Between the World and the Void: A Stoic Category of Unfilled Space

Prof. David Konstan

New York University

March 25, 2021

Starts in New York 12.00 a.m. / Cambridge 4.00 p.m. / Budapest 5.00 p.m. / Athens 6.00 p.m.

Abstract:
The Stoic cosmos is finite, but elastic: it is located in an infinite void, but as the time of the periodic conflagration approaches, the cosmos expands – not infinitely, of course, but within certain bounds.  In this paper, I examine the nature of the interval between the cosmos at its smallest and at its largest, that is, what we may call the unfilled void: empty, but potentially full.  I associate this space with the Stoic notion of the empty khôra.  In the process, I discuss some other Stoic intervals as well, including problems concerning units of time.