Justin E. H. Smith

Philosophy and Its History: Workshop Programme

A Workshop on Methods, Aims, and New Directions in the Scholarship of Early Modern Philosophy

Concordia University, Montreal, Canada

October 29-30, 2011

Programme

Saturday, October 29 (Room MB 15.224, in the John Molson School of Business)

Session I

Chair: TBA

11:30-11:50 Welcome and Introduction (Mogens Laerke, Eric Schliesser, and Justin Smith)

11:50-12:40 Michael Della Rocca (Yale University): "The Taming of Philosophy"

12:40-1:30 Mary Domski (University of New Mexico): "Difference, Disunity, and the Dialogue Between Past and Present"

1:30-2:30 Lunch

Session II

Chair: Hasana Sharp (McGill University)

2:30-3:20 Eric Schliesser (University of Ghent): "True Philosophic Prophecy"

3:20-4:10 Alan Nelson (University of North Carolina): "Philosophical Systems and their History"

Session III

Chair: Justin Smith (Concordia University)

4:15-5:05 Julie R. Klein (Villanova University): "The Dialectics of Philosophy and Its History"

5:10-6:00 Delphine Kolesnik (École Normale Supérieure, Lyon): "On the Construction of Models and Counter-Models in the History of Cartesian Philosophy: Régius and Malebranche"

7:00 Dinner for participants at La Sala Rosa (4848 Blvd. St. Laurent)

Sunday, October 30 (Room 769, Hall Building)

Session IV

Chair: Calvin Normore (McGill University and UCLA)

9:00-9:50 Roger Ariew and Joanne Waugh (University of South Florida):  "Confronting Evil Demons: The Contingency of Philosophical Problems"

9:50-10:40 Leo Catana (University of Copenhagen): "The Internal-External Distinction in the Historiography of Philosophy"

Session V

Chair: Mogens Laerke (University of Aberdeen)

10:50-11:40 Yitzhak Melamed (The Johns Hopkins University): "The Political Domestication of Spinoza, or, Benedict in the Land of the Secular Imagination"

11:40-12:30 Tad M. Schmaltz (University of Michigan): "What Has History of Science to Do with History of Philosophy?"

12:30-1:30 Lunch

Session VI

Chair: François Duchesneau (Université de Montréal)

1:30-2:20 Mogens Laerke (University of Aberdeen and Fondation Marie Curie): "The Anthropological Analogy and the Constitution of Historical Perspectivism"

2:20-3:10 Justin E. H. Smith (Concordia University): "The History of Philosophy as Past and as Process: The Archaeological Analogy"

3:20-4:10 Koen Vermeir (CNRS, Paris): "A Plea for Philosophical Promiscuity"

4:10-5:00 Dan Garber (Princeton University): Discussion

*

This event is being made possible with generaous support from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, and from the Matchette Foundation.

For more information please contact Justin Smith: justismi@alcor.concordia.ca

Please note, there is limited seating in the meeting rooms, and priority will be given to participants and to auditors who have given the organizers advance notice of their intention to attend.

Fossils as an Epistemological Problem

Department of History and Philosophy of Science Colloquium Series, Indiana University, Bloomington, October 21, 2011

Abstract. In his influential 1951 article, "The Species Concept," George Gaylord Simpson highlights a number of important respects in which the classification of paleontological species on the basis of fossil remains is a project that must necessarily contend with conceptual problems that do not arise in the classification of living species. For one thing, if, as has often been supposed, species boundaries are to be determined at least in part by the interfertility of individual organisms, then the obvious fact that fossils cannot mate with one another means that placing two of them in the same species, simply on the basis of perceived morphological similarities, is to employ a rather more dubious criterion than the one deployed for living species, which is based not so much on how two individuals look, as on what they are able to do. The dubious nature of morphology-based classification is compounded by the fact that fossils are by definition not remains so much as traces: that is, they are the form of a hard part of an animal, preserved through the replacement of the original matter. This replacement process, as well as the simple elapsing of time and the long-term impact of environmental factors, inevitably causes a great deal of distortion, and for this reason paleontological classification must remain provisional, and constantly aware of the possibility that perceived similarities or differences in specimens are artefacts of external forces. But these challenges to the identification of paleontological species have themselves served as an important engine for the working out of a theoretically adequate model for a science of the past that must of necessity work through singular things in its aim of reconstructing a general picture of past processes. The working out of such a model began in earnest in the 17th century, with the widespread debate in learned Europe about the nature and origins of the fossils of Pleistocene mammals that were in that period turning up at a rapid pace (particularly the remains of woolly mammoths and Irish elk). An important insight in the era, one had independently by G. W. Leibniz, Thomas Burnet, Hans Sloane, and others, is that the distortions caused by the passing of time might be seized upon as providing clues to the character of the thing being studied, rather than being regretted as impediments to a proper understanding of the thing. Thus in a short 1720 'Account of Elephants Teeth and Bones found under Ground', Sloane argues of a fossilized mammoth tusk that "the very manner of its falling to pieces is an evident Proof of its Structure." In this talk I would like to chart out the history of paleontological theory as it develops from this sort of early insight. I would like to argue, in particular, that the idea that decay may be a tool of, rather than an impediment to, inquiry into the past would play an important role well beyond paleontology in the working out of an adequate theoretical framework for historical sciences in general. It would be evident, for example, in Carl Hempel's attempt to ground history as a science within a positivist framework. I will conclude with some speculative suggestions as to how this insight may also serve to ground the sort of historical inquiry that works through textual traces of the past (of which this talk is itself an instance).


