Meeting Spinoza seminar

Seminar: ‘Meeting Spinoza: Books, Letters, Networks, Personal Encounters’

October 5-6, 2017

Fundatie van de Vrijvrouwe van Renswoude
Agnietenstraat 5, Utrecht, The Netherlands

https://www.uu.nl/en/events/seminar-meeting-spinoza-books-letters-networks-personal-encounters

Keynote speakers:

Raphaële Andrault (CNRS, IHRIM, ENS-Lyon)
Mogens Laerke (CNRS, IHRIM, ENS-Lyon)
Steven Nadler (Wisconsin-Madison)
Antonella Del Prete (Tuscia University)

Registration:

Attendance is free, but due to the limited seating capacity please register by email (meetingspinoza@gmail.com) on or before October 1.

Organizers:

Albert Gootjes
Piet Steenbakkers
Jeroen van de Ven

 

Programme

Thursday, October 5

9:30-10:00      Registration and coffee

10:00-11:30    Session 1: Stoic Books and Letters

• Adam Smrcz (Eotvos Lorand University Budapest / Hungarian Academy of Sciences Budapest) and Oliver Istvan Toth (Eotvos Lorand University Budapest / Alpen-Adria Universität Klagenfurt): ‘The Missing Books from Spinoza’s Library: The Case of Justus Lipsius, Spinoza, and Stoicism’
• Christopher Quintana (Villanova): ‘Spinoza’s Stoic Letters’

11:30-11:45    Coffee break

11:45-12:45    Keynote 1

• Steven Nadler (University of Wisconsin-Madison): “Spinoza and Menasseh ben Israel: Facts and Fictions”

12:45-14:15    Lunch

14:15-15:45    Session 2: The Amsterdam and Leiden Networks

• Russ Leo (Princeton University): ‘Baruch Spinoza, Lodewijk Meyer, Nil Volentibus Arduum, and the Philosophy of Neoclassicism’
• Eric Jorink (Huygens ING / Leiden University): ‘Spinoza, Steno, and Swammerdam and the Leiden Medical Faculty’

15:45-16:00    Tea break

16:00-17:30    Session 3: Concerned Calvinists

• Esther Shallan (Oxford Brookes University): ‘Ill-argued, Ill-met: Spinoza’s Correspondence and Encounter with Willem van Blijenbergh’
• Matthias Mangold (ETF Leuven): ‘Salomon van Til (1643-1713) and the Reception of Spinoza among Late Seventeenth-Century Dutch Aristocrats’

19:00-21:00    Conference dinner

Friday, October 6

9:00-9:15        Coffee

9:15-10:45      Session 5: Meeting the Natural Philosophers

• Chris Meyns (Utrecht University): ‘Spinoza’s Circle of Optics’
• Daniel Schneider (University of Haifa): ‘A Meeting Once Removed: Boyle and Spinoza, the Worm and Blood’

10:45-11:00    Coffee break

11:00-12:00    Keynote 2:

• Antonella Del Prete (Tuscia University): ‘Cartesian Fluctuations: Van Velthuysen and Spinoza’

12:00-13:30    Lunch break

13:30-15:00    Session 4: Friends or Foes?

• Edwin Curley (University of Michigan): ‘Overcoming Enmity: Spinoza’s Correspondence with Van Velthuysen (Ep. 42, 43, and 69)’
• Maxime Rovere (Pontifícia Universidade Católica, Rio de Janeiro): ‘Resisting Spinoza: Bouwmeester, Van den Enden, and Kerckrinck’s Objections to Spinoza’s Intellectualism’

15:00-15:15    Tea break

15:15-16:00    Session 6: Scholastic Encounters

• Stephen Zylstra (University of Toronto): ‘Spinoza on Emanation and Immanent Causation: Assessing the Influence of Scholasticism’

16:00-17:00    Keynote 3:

• Raphaële Andrault (CNRS, IHRIM, ENS-Lyon) and Mogens Laerke (CNRS, IHRIM, ENS-Lyon): ‘The Paris Constellations, 1665-1679: Experimentalism and Epistemology’

