Program
This year's conference will feature keynote speaker Marguerite Deslauriers (McGill University).
The Society
The purpose of the Canadian Aristotle Society is to establish a bilingual centre in which the themes of Aristotle, along with the Aristotelian tradition, are kept alive by way of conferences or publications. The spirit of this Society will be speculative and classical in nature, but this does not exclude analytical and continental traditions.
For more information, send an email to Mark Nyvlt.
Program
ROOMS / SALLES : SIMARD (SMD) 125 and SMD 129
Address/Adresse : Simard Hall (SMD) 60 University, Ottawa, ON K1N 8Z4
Friday / Vendredi : SMD 125 [PYTHIAS]
ZOOM LINK/LIEN ZOOM, SMD 125: https://uottawa-ca.zoom.us/j/97304060353?pwd=BqSUEHSXwRvk7KtDPAwzVvZ7dVfgxV.1
| Time/l’Heure | Participant and Title/Participant(e) et titre | Format |
|---|---|---|
| 8h30-8h50 | Accueil, mot de bienvenue / Welcome (SMD 125) | |
| A. CHAIR | Vanessa Arviset | |
| 9h00-9h35 | Michel Bastit, « Lumières aristotéliciennes sur les champs quantiques » | ZOOM |
| 9h35-10h10 | Silvia Fazzo, « En quel sens la science exige-t-elle une invariance ? La réponse d’Aristote » | ZOOM |
| 10h10-10h40 | COFFEE BREAK/PAUSE CAFÉ | |
| B. CHAIR | Léa Derome | |
| 10h40-11h15 | Martha Catherine Beck, “The Reaffirmation of Aristotle’s Basic Scientific Principles” | ZOOM |
| 11h15-11h50 | Flavien Musitu Wanzio, « La fécondité de l’approche scientifique de la logique aristotélicienne d’hier à aujourd’hui » | |
| 11h50-12h25 | Antoine Côté, « Le sujet de la scientia chez Aristote d’après Guillaume d’Ockham » | |
| 12h25-14h00 | LUNCH/ DINER | |
| C. CHAIR | Flavien Musitu Wanzio | |
| 14h00-14h35 | Vanessa Arviset, « L’inutilité de la rigueur scientifique et des arguments en matière de vertu selon Aristote » | |
| 14h35-15h15 | Antoine Pageau-St-Hilaire, “Is there a science of human affairs? Questions concerning the homonymy of science and politikē epistēmē” | |
| 15h15-15h45 | COFFEE BREAK/PAUSE CAFÉ | |
| D. CHAIR | Antoine Pageau-St-Hilaire | |
| 15h45-16h20 | Francisco Gonzalez, “Aristotle’s New Biology” | |
| 16h20-16h55 | Norah Woodcock, “Aristotle on Brooding Birds and the Scala Naturae” | |
KEYNOTE SPEAKER (SMD 125), 17h30 p.m., followed by RECEPTION in the foyer / CONFÉRENCIÈRE PRINCIPALE (SMD 125), 17h30, suivi de RÉCEPTION dans le foyez:
| ||
Friday / Vendredi : SMD 129 [NICOMACHUS]
ZOOM LINK/LIEN ZOOM, SMD 129: https://uottawa-ca.zoom.us/j/93391956256
| 8h30-8h50 | Accueil, mot de bienvenue / Welcome (SMD 125) | Format |
|---|---|---|
| A. CHAIR | Pierre-Luc Boudreault | |
| 9h00-9h35 | Samuel Boudreau, PhD., “On the Infinite Regress of Demonstrations in Aristotle’s Posterior Analytics I.3, 72b 5-15 and I.22, 83b 32-84a 6” | |
| 9h35-10h10 | Jay Elliott, “Akrasia and the Science of Drunkenness” | |
| 10h10-10h40 | COFFEE BREAK/PAUSE CAFÉ | |
| B. CHAIR | Emily Perry | |
| 10h40-11h15 | Angela Curran, “Stable and Unstable Deviations in Aristotle's Biology: Females, Monsters, and Deformed Kinds” | ZOOM |
| 11h15-11h50 | Olenka Laschuk, PhD., “How Aristotle’s Theory of the Nature of Woman Challenges his Metaphysical Project” | |
| 11h50-12h25 | Rebecca Caithamer, PhD., “Aristotle’s Non-Aristotelian Account of Gender” | |
| 12h25-14h00 | LUNCH/ DINER | |
| C. CHAIR | Jay Elliott | |
| 14h00-14h35 | Richard Cain, “Not a Rival Efficient Cause: Formal Causality and the Metaphysical Conditions of Scientific Intelligibility” | |
| 14h35-15h15 | Paolo Biondi, “Is Aristotle’s Metaphysics an Aristotelian Science?” | |
| 15h15-15h45 | COFFEE BREAK/PAUSE CAFÉ | |
| D. CHAIR | Olenka Laschuk | |
| 15h45-16h20 | Fabien Cayer, “First Philosophy and Phainomenological Method” | |
| 16h20-16h55 | Teressa MacIntosh, PhD., “Out of Sight, Out of Time: An Aristotelian Solution to the Problem of Time in Wheeler-DeWitt Quantum Cosmology | |