Call for Papers / Appel à propositions, LSNA, Montréal, 2012

(le français suit)

The 2012 Annual Meeting of the Leibniz Society of North America will be hosted jointly by the université de Montréal and by Concordia University in Montreal, October 19-20, 2012. It will be preceded, on October 17 and 18 in Montreal, by the North American wing of a pair of conferences on Leibniz and Bayle, the first of which will be held in Paris, at the Sorbonne, on from the 13th to the 15th of September, 2012.

We are currently inviting submissions for papers to be delivered at the LSNA meeting on October 19-20. Papers may be on any aspect of Leibniz's philosophy, and should have a delivery time of 45-50 minutes. Papers may be in either English or French.

Please send a 1- to 2-page abstract of your paper to Christian Leduc (christian.leduc.1@gmail.com) or to Justin Smith (justismi@alcor.concordia.ca) by December 15, 2011.

**

Le colloque annuel de la Société Leibnizienne de l'Amérique du Nord se tiendra conjointement à l'université de Montréal et à l'université Concordia, à Montréal, 19-20 octobre, 2012. Cette réunion sera précédée par le volet nord-américain d'un diptyque de colloques sur Leibniz et Bayle, dont le premier aura lieu à Paris, en Sorbonne, 13-15 septembre, 2012.

Nous vous invitons à soumettre vos propositions de communication à la réunion de la SLAN (les organisateurs du colloque Leibniz-Bayle feront un appel à propositions séparé). Les interventions peuvent porter sur tous les aspects et toutes les périodes de la philosophie de Leibniz. Chaque intervenant aura autour de 45-50 minutes pour sa communication. Les langues officielles du colloque sont le français et l'anglais.

Veuillez faire parvenir un résumé de votre communication (1-2 pages) à Christian Leduc (christian.leduc.1@gmail.com) ou à Justin Smith (justismi@alcor.concordia.ca) avant le 15 décembre, 2011.

Philosophy and Its History

A Workshop on Methods, Aims, and New Directions in the Scholarship of Early Modern Philosophy

Concordia University, Montreal, Canada

October 29-30, 2011

Programme

Saturday, October 29 (Room MB 15.224, in the John Molson School of Business)

11:30-11:50 Welcome and Introduction (Mogens Laerke, Eric Schliesser, and Justin Smith)

11:50-12:40 Michael Della Rocca (Yale University): "The Taming of Philosophy"

12:40-1:30 Mary Domski (University of New Mexico): "Difference, Disunity, and the Dialogue Between Past and Present"

1:30-2:30 Lunch

2:30-3:20 Eric Schliesser (University of Ghent): "True Philosophic Prophecy"

3:20-4:10 Yitzhak Melamed (The Johns Hopkins University): "The Political Domestication of Spinoza, or, Benedict in the Land of the Secular Imagination"

4:15-5:05 Julie R. Klein (Villanova University): "The Dialectics of Philosophy and Its History"

5:10-6:00 Delphine Kolesnik (École Normale Supérieure, Lyon): "On the Construction of Models and Counter-Models in the History of Cartesian Philosophy: Régius and Malebranche"

7:00 Dinner for participants at La Sala Rosa (4848 Blvd. St. Laurent)

Sunday, October 30 (Room 769, Hall Building)

9:00-9:50 Roger Ariew and Joanne Waugh (University of South Florida):  "Confronting Evil Demons: The Contingency of Philosophical Problems"

9:50-10:40 Leo Catana (University of Copenhagen): "The Internal-External Distinction in the Historiography of Philosophy"

10:50-11:40 Alan Nelson (University of North Carolina): "Philosophical Systems and their History"

11:40-12:30 Tad M. Schmaltz (University of Michigan): "What Has History of Science to Do with History of Philosophy?"

12:30-1:30 Lunch

1:30-2:20 Mogens Laerke (University of Aberdeen and Fondation Marie Curie): "The Anthropological Analogy and the Constitution of Historical Perspectivism"

2:20-3:10 Justin E. H. Smith (Concordia University): "The History of Philosophy as Past and as Process: The Archaeological Analogy"

3:20-4:10 Koen Vermeir (CNRS, Paris): "A Plea for Philosophical Promiscuity"

4:10-5:00 Dan Garber (Princeton University): Discussion

*

This event is being made possible with generous support from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, and from the Matchette Foundation.

