Finnish-Hungarian Seminar in Early Modern Philosophy

Keynote speaker

Alison Simmons (Harvard):

“Mind-Body Union: Descartes and the Limits of Metaphysics”

In a joint effort by philosophers in Finland and Hungary, the Seminar was founded to promote international cooperation among scholars of seventeenth and eighteenth century philosophy. The first meeting was held in 2013 in the Central European University, Budapest. This will be the second annual meeting in a continuous series of seminars.

Saturday 11th October

Historica 320 

  9.10  Vili Lähteenmäki (Jyväskylä): Opening Words

  9.15  Alison Simmons (Harvard): Mind-Body Union: Descartes and the Limits of Metaphysics

10.30  Coffee break

10.45  Michael Griffin (CEU): Descartes and Modal Creationism (TBD)

11.45  Olivier Dubouclez (Liège/Paris IV-Sorbonne): On the Importance of Being (More) Attentive. Another Look at Descartes’ Practice of Meditation

12.45  Lunch

14.00  Han Thomas Adriaenssen and Sander de Boer (Groningen): Disentangling the Blackloists: Sir Kenelm Digby and John Sergeant on Common Notions, Metaphysics, and the Soul

15.00  Jennifer Marušic (Brandeis/HU Berlin): Locke’s Simple Account of Sensitive Knowledge

16.00  Coffee break

16.15  Jessica Gordon-Roth (CUNY): Catharine Trotter Cockburn’s Defense of Locke

17.15  Aino Lahdenranta (Jyväskylä): Francis Hutcheson on Selfish and Benevolent Desires

 Sunday 12th October

Historica 320

  9.30  Daniel Schneider (Ghent): Spinoza’s Epistemic Methodism

10.30  Coffee break

10.45  Oliver Istvan Toth (CEU): Spinoza’s Theory of Consciousness – an Epistemic Interpretation

11.45  Adam Harmer (UC Riverside): Leibniz and Descartes on Plurality and the Independence of Substances

12.45  Lunch

14.00  Sarah Tropper (King’s College London): Corporeal Substances in a World of Monads. To which Conception of Substantiality is Leibniz Committed?

15.00  Peter Myrdal (Turku/Uppsala): Leibniz on Perception as Activity

16.00  Coffee break

16.15  Sebastian Bender (HU Berlin): Localizing Violations of the Principle of Sufficient Reason in Leibniz

Please note that FHSEMP cannot provide funding for travel or accommodation.

Organizing and program committee: Vili Lähteenmäki (Jyväskylä), Mike Griffin (CEU), and Valtteri Viljanen (Turku).

For all further information, please contact [email protected]