The Foundation sponsored a two-day conference of international scholars on ‘Perspectives on Character and Truth’, held at King’s College, London on 7- 8 May 2026. The conference was in honour of Raphael Woolf, Professor of Ancient Philosophy at King’s College, London, who recently retired as a full-time member of the faculty.
Several of the presenters were former students of Raphael and they spoke very warmly of the generous time and guidance he gave them in the early stages of their careers including Jorge Torres now at the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile and Taichi Miura now at Chuba University College, Japan.
Other presenters included Professor MM McCabe (KCL) who spoke about the part played by dialogue in knowing, drawing on the Theaetetus; Professor Verity Harte (Yale) spoke on ‘Purity and Truth in Plato’s Philebus; Professor Fiona Leigh (UCL) on ‘Soul turning: Desiderative Self-knowledge and Courage in Alcibiades 1 and the Republic’; and Professor Peter Adamson (LMU Munich/KCL) on ‘Going through the Motions: Religious Belief, Practice and Custom from Cicero to Pascal’ in which he explored how Cicero and other skeptics approached the practice of religion.
The conference finished with a tribute from Raphael to his colleagues, praising them for having developed ways of approaching ancient philosophy in ‘quiet corners’ that have now been taken up more widely including embracing Arabic and Indian philosophy as part of the mainstream study of ancient philosophy. The conference showed the vibrancy and collegiality of the community of international scholars studying Plato and ancient philosophy in London and other universities around the world.