For more information please contact Justin Smith: justismi@alcor.concordia.ca

Philosophy and Its History

New Perspectives on the Aims and Methods of Research in the History of Philosophy

A Workshop at Concordia University, Montreal, Canada

October 29-30, 2011

*

List of Speakers:

Michael Della Rocca (Yale University): "The Taming of Philosophy"

Mary Domski (University of New Mexico): "Difference, Disunity, and the Dialogue Between Past and Present"

Tad Schmaltz (University of Michigan): "What Has the History of Science to Do with the History of Philosophy?"

Yitzhak Melamed (Johns Hopkins University): "'Be Aware of the Charitable Interpreter': Charitable Interpretations, the History of Philosophy, and the Gettier Problem"

Roger Ariew and Joanne Waugh (University of South Florida): "Confronting Evil Demons: The Contingency of Philosophical Problems"

Delphine Kolesnik (École Normale Supérieure, Lyon): "Comment peut-on penser des modèles et des repoussoirs en histoire de la philosophie? L'exemple de Malebranche et Regius"

Leo Catana (University of Copenhagen): "The Internal-External Distinction in the Methodology of the History of Philosophy"

Justin E. H. Smith (Concordia University): "Texts, Traces, and Intentions in the Reconstruction of Philosophy's Past"

Mogens Lærke (ENS de Lyon / University of Aberdeen): "The Anthropological Analogy and the Constitution of Historical Perspectivism"

Alan Nelson (University of North Carolina): "What Is a Theory of Ideas? A Methodological Answer"

Ursula Goldenbaum (Emory University): "Following Sherlock's Lead: The Method of Investigation in the History of Philosophy"

Julie R. Klein (Villanova University): "On the Dialectics of Philosophy and Its History"

Eric Schliesser (University of Ghent): "True Philosophic Prophecy"

Koen Vermeir (CNRS, Paris): "A Plea for Methodological Promiscuity"

Daniel Garber (Princeton University): Discussant.

*

This is a workshop organized around a volume, edited by Mogens Laerke, Eric Schliesser, and Justin E. H. Smith, forthcoming from Oxford University Press.

This workshop has received funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, and from the Matchette Foundation.

For more information, or if you wish to attend the event as an auditor, please contact Justin Smith (jehsmith@gmail.com).

Upcoming Talks, Fall, 2011

"The Philosophical Stakes of the Leibniz-Stahl Debate: An Outline." Internationaler Leibniz-Kongress, Leibniz-Universität zu Hannover, Hanover, Germany, Tuesday, September 27.

"Sharks' Teeth and Snakes' Tongues: Fossils as an Epistemological Problem from Leibniz to George Gaylord Simpson." Lecture Series of the Department of the History and Philosophy of Science, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana, Friday, October 21.

"Texts, Traces, and Intentions in the Reconstruction of Philosophy's Past." Workshop on Methodology in History-of-Philosophy Scholarship, Concordia University, Montreal, Quebec, Saturday, October 29.

"Towards a General Science of the Past: Abductive Inference and Inductive Consilience in Paleontology, Archeology, and History." Annual Lecture Series of the University of Pittsburgh Center for the Philosophy of Science, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Friday, November 18.

Philosophy and Its History: A Workshop on the Methods and Aims of Research in the History of Philosophy

Concordia University, Montreal, Canada

October 29-30, 2011

List of Speakers (official program to follow shortly):

Roger Ariew and Joanne Waugh (University of South Florida): "Confronting Evil Demons: The Contingency of Philosophical Problems"

Leo Catana (University of Copenhagen): TBA

Michael Della Rocca (Yale University): "The Taming of Philosophy"

Mary Domski (University of New Mexico): "Difference, Disunity, and the Dialogue Between Past and Present"

Ursula Goldenbaum (Emory University): "Following Sherlock's Lead: The Method of Investigation in the History of Philosophy"

Julie R. Klein (Villanova University): "The Dialectics of Philosophy and Its History"

Delphine Kolesnik (École Normale Supérieure, Lyon): "On the Construction of Models and Counter-Models in the History of Cartesian Philosophy: Régius and Malebranche"

Mogens Laerke (University of Aberdeen and ENS-LSH, Lyon): "Leibniz's Prism: Close Contexts and Participant Observation in Early Modern Philosophy"

Yitzhak Melamed (The Johns Hopkins University): "The Political Domestication of Spinoza, or, Benedict in the Land of the Secular Imagination"

Alan Nelson (University of North Carolina): "Philosophical Systems and their History"

Tad M. Schmaltz (University of Michigan): "What Has History of Science to Do with History of Philosophy?"

Justin E. H. Smith (Concordia University): "Texts, Traces and Intentions in Reconstructing Philosophy's Past"

Eric Schliesser (University of Ghent): "True Philosophic Prophecy"

Koen Vermeir (CNRS, Paris): "A Plea for Philosophical Promiscuity"

*

This event is being made possible with generaous support from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, and from the Matchette Foundation.

