Programme Bran 2014






Bucharest-Princeton Seminar in Early Modern Philosophy

Bran, 8–13 July 2014

De rerum natura: Naturalism, Supernaturalism, Unnaturalism

Programme


Tuesday, 8 July

9.30 Departure to Bran from Hotel Flowers, Plantelor str. 2, Bucharest  (lunch on the way in Brașov)

17.00 Arrival in Bran (Vila Andra)

19.00 Dinner

Wednesday, 9 July

10.00-10.40 Enrico Pasini (Turin): The development of physics/philosophy of nature between Copernicus and Galilei

10.40-10.55 Coffee break

10.55-13.00 Reading group (I): Naturalism: Cardano, Telesio and Bacon
Convenors: Daniel Garber, Mihnea Dobre, Doina-Cristina Rusu
Texts: Cardano, De subtilitate II (fragments); Telesio, On the Nature of Things (Chaps. 8-16); Bacon, Sylva Sylvarum, experiments 800-830 (SEH II 602-609), 30-32 (SEH II 351-353); Bacon, Novum organum II (OFB XI 221-253).

13.00-15.00 Lunch break

Section 1

16.00-16.35 Doina-Cristina Rusu (Bucharest): Naturalizing the unnatural in Francis Bacon’s Sylva Sylvarum: the power of imagination to create forms

16.35-16.50 Coffee Break

16.50-17.25 Oana Matei (Bucharest/Arad): The use of experiment with plants in Francis Bacon’s Syla Sylvarum V

17.25-18.00 Claudia Dumitru (Bucharest): Sounds and Spirits in Francis Bacon’s Sylva Sylvarum

Section 2

16.00-16.40 Aaron Spink (South Florida): Descartes: knowing passions and clueless minds

16.40-17.00 Coffee Break

17.00-17.40 Daniel Colette (South Florida): Passions embodied: Descartes’ ethics in the Letters to Elisabeth revisited

19.30 Dinner

Thursday, 10 July

9.15-9.50 Tamàs Pavlovits (Szeged) : La perception de l’infini et la nature de l’esprit chez Descartes

9.50-10.40 Igor Agostini (Lecce): Descartes and More on the infinity of the world

10.40-10.55 Coffee break

10.55-13.00 Reading group (II): Descartes and supernaturalism
Convenors: Vlad Alexandrescu, Grigore Vida, Daniel Garber
Texts: Descartes to X, September 1629 (AT I 21); to X, early 1638? (Clerselier II 159); to Morin, 12 September 1638 (AT II 365); to Mersenne, 19 June 1639 (AT II 557-558); to Elisabeth, November 1646 (AT IV 531-532); to Mersenne, 25 January 1647 (AT IV 593-594); to Silhon, March or April 1648 (AT V 136-137); Descartes, Cogitationes privatæ (AT X 218); Le Monde (AT XI 443); Principes de la philosophie, art. 187 (AT IX-2 308-309); Annotationes in sua Principia philosophiæ (AT XI 654)

13.00-15.00 Lunch break

Section 1

16.00-16.40 Sarah Ellenzweig (Rice, English): Richard Bentley’s Boyle Lectures and the Epicurean void

16.40-17.00 Coffee Break

17.00-17.40 Veronika Szànto (Budapest): Margaret’s Cavendish’s hierachical vitalism


Section 2

16.00-16.35 Ed Slowik (Winona State): The ‘situation’ of the unextended in Leibniz’s immaterialist metaphysics

16.35-16.50 Coffee Break

16.50-17.25 Andrea Strazzoni (Rotterdam): The concept of nature in early modern Dutch philosophy

17.25-18.00 Rodolfo Garau (UniTo/MPIWG Berlin): Gassendi’s experimental naturalization of astrology



19.00 Dinner

Friday, 11 July

9.15-9.50 Olivier Dubouclez (Liège): Fascination as a case of action at a distance in Early Modern science

9.50-10.40 Jennifer Rampling (Princeton): Alchemy, theory of matter and natural magic

10.40-10.55 Coffee break

10.55-13.00 Reading group (III): Heaven on Earth: Celestial Virtues in Early Modern Astrology and Alchemy


Convenors: Jennifer Rampling (Princeton), Steven Vanden Broecke (Ghent)

Texts: Basic readings: Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, Ia.q105.a3-4; Cornelius Agrippa, On Occult Philosophy, book I (chapter 12-16; chapters 1-11 highly recommended); Pierre Bayle, Various Thoughts on the Occasion of a Comet, selected passages; John of Rupescissa, De consideratione quintae essentiae, selected passages; ps.-Ramòn Lull, Novum Testamentum, selected passages;
Additional readings: Cornelius Agrippa, On Occult Philosophy, book III (chapters 3-9); Joshua Childrey, Indago Astrologica, selected passages; John Goad, Astro-Meteorologica, selected passages.

13.00-15.00 Lunch break

Section 1

16.00-16.35: Alison Peterman (Rochester): Spinoza on the common notions

16.35-16.50 Coffee break

16.50-17.25 Michael A. Rosenthal (Washington): Spinoza on beings of reason

17.25-18.00 Raphael Krut-Landau (Princeton/ENS): Spinoza’s naturalism about the emotions

Section 2

16.00-16.40 Charles T. Wolfe (Ghent): Medical Epicureanism and Philosophical Epicureanism: La Mettrie and Diderot

16.40-17.00 Coffee break

17.00 -17.40 Tinca Prunea-Bretonnet (NEC Bucharest): Baumgarten’s conception of the transcendental and its role in Kantian philosophy


19.00 Dinner


Saturday, 12 July

9.15-9.50 Steven Vanden Broecke (Ghent) : L’analyse de Michel de Certeau du croire et les avantages possibles pour l’étude historique des rapports entre la science et la religion

9.50-10.40 Roger Ariew (South Florida) : Leibniz and the Petrifying Virtue of the Place

10.40-10.55 Coffee break

10.55-13.00 Reading group (IV): Naturalism in Spinoza and Leibniz
Convenors: Daniel Garber, Roger Ariew, Yitzhak Melamed, Michael Rosenthal
Texts: Spinoza, Ethics, part I, particularly props. 15&S, 16, 17, 18, 28-33, appendix; part III, pref.; part IV, pref. (note also the version of E1p18 from the Opera Posthuma in a separate file); Spinoza, Short Treatise (KV) I.4; Spinoza, TTP chapt 6, note; Leibniz, “Two Sects of Naturalists”; Leibniz, “On Nature Itself”

13.00-15.00 Lunch

16.00-16.40 Peter Anstey (Sydney): Early modern experimental philosophy and the principles of religion

16.40-17.00 Coffee break

17.00-17.40 Justin E. Smith (Paris) : The Unity of human species in Aristotle, Leibniz and Kant

18.00 Dinner


Sunday, 13 July

9.30 Departure to Bucharest



This Seminar is supported by two research grants of the Romanian National Authority for Scientific Research, CNCS-UEFISCDI, project number PN-II-ID-PCE-2011-3-0998: Models of Producing and Disseminating Knowledge in Early Modern Europe: the Cartesian Framework and project number PN-II-ID-PCE-2011-3-0719: From Natural History to Science: the emergence of experimental philosophy.