Substance in Early Modern Scholasticism

Recent scholarship on Francisco Suárez and others has shown that the study of early modern scholasticism is  illuminating vis-à-vis the philosophical background of “canonical” early modern philosophy as well as being philosophically rewarding in its own right. As is well known, disagreements about substance figure centrally in early modern thought. To come to a better understanding of early modern scholasticism, an important but neglected movement in the history of philosophy, we invite abstracts on the theme of substance in early modern scholasticism (roughly 1500-1750). The aim of the conference is to investigate the extent to which early modern scholastics departed from or developed Aristotelian conceptions of substance, to learn more about the philosophical problems associated with Aristotelian conceptions, and to uncover ways in which early modern scholastics might have influenced, directly or otherwise, “canonical” philosophers such as Descartes, Leibniz, and Locke. Relevant topics include but are not limited to:

·       The analysis of substance, accidents, and modes

·       Matter

·       Substantial and accidental form

·       The plurality of forms debate

·       Unity

·       Origin of forms and preformation

·       Extension and quantity

·       Individuation

·       The soul and its faculties

Target philosophers include but are not limited to the following, possibly in relation to other ancient, medieval, or early modern philosophers:

·       Domingo de Soto

·       John Capreolus

·       Pedro da Fonseca

·       Luis de Molina

·       The Conimbricenses

·       Francisco Suárez

·       Gabriel Vázquez

·       Bartolomeo Mastri and Bonaventura Belluto

·       John Punch

·       Pedro Hurtado de Mendoza

·       Rodrigo de Arriaga

·       Sebastián Izquierdo

·       Francisco de Oviedo

·       Juan Caramuel Y Lobkowitz

Please submit abstracts of reasonable length to [email protected] by February 1, with ‘CFP’ in the subject line. Final drafts should have a talk time of around 45 minutes.