For more information please contact Justin Smith: justismi@alcor.concordia.ca

Fifth Annual Conference of the Leibniz Society of North America

June 15-17, 2010
University of California, San Diego

Wednesday, June 15
9:00 am            Welcome
Workshops
9:15-10:30        Editing Leibniz’s Manuscripts (Leibniz-Forschungsstelle)
10:30-12:00      Textual Sources of Leibniz’s Late Philosophy (Donald Rutherford/Justin Smith)

Session 1          Chair: Mark Kulstad (Rice)
1:30-3:00           Paul Lodge (Oxford), “A Guided Tour of the Leibniz-De Volder Correspondence”
3:00-4:30           Stephan Meier-Oeser (Leibniz-Forschungsstelle, Münster), “The Leibniz Code: Semantic Transpositions in Leibniz’s Language of Metaphysics”
4:30-6:00           Daniel Garber (Princeton), “Monadological Metaphysics and the Composition of the ‘Monadology’”

Thursday, June 16
Session 2           Chair: Julie Walsh (UCSD)
9:00-10:30         Stefan Jenschke (Leibniz-Forschungsstelle, Münster), “Perception and Substantial Unity in Leibniz’s Late Metaphysics”
10:30-12:00        Jeffrey McDonough (Harvard), “Leibniz’s Irenic Account of Substance”

Session 3            Chair: Justin Smith (Concordia)
1:30-3:00            Richard Arthur (McMaster), “Presupposition, Aggregation, and Leibniz’s Argument for a Plurality of Substances”
3:00-4:30            Arnaud Pelletier (Alexander von Humboldt Foundation/Leibniz-Archiv, Hannover), “Between the ‘Two Systems’: Leibniz’s Late Reflections on Modifications and Accidents”
4:30-6:00            Thomas Leinkauf (Leibniz-Forschungsstelle, Münster), “The Vinculum Substantiale and the Impact of Metaphysics in Leibniz’s Concept of Reality”

Friday, June 17
Session 4            Chair: Shane Duarte (Stanford)
9:00-10:30           Laurence Carlin (Wisconsin, Oshkosh), “Leibniz’s Final Teleological System”
10:30-12:00         Martha Bolton (Rutgers), “Leibniz on Perception, Appetition and Trans-temporal Identity in the Later Years”

Session 5            Chair: Stephen Puryear (North Carolina State)
1:30-3:00            John Whipple (Illinois, Chicago), “Leibniz’s Exoteric Philosophy”
3:00-4:30            Brandon Look (Kentucky), “The Principles of Leibniz’s Final Philosophy”
4:30-6:00            Donald Rutherford (UCSD), “Method and System in Leibniz’s Late Philosophy”

For further information, contact Don Rutherford (drutherford@ucsd.edu)
Conference website:http://leibnizphilosophy.wordpress.com/

The Life Sciences in Early Modern Philosophy: Revised Program

Princeton University, Department of Philosophy

May 7-8, 2011

Philosophy Seminar Room, 201 Marx Hall

 Saturday, May 7

9:30 Coffee and Breakfast

10:15-10:30 Welcome and Introduction: Daniel Garber, Justin Smith, and Ohad Nachtomy

10:35-11:30 Raphaële Andrault (université de Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne): “The Notion of Life in the Physicotheology of Ralph Cudworth and Nehemiah Grew: A  Comparative Study”

11:35-12:30 Catherine Abou-Nemeh (Princeton University): “Réaumur’s Crayfish Experiment in Hartsoeker’s Système: Regeneration and the Limits of Mechanism”

12:30-2:00- Lunch

2:00-2:55 Gideon Manning (Caltech): “How Descartes' Medicine Made the Scientific Revolution”

3:00-3:55 Anne-Lise Rey (université de Lille): “Metaphysical Problems in Francis Glisson's Theory of Irritability”

4:15-5:15 Domenico Bertoloni-Meli (Indiana University): “The Uniformity of Nature and the Diversity of Organisms in the Early Modern Period”

6:00 Dinner at the Masala Grill, 15 Chambers Street

Sunday, May 8

9:00 Coffee and Breakfast

9:30-10:25 Ohad Nachtomy (Fordham University and Bar-Ilan University): “Leibniz and the Logic of Life”

10:30-11:25 Justin E. H. Smith (Concordia University and the Institute for Advanced Study) and Cameron Brown (Concordia University): “Blood Transfusion and Pythagoreanism in the Royal Society”

11:30-12:15 Lunch

12:15-1:10  Karen Detlefsen (University of Pennsylvania): “Finality and Functional Explanation in Descartes' and Malebranche's Theories of Living Beings”

1:15-2:10 Andreas Blank (Universität Paderborn): “Julius Caesar Scaliger on Biological Species and the Ordinary Power of God”

2:15-3:15 Enrique Chavez-Arvizo (John Jay College, CUNY): "Animal Life and Movement in Gómez Pereira and Descartes"

3:30-4:30- Concluding Discussion

Organized by Justin E. H. Smith and Ohad Nachtomy

Funding provided by the Princeton University Council on the Humanities, and the Department of Philosophy at Princeton University.

This event is open to the public. For more information, please contact Justin Smith: jehsmith at ias dot edu

The Life Sciences in Early Modern Philosophy: A Workshop

Curiosity and Method, Princeton, April 9, 2011

18th-Century Seminar: This Wednesday, March 30

Princeton University, Department of History

Justin Smith, Concordia University

"'Like salt in cured ham': The Halle Pietists on the Role of the Soul in the Body, 1690-1720."