KEYNOTE SPEAKER (SMD 125), 17h30 p.m., followed by RECEPTION in the foyer / CONFÉRENCIÈRE PRINCIPALE (SMD 125), 17h30, suivi de RÉCEPTION dans le foyez :
| ||
Saturday / Samedi : SMD 125 [PYTHIAS]
ZOOM LINK/LIEN ZOOM, SMD 125 [PYTHIAS]: https://uottawa-ca.zoom.us/j/97304060353?pwd=BqSUEHSXwRvk7KtDPAwzVvZ7dVfgxV.1
| Time/l’Heure | Participant and Title/Participant(e) et titre | Format |
|---|---|---|
| A. CHAIR | Byron Stoyles | |
| 8h25-9h00 | Christopher Byrne, “Aristotle’s Natural Science and the Scientific Revolution” | ZOOM |
| 9h00-9h35 | Laura Folli, “An Aristotelian Scientific Manifesto: The Science of The Good and The Final Cause from Metaphysics Alpha Meizon 2” | ZOOM |
| 9h35-10h10 | Laurence Lauzon, PhD., “Why Must Natural Science Study Final Causes?” | |
| 10h10-10h40 | COFFEE BREAK/PAUSE CAFÉ | |
| B. CHAIR | Laurence Lauzon | |
| 10h40-11h15 | John Thorp, “Code in Aristotle’s Natural Science” | |
| 11h15-11h50 | Emily Perry, “Aristotle on the Natural as the Default” | |
| 11h50-12h25 | Byron Stoyles, “Explanatory Priority in Aristotle’s Science of Nature” | |
| 12h25-14h00 | LUNCH/ DINER | |
| C. CHAIR | Richard Cain | |
| 14h00-14h35 | Léa Derome, “Aristotle’s Physiological Explanation of Sleep” | |
| 14h35-15h15 | Laetitia Monteils-Laeng, « Le non-fonctionnel, l’accidentel et l’involutif dans le vivant : ce que nous en dit la calvitie et son équivalent végétal (GA, 5.3) » | ZOOM |
| 15h15-15h45 | Mazdak Rajabi, “φύσις, τέχνη, and the Limits of Machine-Intelligence based Science” | |
| D. CHAIR | Paolo Biondi | |
| 15h45-16h20 | Nikolo Michael Panganoron, PhD., “Aristotle and Interdisciplinarity” | |
| 16h20-16h55 | Yusuke Yamada, PhD., “Analogy as a Tool of Explanatory Unification in Aristotle’s De Motu Animalium” | |
| 16h55-17h30 | Madeline Brenchley, PhD., “Epistemic Subordination: Making Sense of Aristotle’s Examples in APo A13” |
- 18h30 ($85/person) BANQUET (85$/personne) – Trattoria Caffé Italia, https://www.trattoriaitalia.com/. (Optional/Optionel)
Saturday / Samedi : SMD 129 [NICOMACHUS]
ZOOM LINK/LIEN ZOOM, SMD 129: https://uottawa-ca.zoom.us/j/93391956256
| Time/l’Heure | Participant and Title/Participant(e) et titre | Format |
|---|---|---|
| A. CHAIR | Christopher M. Lutz | |
| 8h25-9h00 | Mohammad J. Esmaeili, “Soul Without Sensation? The Hidden Life of Plants Based on Aristotelian Principles and Avicennian Reception” | ZOOM |
| 9h00-9h35 | Claudia Zatta, “Aristotle on the Longevity of Plants” | |
| 9h35-10h10 | Ali Golbaz, PhD., “Aristotle's On the Plants: Tracing New Evidence in Arabic Sources” | |
| 10h10-10h40 | COFFEE BREAK/PAUSE CAFÉ | |
| B. CHAIR | Claudia Zatta | |
| 10h40-11h15 | Ebrahim Ranjbar, « La Summa terminorum metaphysicorum de Giordano Bruno: une lecture métaphysique de l’ontologie aristotélicienne » | ZOOM |
| 11h15-11h50 | Terence J. Kleven, “Alfarabi on Necessity and Possibility in his Commentary on Aristotle’s Peri Hermēneias, chapter 9 19a4-19b19” | |
| 11h50-12h25 | SayedAlireza SeyedMohseni, PhD., “Ockham’s Termini Concepti and the Cognitive Gap in Aristotelian Induction” | |
| 12h25-14h00 | LUNCH/ DINER | |
| C. CHAIR | John Thorp | |
| 14h00-14h35 | Jean-Marc Narbonne, « Une possible science du politique ? Retour sur les énoncés programmatiques d’Éthique à Nicomaque X, 10 » | |
| 14h35-15h15 | Benjamin Wilck, “Reconsidering Per Se₂ Predication in Posterior Analytics I.4” | |
| 15h15-15h45 | Christopher M. Lutz, “A Worry about Per Se Predication” | |
| D. CHAIR | Terence J. Kleven | |
| 15h45-16h20 | Emma Cohen Edmonds, MA., “The Periphery of Unordinary Change and the Tunnel of Supervenience: Contextualising Aristotle’s Physics VII, 3” | |
| 16h20-16h55 | Pierre-Luc Boudreault, “Aristotle’s Account of Sensation” | |
| 16h55-17h30 | Caterina Pavoni, PhD., “Per se, Opposites, and Causation in Aristotle’s Theory of Science (A.Po. I.4)” |
