German Classical Philosophy and Naturalism

Conference topic:

Very recent inquires on Hegel’s philosophy highlight the role of nature in the Hegelian understanding of human mind, spirit, social interaction, recognition, second nature and normativity. It may be assumed that Hegel is a naturalist as he follows the path and the project of the Aristotelian naturalism by dealing with the continuity between life and cognition, nature and spirit in several parts of his works. Hegel’s naturalism represents a good theoretical perspective for the investigation of the arduous concept of spirit by relating it to the notion of nature and explaining it as emerging from natural prerequisites. Moreover, by means of this approach we could understand how Hegel explores the continuity of life and mind, which is an issue with relevant interdisciplinary consequences already addressed by the philosophy of biology, neurophysiology, evolutionary psychology and social theory. However, the topic of nature has also been very important and central within the entire philosophical tradition known as German classical philosophy to which Hegel’s thinking belongs. His reflection on naturalism has been developed within this tradition and by the philosophical debates at that time. Therefore, the conference will address both the theme of naturalism in the German classical philosophy from Kant to Hegel and the relevant interdisciplinary and theoretical aspects it attains in the Hegelian philosophy.

Schedule:

Thursday 14th, Afternoon

2 - 2:15 Introduction

2:15 - 3:30 Frederick Neuhouser (Columbia University): Spirit, Nature, and Life in Rousseau and

Hegel

3:50 - 4:40 Stefan Bird-Pollan (University of Kentucky): Kant’s Concept of a Final End as the Final

Step toward a Non-Reductive Naturalism

4:50 - 5:40 James Callahan (Emory University): From Matter to Caterpillar: Vitalism as a Solution

for Kant and a Problem for Schelling

5:50 - 6:40 Thomas Khurana (University of Essex): Living by Recognition. Hegel on the Second

Personal Character of the Human Life Form

Friday 15th; Morning

9:15 - 10:30 Italo Testa (University of Parma): Habitual Action and the Natural Conditions of

Agency

11.00 - 12:15 Shaun Gallagher (University of Memphis): Naturalizing Recognition: Fichte, Hegel

and Enactivist Interventions in Critical Theory

12:25 - 1:15 Gerad Gentry (University of South Carolina and Yale University): Two Critiques of

German Idealism: Reframing the Point of Transition from Kant to Idealism

Lunch Break

1:15 - 2:45

Afternoon

2:45 - 4:00 Antón Barba-Kay (Catholic University of America, Washington D.C.): The Recurrence

of Alienation in the Nature of Idealism

4:20 - 5.10 Gene Flenaday (University of Warwick): Normativity in Nature: Hegel’s Argument

against the Indifference of Causal and Normative Explanation.

5.20 - 6.10 Richard Eldridge (Swarthmore College): Becoming Who One is: Self-Consciousness,

Stance, and Literary Art in Hegel, Lukacs and Adorno

Saturday 15th; Morning

9:15 - 10:30 Karen Ng (Vanderbilt University): Life as Ground: Hegel’s Critique of Judgment

10:45 - 12:00 Guido Seddone (Georgetown University and University of Parma): The Truth of Life:

Hegel on Mind-Life Continuity

12:10 - 1:00 Andrew Werner (Yale University): The Organic and the Logical

1:00 Closure of the Conference

- This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020  research and innovation

programme under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement No 704127 -