ΦΥΣΙΣ: The Study of Nature in the Premodern World

Scivias Seasons

ΦΥΣΙΣ (Physis, the Greek word for "nature"), a new initiative sponsored by the Program in History and Philosophy of Science (HPS), is a cross-department group of faculty with interests in the study of nature before 1600. Faculty in ΦΥΣΙΣ advise students who are pursuing Ph.D. or Master's programs in HPS, History, Philosophy, Theology, Medieval Studies, Classics, and English.

The current faculty in ΦΥΣΙΣ includes many of our Forum faculty affiliates and area experts: 

Tractatus De Herbis

Graduate courses taught recently by members of the ΦΥΣΙΣ group include:

  • Plato's Timaeus
  • Aristotle's Physics
  • Ancient and Medieval Notions of the Self
  • Topics in Late-Antique Natural Philosophy
  • Magic, Causation, and Scientific Explanation
  • Demonology in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages
  • Neoplatonic Controversies in the Fifteenth Century
  • Science and Philosophy in the Ancient Near East
  • Mind and Mental Acts in the 13th and 14th Centuries

For more details about graduate study with ΦΥΣΙΣ through any of our cooperating graduate programs, please contact Robert Goulding or visit our page on the Reilly Center website.

ΦΥΣΙΣ homepage