Research

Summary

The Only Doctoral Thesis on Ancient Philosophy in the Stephen Bathory University in Vilnius

The paper aims to present and discuss the only doctoral thesis on ancient philosophy that was successfully defended at the Stephen Bathory University in Vilnius. The title of the dissertation was: On the Development of Plato’s View on the Soul. The author of the work was Benedykt Woyczyński, and the thesis was supervised by Wincenty Lutosławski. Lutosławski was a recognised scholar in Platonic studies, whose Vilnius years mark the longest appointment in one academic institution in his entire life. Woyczyński, in turn, spent the whole of his academic carreer in Vilnius up to his untimely death in 1927. The structure and arguments of his thesis will be discussed here and it will be demonstrated how his work was influended by Lutosławski’s earlier opus vitae on Plato.