Location: 211 Dickinson Hall

Time: 4:30-6:00 PM.

Organized by: David Bell, Linda Colley and Jonathan Israel (Institute for Advanced Study) Sponsored by the Department of History and Institute for Advanced Study.

For more information please go here.

The Life Sciences in Early Modern Philosophy: A Workshop (Updated)

Princeton University, Department of Philosophy

May 7-8, 2011

Provisional Program:

Raphaële Andrault, université de Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne: "The Notion of Life in the Physicotheology of Ralph Cudworth and Nehemiah Grew: A  Comparative Study"

Catherine Abou-Nemeh, Princeton University: "Réaumur’s Crayfish Experiment in Hartsoeker’s Système: Regeneration and the Limits of Mechanism"

Gideon Manning, Caltech: "How Descartes' Medicine Made the Scientific Revolution"

Anne-Lise Rey, université de Lille: "Metaphysical Problems in Francis Glisson's Theory of Irritability"

François Duchesneau, université de Montréal: "'Organism' in the Leibniz-Stahl Controversy"

Ohad Nachtomy, Fordham University and Bar-Ilan University: "Leibniz and the Logic of Life"

Justin E. H. Smith, Concordia University and the Institute for Advanced Study: "Blood Transfusion and Pythagoreanism in the Royal Society"

Karen Detlefsen, University of Pennsylvania: "Finality and Functional Explanation in Descartes' and Malebranche's Theories of Living Beings"

Domenico Bertoloni-Meli, Indiana University: "The Uniformity of Nature and the Diversity of Organisms in the Early Modern Period"

Andreas Blank, Universität Paderborn: "Julius Caesar Scaliger on Biological Species and the Ordinary Power of God"

*

Organized by Justin E. H. Smith and Ohad Nachtomy.

Funding provided by the Princeton University Council on the Humanities, and the Department of Philosophy at Princeton University.

This event is open to the public.

For more information, please contact Justin Smith: jehsmith at ias dot edu

Upcoming Talks in 2011

Colloquium Series of the School of Historical Studies, Institute for Advanced Study. “The Role of Long-Distance Cultural Exchange in the Rise of Modern Philosophy: Some Case Studies and Some Questions,” Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, New Jersey, January 30, 2011.

Leibniz and Reality: A Symposium of the Gottfried-Wilhelm-Leibniz-Universität zu Hannover. “Perception and Appetite: From Physiology to Metaphysics,” Hannover, Germany, March 25-26, 2011.

18^th-Century Colloquium Series of the Department of History, Princeton University. “ ‘Like salt in cured ham’: Chemical Pietism and the Role of the Soul in the Body, 1700-1720,” Princeton, New Jersey, March 30, 2011.

Cultures of the Internet: Identity, Community, and Mental Health: a Workshop of the Advanced Study Institute of the Division of Social and Transcultural Psychiatry, McGill University. “Extended Minds and Prosthetic Souls: Some Implications of the Internet for the Concept of Personhood,” McGill University, Montreal, April 26-29, 2011.

Workshop on the Life Sciences in Early Modern Philosophy. “‘Between Divination and Prediction: Epistemological Problems of Medical Diagnosis in Leibniz's Directiones ad rem medicam pertinentes,” Department of Philosophy, Princeton University, May 7-8, 2011.

Colloquium Series of the Eötvös Loránd University. “Classification and the Concept of Race in Early Modern Science: A Cognitive Approach,” Budapest, Hungary, May, 2011.

L’art de lire: Un colloque de l’ENS Lyon. “Peut-on lire la Genèse comme histoire naturelle? Du figurisme jésuite au Telliamed,” Ecole Normale Supérieure, Lyon, France, May, 2011.

Ninth International Leibniz Congress. “Between Natural History and Theodicy: Leibniz on Human Racial Difference,” Gottfried-Wilhelm-Leibniz-Universität zu Hannover, Hannover, Germany, September, 2011.

Annual Lecture Series of the Center for the Philosophy of Science, University of Pittsburgh. “Towards a Science of the Past: Archaelogy, Abductive Inference, and Intellectual History,” Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, October, 2011.

Leibniz und die Realität

25.-26. März  2010

Internationale Tagung

Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Bibliothek

Hannover, Deutschland

*

Die Frage nach der Realität (Wirklichkeit) bei Leibniz wurde in den letzten zwanzig Jahren vor allem im Rahmen der Diskussion über die „reale Metaphysik“ oder die letzte Philosophie der „realen Einheiten“ gestellt. Dabei wurde das Problem des Widerstands der Realität gegenüber Phänomene oder Erscheinungen untersucht, was zu verschiedenen Rekonstruktionen von der ontologischen Landschaft, besonders hinsichtlich des Status des Körpers, geführt hat. Diese Frage ist jedoch nicht nur auf die späteren Schriften oder sogar auf die Metaphysik allein beschränkt. Die normative Unterscheidung zwischen, was real ist und was nicht real ist, oder zwischen, was realer ist und was weniger real ist, taucht schon in den ersten metaphysischen Konzepten auf, genauso wie in den verschiedenen Wissenschaften (Mathematik, Physik, Wissenschaft vom Lebendigen, Theologie, usw.) in welchen Leibniz die Verfassung von Real-Definitionen gesucht hat. Dieses Kolloquium soll diese verschiedenen Dimensionen behandeln.

