Philosophical Controversies and Preisfragen: Shaping the Enlightenment between Wolff and Kant

Philosophical Controversies and Preisfragen: Shaping the Enlightenment between Wolff and Kant

International conference IRH-ICUB, University of Bucharest and New Europe College

18-19 May, 2017

Venue: New Europe College, Plantelor Str. 21, Bucharest

Convenor: Tinca Prunea-Bretonnet (University of Bucharest)

Confirmed speakers: Paola Basso (Bucharest), Karin de Boer (Leuven), Vlad Dolghi (Bucharest), Daniel Dumouchel (Montreal), Corey Dyck (Western Ontario), Matteo Favaretti Camposampiero (Venice), Ursula Goldenbaum (Atlanta), Sophie Grapotte (Lyon), Norbert Hinske (Trier), Christian Leduc (Montreal), Alessandro Nannini (Jena), Elena Partene (Paris), Tinca Prunea-Bretonnet (Bucharest), Andrea Reichenberger (Paderborn).

Description: The conference examines the impact of a series of key debates on the development of German Enlightenment philosophy from Wolff to Kant. It discusses the ways in which these controversies both responded to problems inherited from the seventeenth century and contributed to the formation of a distinctive German philosophical discourse. Special attention is paid to the ‘speculative philosophy class’ of the Berlin Academy, which through its prize essay contests both substantially enhanced the significance of ongoing controversies and initiated new debates, often taking its cue from the philosophical positions of Leibniz, Wolff, the British empiricists, Newton, and Kant. The conference papers cover both theoretical approaches to the art of debating and specific debates in the fields of metaphysics, the philosophy of science, psychology, aesthetics, and epistemology. They will address the following questions: What was the debates’ impact on eighteenth-century German philosophy? What role did the enlightened public play in these controversies? In the end, did the controversies leave the key questions open or succeeded in reaching some agreement? To what extent was the German Enlightenment driven by antagonism – in particular, can we detect a shift from agonistic arguments in the first half of the century to a more conciliatory debate mood in the second half?

The conference is organized within the framework of the research project Philosophy between Mathematical Method and Experiment: the Berlin Academy (1746-1764), funded by UEFISCDI-CNCS (PN-RU-TE-II 2014-4-2522).

PROGRAM: 

Thursday, 18 May

10.00-10.10 Welcome: Tinca Prunea-Bretonnet
10.10-11.00 Norbert Hinske (Trier): Baumeisters Abhandlung über die wichtigsten Kontroversen der neueren Philosophie

11.00-11.20 Coffee

11.20-12.10 Corey Dyck (London, Canada): The Leibniz/Clarke Correspondence and Wolff’s Turn to Ontology
12.10-13.00 Matteo Favaretti Camposampiero (Venice): Incompatible Immortalities: Debates on the Afterlife in the Wolffian Age

13.00-14.30 Lunch

14.30-15.20 Andrea Reichenberger (Paderborn): The Concept of Inertia from Newton to Kant
15.20-16.10 Christian Leduc (Montreal): Kant on Mechanism in the 1750s

16.10-16.40 Coffee

16.40-17.30 Vlad Dolghi (Bucharest): Maupertuis on the Laws of Nature
17.30-18.20 Alessandro Nannini (Jena): Imperium non tyrannis. The Controversy on Sensibility at the Origins of Modern Aesthetics

Friday, 19 May

10.00-10.50 Ursula Goldenbaum (Atlanta): The Public Scandal about the Jugement of the Berlin Academy concerning a Leibniz Letter

10.50-11.20 Coffee

11.20-12.10 Daniel Dumouchel (Montreal): En amont du concours de 1777: Sulzer sur la connaissance et le sentiment
12.10-13.00 Paola Basso (Bucharest): Geometry and Theology: The Climax of the Battle for the “Primacy of Certainty” during the Preisfrage for 1763

13.00-14.30 Lunch

14.30-15.20 Karin de Boer (Leuven): Kant’s Inquiries into a New Touchstone for Metaphysical Truths
15.20-16.10 Elena Partene (Paris): La crise de la métaphysique et la critique du paradigme logico-mathématique

16.10-16.40 Coffee

16.40-17.30 Tinca Prunea-Bretonnet (Bucharest): Metaphysics in the Kantian Age: Progress or Decline?
17.30-18.20 Sophie Grapotte (Lyon): Le suprasensible dans la réponse de Kant à la Preisfrage pour l’année 1791