6 June 2026

The 21^st Annual International Conference on Philosophy, organized by the Athens Institute, took place from 25 to 30 May 2026 in Athens, Greece. 

What made this year’s conference particularly remarkable was the gathering of scholars at every stage of their philosophical journey — from established professors of international standing and scholars from some of the world’s most prestigious institutions, to mid-career thinkers deepening their distinctive voices, to PhD students and early-career researchers presenting bold and original work. Equally striking was the interdisciplinary reach — papers moved fluidly between philosophy and artificial intelligence, environmental science, political theory, theology, mathematics, and the arts. This mix of backgrounds, ranks, and intellectual traditions created the kind of environment where genuine philosophical exchange flourishes — where seniority yields to the strength of the argument, and where every voice, regardless of career stage, contributes to a shared pursuit of understanding.

The conference was set in motion by Gregory T. Papanikos’s (President of the Athens Institute) opening speech, which, as always, was rich with fresh arguments, new information, and thought-provoking perspectives — a hallmark of his leadership that year after year sets an intellectually ambitious tone for the days ahead. Among the many memorable contributions, Ori Z Soltes (Professor, Georgetown University, USA) offered a sweeping journey from Plato’s Cratylus to Panini, tracing the migration of ideas from Greece to India and back again — a fine example of the kind of deep, cross-civilizational thinking that this conference so naturally fosters.

The cross-cutting theme on Environmental Philosophy set the intellectual tone for the sessions, and no one embodied its ambition more powerfully than Kenneth Shockley (Professor and Holmes Rolston III Endowed Chair in Environmental Ethics and Philosophy, Colorado State University, USA) and Benjamin Hale (Professor, University of Colorado Boulder, USA), whose joint intervention on geoengineering, indeterminacy, and manufactured risk — drawing on the myth of the Chariot of Helios — was absolutely brilliant, the kind of rigorous, bold thinking that stays with you long after the session ends. Robert Bishop’s (Professor, Wheaton Collete, USA) ethic of createdness offered a profound and moving framework for creation care. From the Philippines, Charles Louis Jayme’s grounding of interconnectedness in Bookchin’s social ecology was deeply thought-provoking, and Jomilin John (Researcher, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland), offered a reimagining of collective responsibility as response-able stakeholderism — one of those rare papers that genuinely shifts how you think. Alessandro Moscaritolo Palacio (Assistant Professor, Marist University, USA) opened a vital window onto Indigenous South American environmental philosophies — Yanomami and Quechua cosmopolitics — reminding us that ecological wisdom lives in traditions far beyond the Western canon, spanning continents from the Andes to the Aral Sea.

Xavier Pavie (Professor, ESSEC Business School, France), one of the conference’s most commanding voices, brought from Paris and ESSEC Business School — one of Europe’s most prestigious institutions — a sweeping philosophical vision of the citizen-actor reinventing democracy, weaving together Rousseau’s popular sovereignty, Foucault’s critique of power, and Dewey’s experimental democracy into a framework that spoke directly to the political urgencies of our time. His paper was a masterclass in showing how philosophy can illuminate civic innovation and creative resistance across cultures and centuries. Equally grounded in the realities of contemporary Europe, Eduardo Ruiz Vieytez presented from Spain his practical work on local policies for religious minorities — a model of philosophy engaging with governance and inclusion that could be replicated across the continent.

Europe was magnificently represented across the conference, with scholars bringing the full depth of the continent’s philosophical traditions. From Hungary, Zoltan Gyenge (Professor, University of Szeged, Hungary) offered a luminous meditation on Kierkegaard’s theory of time, and Marta Nagy (Associate Professor, University of Szeged, Hungary) drew striking parallels between Aristotle’s Rhetoric and the phenomenon of deepfakes. From Italy, Silvia Fazzo (Associate Professor, University of Eastern Piedmont “Amedeo Avogadro”, Italy) explored the communion of saints through Aristotle’s nous and the experience of artificial intelligence, while Maria Rosaria D’Acierno Canonici Cammino (Associate Professor, University of Naples Federico II, Italy) gave a captivating reading of Nietzsche as musician, poet, and philosopher. From Slovenia, Nadja Furlan Stante (Professor, Science and Research Centre of Koper, Slovenia) examined emotion, gender, and relationality from biblical narratives to AI-mediated life. From Türkiye, Esma Kayar (Associate Professor, Istanbul Medeniyet University, Türkiye) brought to life the methodological debate between Aristotle and Eubulides. And from Austria, Alice Reininger offered a haunting reflection on William Blake’s unheard cry of Laocoön.