Die Tagung wird von der Alexander von Humboldt-Stiftung unterstützt.

*

Michel Fichant (Université de Paris-Sorbonne) : "Quelque chose de plus réal" : sur les degrés de réalité

Stefano Di Bella (Scuola Superiore di Pisa): Phaenomenon, Action and Coherence: Leibniz's Ways from the Mind's Experience to a Real World

Arnaud Pelletier (Humboldt-Stiftung): Leibniz et les accidents réels

Christina Schneider (Universität München): Monaden und Raum-Zeit

Herbert Breger (Leibniz-Archiv, Hannover): Probleme mathematischer Existenz bei Leibniz

Justin Smith (Concordia University, Montréal): Perception and Appetite: From Physiology to Metaphysics

Anne-Lise Rey (Université Lille 1): Sciences de la nature et degrés de réalité

 Walter Sparn (Universität Erlangen): Leibniz' Verständnis der Realität des geglaubten Übernatürlichen, am Beispiel sakramentalen Realpräsenz Christi

Pauline Phemister (University of Edinburgh): Relations and individual substances: Leibnizian pluralism versus Bradleian monism

Frédéric de Buzon (Université de Strasbourg): Le clair-confus et la réalité des phénomènes

Fourth Annual Conference of the Leibniz Society of North America

Below is the program for the Fourth Annual Conference of the Leibniz Society of North America, which will be held at the University of Houston in Houston, TX from 3 to 5 December 2010.  Active links are to abstracts of the papers.  Further information about the conference can be found on the website for the conference at http://www.gwleibniz.com/lsna_houston.

• Friday, 3 December 2010
  • 2:00-2:30: Coffee
  • 2:30-5:50: Session 1 (Chair: Mark Kulstad, Rice University)
    • 2:30-3:30: Brian Glenny (Gordon College), "Leibniz on Molyneux's Question."
    • 3:40-4:40: Christopher Noble (Villanova University), "Leibniz's Comments on Spinoza's Philosophy."
    • 4:50-5:50: Stephen Puryear (North Carolina State University), "Force, Absolute Motion, and the Threat of Circularity in Leibniz."
    • 6:15: Reception (Palacio del Rio, University of Houston Hilton)
• Saturday, 4 December 2010
  • 8:30-9:00: Light Breakfast
  • 9:00-12:20: Session 2 (Chair: Brandon Look, University of Kentucky)
    • 9:00-10:00: Gonzalo Rodriguez-Pereyra (Oriel College, Oxford), "The Principle of Identity of Indiscernibles, the Tabula Rasa, and Unthinking Minds."
    • 10:10-11:10: Mogens Laerke (University of Aberdeen), "Leibniz's Cosmological Argument."
    • 11:20-12:20: Giovanni Merlo (University of Barcelona), "Leibnizian Aggregates are not Mind-Dependent Entities."
    • 12:20-2:00: Lunch
  • 2:00-5:20: Session 3 (Chair: Donald Rutherford, University of California - San Diego)
    • 2:00-3:00: Ohad Nachtomy (Bar-Ilan University), "Leibnizian Encounters with Infinity."
    • 3:10-4:10: Maria Picone (Rice University), "Aporetic Monologues: Questions Surrounding 'Von der Allmacht.'"
    • 4:20-5:20: Christian Barth (Institut für Philosophie, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin), "Another Case of Illegitimate Backward Projection: Why Leibnizian Apperception is not (Essentially) Higher-Order Perception in the New Essays."
  • 5:30-6:00: LSNA Executive Committee Meeting
  • 6:30: Dinner for Conference Participants
• Sunday, 5 December 2010
  • 8:30-9:00: Light Breakfast
  • 9:00-12:20: Session 4 (Chair: Martha Bolton, Rutgers)
    • 9:00-10:00: Samuel Newlands (University of Notre Dame), "Leibniz and the Ground of Possibility."
    • 10:10-11:10: Michael Ferreira (Ohio State University), "Simmons on Leibniz on the Intentionality of Sensation."
    • 11:20-12:20: Evelyn Vargas (Universidad Nacional de La Plata, Argentina), "Seeing is Believing: Leibniz on Perception and Will."

