Λεξικό βυζαντινής φιλοσοφίας

by Katelis Viglas, Κατελής Βίγκλας, Linos G. Benakis (Contributor)

Dictionary of Byzantine Philosophy. Interpretation of Scientific Concepts, Publications K. & M. Ant. Stamoulis, Thessaloniki 2020, pp. 250.

The Dictionary of Byzantine Philosophy fills a gap in the Greek scientific literature. In the dictionary, about 300 entries are interpreted conceptually and supported by bibliographic references. This dictionary contains not only data, but in depth and structured analysis of key terms. This project was deemed necessary as it aims to utilize the accumulated knowledge of recent decades in the newly established scientific edifice of Byzantine Philosophy. Apart from the publication of the book by Basils Tatakis, La Philosophie Byzantine (1949) and the comprehensive studies by Linos Benakis (Byzantine Philosophy. Texts and Studies, 2002 – Byzantine Philosophy II, 2013) very few handbooks of Byzantine Philosophy emerged internationally. The book in hand is an ambitious work, the fruit of the author’s many years of involvement in this field of research. The author was fortunate to have as a guide and advisor in his scientific course the first director of the Research Centre for Greek Philosophy of the Academy of Athens, a student of Tatakis, Linos Benakis, who signs the Foreword. This dictionary is a valuable help for any researcher and for the average educated person who is interested in philosophy, and especially the Greek Christian thought in the Byzantine period, from a contemporary perspective.

Με το Λεξικό Βυζαντινής Φιλοσοφίας καλύπτεται ένα κενό στην ελληνική επιστημονική βιβλιογραφία. Στο Λεξικό ερμηνεύονται εννοιολογικά και τεκμηριωμένα περί τα 300 λήμματα. Πρόκειται για ένα αναγκαίο έργο που στοχεύει στην αξιοποίηση της συσσωρευμένης γνώσης των πρόσφατων δεκαετιών στο νεότευκτο κλάδο της Βυζαντινής Φιλοσοφίας. Εκτός από τη δημοσίευση του βιβλίου του Βασίλειου Τατάκη, La Philosophie Byzantine (1949) και των τεκμηριωμένων άρθρων του Λίνου Μπενάκη (Βυζαντινή Φιλοσοφία. Κείμενα και Μελέτες, 2002 – Βυζαντινή Φιλοσοφία Β’, 2013), λιγοστά μόνο εγχειρίδια για τη μελέτη αυτού του παραγνωρισμένου κλάδου εμφανίστηκαν σε διεθνές επίπεδο. Το φιλόδοξο αυτό Λεξικό είναι καρπός της πολυετούς ενασχόλησης του συγγραφέα με το πεδίο έρευνας της Βυζαντινής Φιλοσοφίας. Ο συγγραφέας ευτύχησε να έχει ως οδηγό και σύμβουλο στην επιστημονική πορεία του τον πρώτο διευθυντή του Κέντρου Ερεύνης της Ελληνικής Φιλοσοφίας της Ακαδημίας Αθηνών, μαθητή του Τατάκη, Λίνο Μπενάκη, ο οποίος υπογράφει το Προλογικό Σημείωμα. Το Λεξικό αυτό είναι ένας πολύτιμος αρωγός για κάθε ερευνητή και για τον μέσο μορφωμένο άνθρωπο που ενδιαφέρεται για τη φιλοσοφία, και ιδιαίτερα την ελληνοχριστιανική σκέψη στη βυζαντινή περίοδο, υπό σύγχρονη οπτική.

250 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 2020

About the author

He is a Historian of Philosophy, Historiographer and Theologian, born in Volos, Greece, in 1969. He has studied History and Archaeology in the School of Philosophy at the University of Ioannina. With a scholarship from the Greek State Scholarships Foundation (I.K.Y.) in the field of Byzantine and Neohellenic Philosophy he followed postgraduate studies at the Theological School of Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. He received a master’s degree in the field of Systematic Theology, with honors in 1996. From 1996 to 2001 he wrote a doctoral thesis entitled “The Dialectic of Spiritual Ascent according to Plotinus.” Since the 1990s he was an associate of the Research Centre for Greek Philosophy of the Academy of Athens, especially of its first director, student of B. Tatakis, the legendary scholar Linos G. Benakis who was supervisor-advisor of I.K.Y. He has authored – edited, translated, and participated in – 22 (twenty two) books and over 100 publications in peer-reviewed international scientific journals. He has participated in philosophy conferences, such as the Symposium on the work of the pioneer of the study of Byzantine Philosophy, Basil N. Tatakis, in Andros 2008 and in the Event-Discussion “The thought of Aristotle in the Byzantine literature” of the “Institute for Humanities and Culture Nicos Svoronos” of European Public Law Organization (EPLO) as part of the celebrations for the Year of Aristotle, at Athens, in 2 November 2016. In 2010, his study “A Historical Outline of Byzantine Philosophy and its Basic Subjects” (Res Cogitans. Journal of philosophy at the University of Southern Denmark, Miscellaneous, Nr. 3 – Vol. 1 – 31.12.2006, 73-105) translated into Polish, published in the journal Peitho of the Institute of Philosophy in Poznań, and was taught at the Adam Mickiewicz University, in March 2011. There are citations to this article in Polish, Ukrainian, Spanish, Russian, Czech, Arabic, English and Greek. He is a member of the Greek Philosophical Society, the Working Group for the study of Byzantine Philosophy in Greece and the International Society for Philosophers (ISFP). Furthermore, he was a regular contributor and scientific associate of the Greek monthly journals Historica Themata (Historical Themes) and Military History (2011-2017).

(Greek: Κατελής Βίγκλας)