Particularly inspiring was the strong presence of emerging scholars — PhD students and early-career researchers whose work demonstrated that the next generation of philosophical thinking is already here and already extraordinary. From Cyprus, Asimina Galanopoulou’s bold and beautifully argued work on pain as a disciplinary practice in Augustine, Foucault, and post-structural feminist thought showed remarkable maturity. From Romania, Alina Pelteacu’s exploration of Augustine’s theological hermeneutics of incarnation as a paradigm for healing in the era of excarnation was deeply original, and Alexandru Socaciu’s canonical and patristic analysis of the mission of the military priest was both timely and courageous. From the UK, Piergiuseppe Sancetta at the University of Edinburgh offered a rigorous philosophical analysis of multi-time wave functions. From Poland, Magdalena Wolska-Augustyn brought imagination into the interactivist framework with striking philosophical ambition. And from Taiwan, Jonah Tyan’s existential analysis of care and meaning at work through Heidegger’s Being and Time was thoughtful and philosophically mature. From Georgia, Grigol Bendeliani illuminated a little-known chapter in the history of pedagogy through his study of children’s education in ancient Georgian monasteries. These emerging voices remind us that philosophy is always renewing itself.

The conference’s reach extended across four continents. From Asia, Jennifer Ang’s (Associate Professor, Singapore University of Social Sciences, Singapore) sharp critique of artificial moral reasoners, brought from Singapore, was timely and intellectually fearless; from Japan, Takashi Sasaki’s (Adjunct Lecturer, Kansai University, Japan) elegant treatment of James and Russell on faith and doubt bridged Eastern and Western epistemology; Wisam Abdul-Jabbar’s Averroesian (Assistant Professor & Assistant Dean of Student Affairs, Hamad Bin Khalifa University (HBKU), Qatar) model of intercultural deliberative pedagogy, brought from Qatar, was a powerful reminder of the Islamic philosophical tradition’s centrality to cross-cultural dialogue; and from India, Xavier Mao’s (Professor, North-Eastern Hill University (NEHU), India) critique of MacIntyre’s After Virtue offered a fresh perspective from North-Eastern Hill University. From Africa, Ullrich Kleinhempel’s (Research Fellow, University of the Free State, South Africa) breathtakingly erudite tracing of Hesychasm through Neoplatonic receptions of Yoga — bridging Greek, Indian, and Orthodox Christian traditions — and Juanita Meyer’s (Associate Professor, University of the Free State, South Africa) theological framework for pastoral care grounded in Ubuntu and communal African wisdom both demonstrated that philosophy thrives beyond its traditional Western centers. From the Philippines, Maria Majorie Purino (Chair, Department of Philosophy, University of San Carlos, Philippines) offered a striking convergence of Buddhist thought and Heideggerian thanatology in the age of AI grief bots. From North America, Jinmei Yuan’s (Professor, Creighton University, USA) fascinating excavation of set-based thinking in ancient Chinese mathematics built a remarkable bridge between Eastern and Western traditions; Ronald Weed brought from Canada a subtle Aristotelian account of dishonouring vices; Don Thomas Deere’s (Assistant Professor, Texas A&M University, USA) powerful examination of Glissant’s decolonial landscape and abyssal racial reason confronted the legacies of colonialism with philosophical precision; Samuel Piccolo’s (Assistant Professor, Baruch College, CUNY, USA) dialogue between Aristotelian wonder and Native American philosophy opened a deeply original cross-cultural space.

But this conference was never confined to the lecture hall. In moments that no other philosophy conference in the world can offer, participants walked together through Aristotle’s Lyceum — where the peripatetic tradition was born — and continued through an educational urban walk that wove past the Temple of Olympian Zeus, the Ancient Roman Agora, Syntagma Square, and up to the Acropolis Hill, with its Propylaea, the Temple of Athena Nike, the Erechtheion, and the Parthenon. The days that followed brought journeys to the Oracle of Delphi, Ancient Corinth, Cape Sounion, and Nafplio and Mycenae — sites where philosophy, history, and mythology are inseparable from the landscape itself. Gregory T. Papanikos’s closing dinner, “Wine, Words, and Wisdom: An Ancient Athenian Dinner Symposium,” brought us full circle — from the intellectual intensity of the sessions to the warmth of fellowship and dialogue that echoed the ancient Athenian tradition of eating, drinking, and thinking together. These experiences were not mere additions to the academic program; they were philosophy in practice, reminding us that ideas come alive when we think on our feet, in the places where they were first imagined.

Truly, this was a conference of world-class scholars from 22 countries across four continents at their very best — one that showed philosophy not as the possession of any single tradition, but as a living, global conversation.

The full abstract book edited by Robert C Bishop, Oidinposha Imamkhodjaeva, and Olga Gkounta, is now available online. is freely available at: www.atiner.gr/abstracts/2026ABST-PHI.pdf