 

Budapest Seminar in Early Modern Philosophy

2nd CALL FOR PAPERS

First Budapest Seminar in Early Modern Philosophy – Personal identity, self-interpretation

26–27 October, 2017

Institute of Philosophy, Eötvös Loránd University Budapest, Hungary

 

Keynote Speaker:  Udo THIEL (Karl-Franzens-Universität, Graz)

 

We are pleased to announce the second meeting of the Budapest Seminar in Early Modern Philosophy which is intended as the second edition of a yearly event that brings together established scholars, young researchers and advanced graduate students working on the field of early modern philosophy (ca. from 1600 to 1781). The aim is to foster collaboration among researchers working in different traditions and institutional contexts. We welcome abstracts for papers on any topic relevant to personal identity and self-interpretation, broadly conceived, in early modern philosophy. Proposals are particularly welcome that draw on resources from multiple different traditions (e.g. French, German, Italian and Anglo-Saxon).

Presentations should be in English and aim at approximately 40 minutes. Please send an abstract of maximum 400 words, prepared for blind review. The body of the email should include the author’s details (name, position, affiliation, contact details, title of the abstract). The deadline for abstract submissions is 1 August 2017. Applicants will receive a response regarding their submission by 1 September 2017.

There are no fees for registration. Attendance is free and most welcome. However, no financial support can be provided to support travel expenses and accommodation.

Submissions and inquiries should be sent to Olivér István Tóth (bsemp2017@gmail.com)

 

Seminar: “Meeting Spinoza”

Seminar: ‘Meeting Spinoza: Books, Letters, Networks, Personal Encounters’

Date: October 5-6, 2017

Location: Utrecht, The Netherlands

Confirmed invited speakers: Mogens Laerke (CNRS Lyon), Steven Nadler (Madison-Wisconsin), Antonella del Prete (Tuscia University)

Prospectus

While the old model of Spinoza as a recluse who developed a complete philosophical system in near isolation may no longer dominate scholarship as it once did, the full depth of his interaction with others remains largely unexplored. The seminar ‘Meeting Spinoza: Books, Letters, Networks, Personal Encounters’ seeks to fill this historiographical gap by bringing Spinoza specialists together with other early modern scholars who encounter him through the eyes of the historical figures at the basis of their own research. With the notion of ‘meeting’ in the main title we understand direct engagement with Spinoza during his own lifetime. Nevertheless, as the subtitle conveys, the modality of these meetings may be understood in a wide variety of ways. Papers may therefore consider the reception of Spinoza’s writings, either as they circulated in manuscript form or immediately upon their publication. They may seek to solve specific issues relating to Spinoza’s correspondence, or investigate patterns in his letter writing. We also encourage contributions on the networks in which Spinoza participated, ranging from the Jewish surroundings in which he was raised, to his ambivalent relationship with the Dutch Cartesians, and everything in between, such as the Dutch Collegiant community of his merchant years or even the prominent number of physicians figuring among his associates. A final, related area of interest is constituted by those contemporaries who are known to have met Spinoza in person. This category includes the famous meetings with Henry Oldenburg and Leibniz, but our interest extends also to chance or one-time encounters with lesser known figures, such as the Leiden theologian Salomon van Til. Papers should aim to contribute to our understanding of the man Spinoza, the development of his thought, and the response it evoked, all within the dynamics of the world in which he participated.

Abstracts

Anonymized abstracts (300-500 words) should be sent as a .docx file to Albert Gootjes (a.j.gootjes@uu.nl) by March 15, 2017; please include a separate attachment with contact information, affiliation, and professional status. Applicants will be notified of the committee’s decision by April 15, 2017.

Limited funds are available to cover travel and/or accommodations for presenters who receive no financial support from their institution. Please indicate in your cover letter if you would like to be considered for such a subsidy.

‘Spinoza’s Web’

This seminar is part of the ‘Spinoza’s Web’-projected directed by prof. dr. Piet Steenbakkers, and funded by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO).

Organisers: Piet Steenbakkers, Jeroen van de Ven, Albert Gootjes