Non-Cartesian Philosophies of Mind: Early Modern Alternatives

The workshop aims to shed light on strands of early modern philosophy of mind (broadly understood as the historical period running from Descartes to Hume), which accounted for mentality and its functions within a non-Cartesian framework. We will investigate the explanatory power that non-Cartesian accounts of mind and mind-body relationship displayed within their historical and intellectual context, how they informed the development of the history of the philosophy of mind, and how they can be relevant to present-day discussions.

Attendance is free. The workshop will be also streamed online. To participate, please register by sending an email to [email protected].

Programme

Tuesday, 23rd May
9.45 – Welcome and introduction
10.00 – Andrea Christofidou (University of Oxford): “Descartes’ Metaphysics of Mind: A Significant Turn”
11.00 – Rodolfo Garau (Universität Hamburg): “Gassendi’s Second Thought: The Lasting Influence of the Polemic with Descartes in the Development of Gassendi’s Understanding of the Intellect”
12.00 - 13.15 – Lunch break
13.15 – Laura Moretti (Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne/Ca’ Foscari University of Venice): “Robert Desgabets Entering the Malebranche’s Empiricist Legacy”
14.15 – Deborah Brown (University of Queensland): “The Matter of Thinking Matter: Descartes and Willis”
15.15 - 15.45 – Coffee break
15.45 – Domenica Romagni (Colorado State University): “‘The circle… a true image of the created mind’: Kepler’s Geometrical Philosophy of Mind”
16.45 – Philippe Hamou (Sorbonne Université): “Of mental substances in Locke’s Essay: subsistence, spatiality, activity”
17.45 – 18.00 – Concluding remarks, day 1

Wednesday, 24th May
9.45 – Welcome and coffee
10.00 – Ruth Boeker (University College Dublin): “Catharine Trotter Cockburn and Isaac Watts on the Power to Think”
11.00 – Jordan Lavender (Purdue University): “Thought and Sensation as Directio in the Seventeenth Century: The Case of Thomas Bonarte (1612/13— ~1670)”
12.00 - 13.15 – Lunch break
13.15 – Ericka Tucker (Marquette University): “Material Minds: Spinoza and the Other Descartes”
14.15 – Lena Kreymann (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin): “Leibniz on Identifying Other Minds”
15.15 - 15.45 – Coffee break
15.45 – Olivia L. Branscum (University of Oklahoma): “Panpsychism and Vitalism in the Philosophy of Anne Conway: Interpretive and Historical-Philosophical Implications”
16.45 – Julia Borcherding (University of Cambridge/LMU Munich): “Dancing Figures: Cavendish on Causation and Harmony”
17.45 – 18.15 – Concluding remarks, day 2

The workshop is funded by the Academy of Finland project “Thick Subjects: A Reconsideration of Early Modern Views of the Self” (PI, Vili Lähteenmäki), and included among the activities of the Jenny and Antti Wihuri Foundation funded project “Margaret Cavendish (1623-1673) on consciousness and non-human mentality” (PI, Oberto Marrama). For further information, please contact [email protected].

Workshop organizers:
Oberto Marrama (University of Oulu) and Vili Lähteenmäki (University of Oulu).