The Norwegian Institute at Athens invites all interested to its upcoming lecture by Alice Yijing Yang(PhD Research Fellow, Department of Philosophy, Classics, History of Art and Ideas, University of Oslo) on Thursday, 2 April 2026, at 7:00 p.m. (EEST).
The lecture is titled “What is life? An Aristotelian Solution” and will be held at the Norwegian Institute at Athens in a hybrid format, accommodating both in-person and online attendance via Zoom.
Registration is required for both in-person and virtual attendance.
To attend in person, please register at [email protected]
To attend online, please register via the following link: https://uib.zoom.us/meeting/register/t8TLe74mTgiJbn6xEyJPQg
Abstract
What is Life, and how do we account for it? Is there a principle of life, and how does this principle ground living activity? Aristotle claims that the Soul is the principle (arkhe) of life, specifically, the Nutritive Soul is what defines a living being to be alive. But what does it mean? In this lecture, I am going to present an Aristotelian solution to this broad yet fascinating problem about life. Using De Anima Book I – II.4 as my main resource, I will examine the philosophical problem to which the notion of the Nutritive Soul responds and outline the Aristotelian approach to it. I argue that the emphasis on the living bodies being alive on their own is an Aristotelian contribution, and it thereafter asks for the need for a part of the Soul to be responsible for it.
Biographical Information
Alice Yijing Yang is a PhD Research Fellow at the Department of Philosophy, Classics,
History of Art and Ideas, University of Oslo. She wrote her Master’s thesis on a reconstruction of the dialectic between Empedocles and Theophrastus on the principle of
perception (based on Theophrastus’ De Sensu), under the supervision of Professor Xavier
Gheerbrant and Professor Yi Zeng at Sichuan University, China. She is currently working on the Nutritive Soul as the demarcation point of Life within the Aristotelian tradition, under the supervision of Professor Thomas Johansen at the University of Oslo, Norway.