Integrated History and Philosophy of Science Conference, 2010

Indiana University, Bloomington

September 23-26, 2010

Thursday

2:15-2:30 
Welcome

2:30-3:15 
Hasok Chang, "Pluralism as a New Framework for Integrated HPS" 

3:30-5:00
Samuel Schindler, "Philosophy meets history in the discovery of weak neutral currents"

Ari Gross, "Pictures and Pedagogy: the role of diagrams in Feynman’s early lectures, 1949-50"

5:30-6:30 
Plenary lecture
Michael Friedman, "A Post-Kuhnian Approach to the History and Philosophy of Science"
 
7:00-8:30 
Reception (also for the 50th anniversary of HPSC)

Friday

9:00-10:30 
Aaron Cobb, "Experiment in John Herschel’s Philosophy of Science"

Curtis Forbes, "Philosophy of Science and its Influence on Scientific Practice: empiricism and
realism in 19th century electrodynamics"

11:00-12:30 
Lydia Patton, "Hilbert’s Method of Analogy: Signs and Axiomatics in Physics and Mathematics"

Michael Stoeltzner, "'Schwankungen' in Electroscopes and Microscopes. Vienna Indeterminism
and its Evidences"

12:30-2 
Lunch 

2:00-3:30  
Roger Ariew, "Theory of Comets, 1618-1627"

Bryan Roberts & John Norton, "Galileo's Refutation of the Speed-Distance Law of Fall
Rehabilitated"  

4:00-5:30 
Mary Domski, "Newton’s Empiricism in Cartesian Context: Revisiting the Argument for Space
in De Gravitatione"

Andrew Janiak, "Newton between history and philosophy: the case of space"

Saturday
9:00-10:30 
Gary Hatfield, "On the Reception of Descartes' Machine Psychology"

Justin Smith, "Leibniz's Anti-Vitalism"

11:00-12:30 

Kent Staley, "Dirac’s 'fine-tuning problem': A constructive use of anachronism?"

Thomas Pashby Realism, "Structuralism and Instrumentalism in Dirac’s Prediction of the Positron"

12:30-2:30 
Lunch (&HPS committee meeting)

2:30-3:15

Robert Rynasiewicz, "Where Positivism Went Right: The Positron and the Literal View of Theories"

3:45-6:15 

Jane Maienschein, "Understanding Embryos: Changing Assumptions"

Manfred Laubichler, "Developmental Evolution as a Mechanistic Science: Conceptual and Philosophical Reflections on an Alternative and Complementary Narrative of the History of Evolutionary Biology"Michael

Dietrich Richard, "Goldschmidt’s Revival: Evo-Devo, Then and Now"

7:00-9:00
Banquet

Sunday

9:00-10:30
Tudor Baetu, "The referential convergence of gene concepts based on classical and molecular analyses"

Melinda Fagan, "Philosophy of stem cell biology: an integrated approach"

10:45-11:30 
William Goodwin, "Resolving a Controversy: The Non-Classical Ion Debate"

Leibniz's Theodicy: Context and Content

September 16-18, 2010

University of Notre Dame

http://nd.edu/~cprelig/conferences/leibniz2010/index.php

Wednesday, September 15th

                6:30pm: Pre-Conference Banquet and “Bayle on the Problem of Evil” Workshop

                                  Chair: Todd Ryan, Trinity College

                                  Speakers: Kristen Irwin (Biola University) and Jean-Luc Solere (Boston College)

                                  Commentator: Tom Lennon, University of Western Ontario

Thursday, September 16th

                9:00am-10:30am: Nicholas Jolley, University of California, Irvine, "Is Leibniz's Theodicy a Set of Variations on a Theme by Malebranche?"

                                  Chair: Marleen Rozemond, University of Toronto

                                  Commentator: Sukjae Lee, Seoul National University

                10:40am-12:10pm: Paul Rateau, Université Paris,"The Theoretical Foundations of the Leibnizian Theodicy and its Apologetic Aim"

                                  Chair: Mark Kulstad, Rice University

                                  Commentator: Mogens Laerke, University of Aberdeen

              

                1:30pm-3:00pm: Greg Brown (University of Houston), Robert Sleigh (University of Massachusetts, Amherst) and Sean Greenberg (University of California, Irvine), Special session, "Translating the Theodicy: Then and Now"

                                  Chair: Justin Smith, Concordia University

                3:10pm-4:40pm: Donald Rutherford, University of California, San Diego,"Justice and Circumstances: Theodicy as Universal Religion" 

                                  Chair: Jill Hernandez, University of Texas, San Antonio

                                  Commentator: Larry Jorgensen, Skidmore College

                7:45pm-9:00pm: Robert Merrihew Adams, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, "Perfections, Justice, and Love in Leibniz's Theodicy" 

                                  Chair: Andrew Chignell, Cornell University

Friday, September 17th

                9:30am-11:00am: Christia Mercer, Columbia University, "Leibniz's Theodicy and the Epistemological Problem of Evil"

                                  Chair: Joel Schickel, University of Dayton

                                  Commentator: Lea Schweitz, The Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago

                11:10am-12:40pm: Michael J. Murray, Franklin and Marshall College, "Vindicatio Dei: Evil as a Result of God's Free Choice of the Best"

                                  Chair: Marcy Lascano, California State University, Long Beach

                                  Commentator: Lloyd Strickland, University of Wales, Lampeter 

                2:00pm-3:30pm: Maria Rosa Antognazza, King's College London, "Metaphysical Evil Revisited"

