Humanities Colloquium - John Magee (Toronto): Calcidius on Fate

The problem of fate, including the related questions of divine providence, human freedom, and the origin of evil, was one of perennial interest in the Greco-Roman world.  This is minimally evident from the manner in which it survived the transition from a "living" debate between philosophical schools, the Stoics, Peripatetics, and Platonists in particular, to the late antique, and finally Christian, classroom.  The history of its various vicissitudes is complex and, in many points, controversial.  This talk will represent an informal attempt to introduce one of its later manifestations, in the form of Calcidius' Latin commentary (4th c. CE) on Plato's Timaeus.

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