South Central Seminar in the History of Early Modern Philosophy

Thomas Hobbes Baruch Spinoza Rene Descartes G. W. Leibniz George Berkeley Nicolas Malebranche John Locke David Hume

Texas A&M Conference in Early Modern Philosophy/
South Central Seminar in the History of Early Modern Philosophy

Texas A&M University
College Station, TX
October 23-25, 2008

To commemorate its tenth annual meeting, the South Central Seminar in the History of Early Modern Philosophy is returning to the place of its origin, Texas A&M University, on October 23-25, 2008. Like similar seminars in other parts of the country, the South Central Seminar is an informal group designed to foster interaction among scholars working on topics in the history of early modern people.

Schedule of Events

Thursday, October 23

5:00 Martha Brandt Bolton: “The Psychological Ground of Substantial Unity in Leibniz’s Metaphysics”

Martha Brandt Bolton, professor of philosophy at Rutgers University, works on 17^th/18th-century philosophy and early modern women thinkers. Her numerous essays address issues in Hobbes, Spinoza, Locke, Leibniz, Arnauld, Berkeley, and Catharine Trotter. She is currently the president of the Leibniz Society of North America.

Friday, October 24

9:00 Paul Hoffman: “Descartes and Aquinas on ‘Per Se’ Subsistence and the Union of Soul and Body”

Paul Hoffman, professor of philosophy at the University of California at Riverside, has published influential essays on how the treatments of the passions and freedom of the will by Descartes, Locke, Leibniz, and Reid compare to those of earlier thinkers (e.g., Plato, Aquinas).

10:30 John Carriero: “Sensation and Knowledge of the Existence of Body in Descartes’s Meditations”

John Carriero, professor of philosophy at the University of California in Los Angeles. He has lectured throughout the U.S. and Europe. He is the author of significant essays on Descartes, Spinoza, Leibniz, Newton, and Berkeley, and is co-editor of A Companion to Descartes.

2:00 Michael LeBuffe: “Spinozistic Perfectionism”

Michael LeBuffe teaches philosophy at Texas A&M University. His work centers on 17th and 18th century treatments of how moral motivation is related to different thinkers’ metaphysics of mind. His publications include important essays on Spinoza and Hobbes and From Bondage to Freedom: Spinoza on Human Excellence.

3:30 Don Rutherford: “Hobbes and Epicureanism”

Don Rutherford, professor of philosophy at the University of California in San Diego. Author of Leibniz and the Rational Order of Nature and numerous essays on Descartes, Hobbes, Malebranche, Spinoza, and Leibniz, he is the editor of The Cambridge Companion to Early Modern Philosophy and co-editor of works on and by Leibniz.

5:00 Susan James: “Spinoza on Narrative and Reasoning”

Susan James, professor of philosophy at Birkbeck College, University of London, has written two books (including Passion and Action: The Emotions in Early Modern Philosophy) and essays on Descartes, Spinoza, Hume, Habermas, and Rorty. She has edited Margaret Cavendish’s political writings and co-edited two volumes on feminist legal theory.

7:30 Conference dinner, home of Steve and Breaux Daniel

All registered presenters, attendees, sponsors, and their partners welcome. Just let Steve know about your plans to come.

Saturday, October 25

9:00 Steven Nadler: “Malebranche’s Shadow: Divine Providence in the Leibniz-Arnauld Correspondence”

Steven Nadler, William H. Hay II Professor of Philosophy and Max and Frieda Weinstein-Bascom Professor of Jewish Studies at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, has written six books on Spinoza, Malebranche, and Cartesianism and more than 70 articles on 17th-century philosophy and early modern Jewish thought.

10:30 Stephen Daniel: “The Linguistic Character of Mind in Berkeley”

Stephen H. Daniel, professor of philosophy and Fasken Chair in Distinguished Teaching at Texas A&M University, has written four books and more than 50 articles, and edited three volumes on modern philosophy and contemporary continental thought. He is president of the International Berkeley Society and editor of Berkeley Studies.

2:00 Alan Nelson: “The Early Modern Sense/Intellect Distinction: A Defense against Kant”

Alan Nelson, professor of philosophy at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, focuses on 17th-century philosophy, the philosophy of science, and the philosophy of economics. He is the editor of A Companion to Rationalism and has written important essays on Descartes, Leibniz, and Proust.

3:30 Edwin McCann: “How Hume Went Looking for the Substance of the Self and Found Spinoza”

Edwin McCann, professor of philosophy at the University of Southern California, has published articles on the philosophy of mind in early modern philosophy, especially regarding treatments of substance, persons, the self, and body by Locke, Descartes, Newton, Leibniz, and Kant.

5:00 Don Garrett: “Hume’s Causal Sense and the Metaphysics of Causation”

Don Garrett, professor of philosophy at New York University. He has written and lectured extensively on Spinoza and Hume, and is the author of Cognition and Commitment in Hume’s Philosophy, and co-editor of The Cambridge Companion to Spinoza, The Encyclopedia of Philosophy (2^nd ed.), and The Encyclopedia of Empiricism.

All sessions will be held on the Texas A&M University campus in the Philosophy Department’s Seminar Room, Bolton 213 (click for campus map). Although there is no registration fee for the seminar, we ask that you register for the seminar and indicate your intention to attend the seminar dinner on Friday night by contacting the conference organizer:

Steve Daniel
Department of Philosophy
Texas A&M University
Phone: 979-845-5619 or 979-846-4649
Email: sdaniel@people.tamu.edu

The only remaining accommodations at the Memorial Student Center on campus (979-845-8909) are for Saturday night. However, rooms are still available at hotels near campus. Those staying at the Memorial Student Center should park in the University Center Parking Garage; others can park in the Central Campus Parking Garage or the Northside Parking Garage.

For more information, go to the conference website at http://people.tamu.edu/%7Esdaniel/seminar08.html.

This conference is listed (along with other events dealing with the study of modern philosophy) on the Early Modern Philosophy Calendar.

Travel: College Station is served by Continental Airlines via Houston and American Airlines via Dallas-Fort Worth. College Station is located 100 miles from Houston, 175 miles from Dallas-Fort Worth, and 100 miles from Austin.

Major funding for this conference is provided by the Department of Philosophy, the College of Liberal Arts, and the Melbern G. Glasscock Center for Humanities Research at Texas A&M University. Additional support comes from the Texas A&M University Political Theory Convocation, the Departments of Communication, English, Sociology, Political Science, and European and Classical Languages and Cultures, and the Religious Studies Program.