthroposphere on the other hand.

In light of this framework, the issues which contributors will reflect on will be the following: 1) The ways in which symbolic and theoretical boundaries and thresholds are constructed in Greco-roman and medieval texts and cultures; 2) The theories of nutrition in the framework of the ancient animal (and human)  'psychology' (e. g., in Aristotle,  in ancient medicine, in the Presocratics, in Roman and medieval encyclopedists); 3) The cultural polarity between vegetarianism and sarcophagy in ancient and medieval cultures; 4) The ancient and medieval ethologies of nutrition. 

Program 

9.00 –Greetings of the President of Associazione Palermoscienza,

9.05 – Pietro Li Causi, Andrea Libero Carbone, Introduction

• 9. 20 – Jean-Louis Labarrière (Centre Léon Robin de recherches sur la pensée antique, CNRS-Université Paris-Sorbonne), De l’utilisation d’Aristote par Porphyre dans le De Abstinentia à la paradoxale récente revanche d’Aristote dans le Droit français.
• 9. 50 – Athena Kirk (Cornell University), Anthropos pamphagos: Meat in the Golden Age?
• 10. 20 – Marjon Peirens (Independent Researcher, Deinze, Belgium), Feeding horses in ms. The Hague, Royal Library, 71 H 44.
• 10. 50 - Roberto Marchesini (Direttore del Centro Studi Filosofia Postumanista e di SIUA – Scuola di Interazione Uomo/Animale), L’alimentazione come epifania animale.

11.10 – Break

11.25 – Discussion

12.00 – Conclusions