The 1st Asia Spinoza Circle Annual International Workshop

Program: The 1st Asia Spinoza Circle Annual International Workshop

Date: July 30-31, 2026
 Venue: Graduate School of Intercultural Studies, Tsurukabuto 1 Area, Rokkodai Campus, Kobe University
 Organizer: Asia Spinoza Circle

Keynote Speaker: Kokubun Koichiro, University of Tokyo

The Asia Spinoza Circle (ASC) is pleased to announce its inaugural Annual International Workshop, establishing a new platform for sustained scholarly exchange among Spinoza researchers connected to Asia. This intensive two-day workshop will bring together a select group of scholars for in-depth discussion of current research in Spinoza studies.

Day 1

9:45Registration open

10:00–10:15Opening remarks

Session 1: Political Imagination and Law

10:15–11:00 Aurora Yu — Invented Laws and the Imagination

11:00–11:45 Soulhee Park — The Hebrew Republic as a Laboratory for ‘Sui Juris Esse’

Lunch break (11:45–13:15)

Keynote

13:15–14:30 Koichiro Kokubun — Individual, Consciousness and Multitude: On the Dilemma of the Modern Political Thought

Session 2: Politics and Community

14:45–15:30 Shanshan Rao — Violence without Exception

15:30–16:15 Xun Shu — Hegel’s Rejection of Universality

Session 3: Spinoza in Japan

16:30–17:15 Dennis Prooi — Freedom in Nishida’s Overcoming of Spinoza

17:15–18:00 Shozo Kamiya — Spinoza and the Limits of Modern Political Agency

Dinner Day 1

Day 2

Session 4: Ethics and Human Freedom

10:00–10:45 Van Tu — Assimilation Without Transcendence

10:45–11:30 Junshuo Bian — The Platonic Aspect of Human Freedom

Session 5: Mind and Faculties

11:45–12:30 Christopher Kluz — Are All Ideas Affects for Spinoza?

12:30–13:15 Maho Eifuku — Spinoza on Devaluation of Mental Faculties

Lunch break (13:15–14:30)

Session 6: Metaphysics I

14:30–15:15 Henry Kwok — Spinoza's Bundle Theory of the Mind

15:15–16:00 Ki-myoung Kim — Anti-Substantialist Theory of Causation

Session 7: Metaphysics II

16:15–17:00 Tomoyuki Hayashi — OSR-like Solution to the Strict Necessitarianism Dispute

17:00–17:45 Dayang Nurhazieqa Hamzani — Nondualist metaphysical account of

morality, freedom and Divine Knowledge, a Comparison between Spinoza and Hamzah

Fansuri

17:45–18:30 Lee Len — The Apeirist Spinoza : Improper Plurality, Modal

Mereology, and the Status of Individual Things

18:30Closing remarks

Dinner Day 2

About the Asia Spinoza Circle

The ASC is a collaborative network connecting Spinoza scholars across Asia. We welcome researchers with connections to Asia—whether through origins in Asian countries, cultural and intellectual backgrounds, current institutional affiliations with Asian institutions, or sustained engagement with Asian philosophical traditions. Our inclusive network fosters intellectual exchange and builds a vibrant community exploring Spinoza’s philosophy through diverse Asian perspectives and contexts.

For inquiries, please contact: [email protected] (Kim, Ki-Myoung), [email protected] (Higuchi, Tomoko)

Homepage:https://sites.google.com/view/asiaspinozacircle