- 18h30 ($85/person) BANQUET (85$/personne) – Trattoria Caffé Italia, https://www.trattoriaitalia.com/. (Optional/Optionel)
Gratitude: The Canadian Aristotle Society owes a great debt of gratitude to all those who made this conference possible. I would like to thank 1) the Department of Philosophy and Professor Patrice Philie for their donation, and to the graduate students, especially Ms. Laurence Lauzon and Dr. Antoine Pageau-St-Hilaire, for their collaboration; 2) the Department of Classics and Religion and Professor Dominique Côté for their generous donation; 3) the anonymous donor, whose very generous donation and commitment to CAS has sustained our activities for years, for which we are truly grateful. We would also like to thank Mr. Zacharie Cadieux for his generous help in organizing Rooms and the Reception, and to Ms. Fatiha Zemmou for her diligent care of the finances regarding the conference.
Remerciement : La Société Aristotélicienne du Canada a une grande dette de gratitude envers toutes celles et ceux qui ont rendu possible cette conférence. Je tiens à remercier 1) le Département de philosophie et la professeure Patrice Philie pour leur don, ainsi que les étudiants diplômés, notamment Mme Laurence Lauzon et le Dr Antoine Pageau-St-Hilaire, pour leur collaboration ; 2) le Département des études classiques et religieuses et la professeure Dominique Côté pour leur don; 3) le donateur anonyme, dont l’engagement et don généreux envers SAC a soutenu nos activitéspendant des années, pour lequel nous sommes sincèrement reconnaissants. Nous tenons également à remercier M. Zacharie Cadieux pour son aide généreuse dans l’organisation des chambres et de la réception, et à Mme Fatiha Zemmou pour sa gestion rigoureuse des finances de la conférence.
In memoriam
Professor Thomas De Koninck
Professor Thomas De Koninck was an Executive member of the Canadian Aristotle Society. His contributions, insights, and his genuine love for the Society have given a strong gust of wind to help CAS sail into new waters. He was a mentor and a friend, and I, for one, will miss him terribly. // Le professeur Thomas De Koninck a siégé au comité directeur de la Societé Aristotélicienne du Canada. Ses contributions, ses idées et son amour sincère pour la Société ont insufflé un vent puissant, permettant à la SAC de naviguer vers de nouveaux horizons. Il était un mentor et un ami; pour ma part, il me manquera énormément. (Mark Nyvlt)
Rhoades Trust
We were saddened to learn of the passing of Thomas de Koninck, who died on 16 February 2026 in Québec at the age of 91.
A distinguished Canadian philosopher whose reflections on human dignity and ultimate questions shaped both academic and public discourse, Thomas was born in 1934 in Leuven, Belgium. He pursued an exceptional education that included a Rhodes Scholarship to Oxford, alongside studies at Université Laval and the Freie Universität Berlin, laying the foundation for a lifetime devoted to philosophical inquiry.
Thomas began his academic career at the University of Notre Dame before returning to Québec in 1964 to join Université Laval, where he remained for more than fifty years. As a revered professor and later Dean of the Faculty of Philosophy from 1974 to 1978, he played a central role in cultivating philosophical scholarship and mentoring generations of students, leaving a lasting imprint on the intellectual life of the institution.
Renowned for his writings on human dignity, Greek philosophy, and education, Thomas achieved international recognition, notably receiving the Prix La Bruyère from the Académie française for De la dignité humaine and the Canadian Philosophical Association’s prize for Questions ultimes. He was elected a Member of the Royal Society of Canada and appointed to the Order of Canada, reflecting a career marked by intellectual depth, public engagement, and a steadfast commitment to the enduring value of philosophical thought.