On June 30 and July 1 the conference 'Spinoza and Identity' will take place. This conference is part of the Netherlanders and Israelis Spinoza Seminar series.
Abstract Conference
Late 20th Century French and Italian Spinoza scholarship focused upon the concept of Power. At the level of the modi there is an interplay of constantly changing power. Some commentators argue that this implies an anti-essentialism with respect to ordinary entities, such as bodies, persons, affects, virtue, communities and states. Recent Anglo and Finnish scholarship has challenged this anti-essentialist reading. In this conference we would like to address how these conflicting readings of Spinoza’s view of essences impact our understanding of Spinoza’s concept of identity in metaphysics, anthropology, and moral and political theory.
Sunday, June 30th 2019
Polak building 1-07, Campus Woudestein, Rotterdam
| 10.15 – 10.30 | Opening: Prof. dr. Wiep van Bunge |
| 10.30 – 11.25 | Prof. dr. Han van Ruler: ‘Metaphysics in-between Descartes and Spinoza’. Descartes' Epistemological Turn and Spinoza's Need for Formal Causes. |
| 11.30 – 12.25 | Dr. Daniel Schneider: ‘Spinoza on the Conditions of the Human Condition’. The significance of the concept ‘Homo’ in Spinoza’s conception of ‘Homo Liber’. |
| 12.30 – 13.00 | Prof. dr. Henri Krop: ‘Spinoza’s Critique of metaphysics’. |
| Lunch break | |
| 14.00 – 14.45 | Noa Lahav: ‘Essence, Change and Necessity in Spinoza's Ethics’. Spinoza’s two notions of essence (individual and shared) and the ways in which they admit, or deny, the possibility of change. |
| 14.45 – 15.30 | Harmen Grootenhuis: ‘Spinoza on the individuality of universals’. A universal essence of finite modes as the cooperative union of the essences of individual finite modes that serve as its parts. |
| Tea / coffee break | |
| 16.00 – 16.45 | Daphna Mark: ‘Humans’ Personal identity in Spinoza’s Ethics’. The possibility of personal identity of humans as coming into being through a process of self-unfolding. |
| 16.45 – 17.40 | Ohad Nachtomy: ‘Spinoza on the Capacities of the Body and the Wonders of the Mind’. |
| 19.00 | Conference dinner |
Monday, July 1st 2019
Het Spinozahuis, Spinozalaan 29 Rijnsburg
| 10.00 – 11.00 | Visit Spinozahuis & Marc Riese: ‘Spinoza’s Library: A Probabilistic Approach to Addressing Uncertainty Issues’. (participants only) |
| Lunch break (Lunch for participants in Brasserie De Burgt) | |
| 13.00 – 13.55 | Noa Naaman-Zauderer: ‘Spinoza on Human Freedoms and the Eternity of the Mind’. Apart from the absolute freedom applied exclusively to God, two distinct notions of human freedom are at work in the Ethics, in accordance with the second and third kinds of knowledge. |
| 14.00 – 14:55 | Pooyan Tamini Arab: ‘Spinoza after Evolution: On intransigence as a middle-ground between essentialism and anti-essentialism’. |
| Tea / coffee break | |
| 15.30 – 16.15 | Jamie van der Klaauw: ‘Government and its subjects: Spinoza’s place in political theory’. Assessing Spinoza’s advances in light of contemporary political theory. |
| 16.15 – 17:00 | Yoram Stein: ‘Spinoza’s Identity Politics’. The Real Task: How to Unite Less than Perfectly Rational People in Such a Way that they are Supportive and not Destructive to the Stability in the State. |
| 17.00 – 17.55 | Atsuko Fukuoka: Quest of Laws of Human Psychology: Spinoza’s Method and Jurisprudence |
After every paper there will be about 15 minutes of discussion.
- More information
Do you want to join this conference? Send an email to : Jamie van der Klaauw (vanderklaauw@esphil.eur.nl)