                                  Chair: Daniel Schmal

                                  Commentator: Ohad Nachtomy

                3:40pm-5:10pm: Tad Schmaltz, University of Michigan, "Moral Evil and Divine Concurrence in the Theodicy" 

                                  Chair: Derk Pereboom, Cornell University

                                  Commentator: John Whipple, University of Illinois, Chicago

                7:45pm-9:00pm: Jonathan Israel, Institute for Advanced Studies, "Philosophy, Divine Providence, and the Lisbon Earthquake of 1755"

                                  Chair: Martha Bolton, Rutgers University

Saturday, September 18th

                9:00am-10:30am: Jan Cover, Purdue University, "Anti-Voluntarism and Divine Perfection"

                                  Chair: Anja Jauernig, University of Notre Dame

                                  Commentator: Brandon Look, University of Kentucky

                10:40am-12:10pm: Agustín Echavarría, Universidad de Navarra, "Leibniz's Dilemma on Predestination"

                                  Chair: Timothy O'Connor, Indiana University, Bloomington

                                  Commentator: Ursula Goldenbaum, Emory University

                1:30pm-3:00pm: Daniel Garber, Princeton University, "Metaphysics and Theology: The Role of the Monadology in Leibniz's Theodicy"

                                  Chair: Marilyn Adams, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

                                  Commentator: Jeff McDonough, Harvard University

IX. International Leibniz Congress: Nature and Subject

September 19–23, 2011, Leibniz-Universität zu Hannover
 
First Circular
 
Leibniz’s importance for the present, as well as his historical standing in philosophy and in the sciences, are to be the focus of the congress. Since the previous congress six volumes of the Academy Edition have appeared; four further volumes will be published before the congress takes place. Furthermore, since the previous congress hundreds of pages of previously unpublished texts have been made available in provisional form on the internet.

Leibniz composed a series of important philosophical texts in dialogue form. It is intended that the congress should, in the sense of such a “Dialog of Reason”, bring together and confront existing investigations, elucidate consensus and controversy, ascertain what has been achieved and identify research desiderata. These could also include such hitherto, if at all, implicitly conducted methodological controversies. To what extent could texts composed at intervals of many years be mutually illuminating? Is our present picture of Leibniz’s philosophical development precise enough for such an approach?

The motto “Nature and Subject” is to constitute a focal point of the congress. In recent years Leibniz’s views of biology and the living body have become more and more the center of attention; the role of the “machines of nature” has been more exactly investigated. In addition, the debate concerning corporeal substance has gained increasing attention. Leibniz attributes subjectivity or subjective experience in the broader sense not exclusively to the spiritual monads. Naturally the motto also encompasses the dimension of epistemology and philosophy of science.

The Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Society invites all interested researchers, specialists and friends to participate. Announcement of papers is requested by February 1, 2011; of the accepted contributions a file or a reproducible paper copy (camera-ready, maximum length 8 pages) is required by May 1, 2011, since the contributions are to be available in a bound volume at the congress opening.

Detailed information about the congress program and the preparation of contributions will be made available in further circulars and on the congress homepage at:

http://www.Gottfried-Wilhelm-Leibniz-Gesellschaft.de/Veranstaltungen/Kongress/

Queries should be addressed to: kongress@Leibnizgesellschaft.de or Gottfried-Wilhelm-Leibniz-Gesellschaft, Waterloostr. 8, D-30169 Hannover; Tel. +49 511 1267-331 or -327; Fax +49 511 1267 202.

Minakshi Menon (UCSD), Orientalism, Language and Botanical Knowledge-Making: William Jones in Bengal, 1784-94

McGill University

History and Philosophy of Science

Histoire et philosophie des sciences

Winter 2010 Series / Série d'hiver 2010

Do join us for the last talk of the academic year, this Thursday (April 15), at 3pm, in the Don Bates room in 3647 Peel. All welcome.

La dernière communication de cette année universitaire sera ce jeudi, 15 avril, à 15h, dans la salle Don Bates, à 3647 Peel. Ouvert à tou(te)s.

Thursday, 15 April, 3pm

Minakshi Menon (UC San Diego)

Orientalism, Language and Botanical Knowledge-Making: William Jones in Bengal, 1784-1794

What was colonial botany as a form of knowledge? How did it construct its objects? Were its objects different from plant-objects constructed by European taxonomical systems? This paper examines the botanical researches of the British Orientalist Sir William Jones (1746-1794) in order to answer these questions. It focuses on Jones’s plant descriptions laid out in three botanical essays, The Design of a Treatise on the Plants of India; On the Spikenard of the Ancients; and Botanical Observations on Select Indian Plants. In these essays he combined close attention to Indian languages with Linnaean classification and chemical analysis to devise a method to locate and identify plants in their Indian milieu. The paper argues that Jones’s plant descriptions were of a piece with his Orientalism, itself understood as a form of eighteenth-century sensationalist epistemology.

Don Bates Seminar Room (room 101)

Social Studies of Medicine Building, 

3647 rue Peel (above Dr Penfield).

For more information, see http://www.mcgill.ca/hpsc/lectures/ 

and http://www.mcgill.ca/hpsc/seminars/