Please sign this petition in support of the humanities in Hungary. The petition protests the dismantling of the Hungarian Research Network (HUN-REN). chng.it/RcfcqWfhSZ via @Change

There is an interesting conference next week in Venice, on historiographies of the Renaissance in Central and Eastern Europe. I'll be talking about Croatian historiography of Renaissance philosophers that come from the eastern shores of the Adriatic.

Last week I received printed copies of the volume I co-edited with my colleague Martino for Bloomsbury. It's the first book on Renaissance Aristotelianism on the eastern shores of the Adriatic. I have a chapter on the cosmology of Antonius Medus (1547?-1603), an amateur-philosopher from Dubrovnik.

Trump is right that “Europeans do not take American cars”. We do not buy American cars because they are too large, too wasteful, and not particularly reliable.

Here is an early announcement of a big Aristotelian conference in Lisbon in early July. The call for papers is still open, I understand.

Just came across the notion of extinction debt: the expected and calculable delay in species extinctions due to land perturbations (deforestation, mass agriculture etc.). @xriskology.bsky.social

We went fishing yesterday evening. Apart from three squids, I caught this conjunction of the Moon, Venus and (I think) Musk’s Starlink satellites.

Banksy

Just came across this file of the German SS archive, noting that in 1942, in the region of Bilogora (Central Croatia), a large number of Jews fought under the command of “dr. Gregorić from Zagreb”. My late grandfather.

But what great thinker ever understood himself correctly?

—Werner Jaeger, “Aristotle: Fundamentals of the History of his Development”, p. 155

Okay, so here is a doxographic entry from Aetius, V.13: "The doctors say that infertility occurs in women (...) from lack of nourishment (πὰρ' ἀτροφίαν)..." Unfortunately, the doctors are not named.
If you come across a similar statement, please post it here.
#AncientPhilosophy #Classics

Today is Spinoza’s 392th birthday. Here’s an apposite quote from his anonymously published Tractatus Theologico-Politicus from 1670: “Peace is not the absence of war, it is a virtue, a state of mind, a disposition of benevolence, confidence, justice.”

Something I wish more native English speakers were aware of, especially in the review / editing process

Does anyone know if Aristotle or Theophrastus was aware of the fact that starvation makes a living being infertile? Surely the ancients must have observed that fact, which supports Aristotelian theory of nourishment and reproduction, but I need textual evidence. Help appreciated.
#AncientPhilosophy

The most notable new word of 2025: broligarchy.

Pondering over Aristotle’s De anima II.4, the discussion of nutrition, with some assistance from Albertus Magnus. A lot of food for thought there, but no chicken and shrimps.

I don't know how this works, or if anyone cares, but here's the second proof of the cover of our forthcoming book from Brill. The author was a Renaissance scholar and politician from Dubrovnik. He held highest offices in Ragusan Republic and wrote Platonic dialogues and commentaries on Aristotle.

When we moved into our old flat, back in 2004, my beloved grandparents brought us a hibiscus plant. Grandpa passed away in 2009, Grandma in 2017, but their plant grows on and blossoms twice a year.
Do you have a special plant in your life?