Programme Bran 2014
Bucharest-Princeton Seminar in Early Modern
Philosophy
Bran, 8–13 July 2014
De rerum natura: Naturalism, Supernaturalism,
Unnaturalism
Programme
Tuesday, 8 July
9.30 Departure
to Bran from Hotel Flowers, Plantelor str. 2, Bucharest (lunch on the way in Brașov)
17.00 Arrival
in Bran (Vila Andra)
19.00 Dinner
Wednesday, 9 July
10.00-10.40
Enrico Pasini (Turin): The development of physics/philosophy of nature between
Copernicus and Galilei
10.40-10.55
Coffee break
10.55-13.00 Reading group (I): Naturalism: Cardano, Telesio and
Bacon
Convenors: Daniel Garber, Mihnea Dobre, Doina-Cristina Rusu
Texts:
Cardano, De subtilitate II (fragments); Telesio, On the Nature of Things (Chaps. 8-16); Bacon, Sylva
Sylvarum, experiments 800-830 (SEH II 602-609), 30-32 (SEH II 351-353); Bacon, Novum
organum II (OFB XI 221-253).
13.00-15.00
Lunch break
Section 1
16.00-16.35
Doina-Cristina Rusu (Bucharest): Naturalizing the unnatural in Francis Bacon’s Sylva
Sylvarum: the power of imagination to create forms
16.35-16.50
Coffee Break
16.50-17.25
Oana Matei (Bucharest/Arad): The use of
experiment with plants in Francis Bacon’s Syla Sylvarum V
17.25-18.00
Claudia Dumitru (Bucharest): Sounds and Spirits in Francis Bacon’s Sylva
Sylvarum
Section 2
16.00-16.40 Aaron
Spink (South Florida): Descartes: knowing passions and clueless minds
16.40-17.00
Coffee Break
17.00-17.40 Daniel
Colette (South Florida): Passions embodied: Descartes’ ethics in the Letters to
Elisabeth revisited
19.30 Dinner
Thursday, 10 July
9.15-9.50 Tamàs
Pavlovits (Szeged) : La perception de l’infini et la nature de l’esprit
chez Descartes
9.50-10.40 Igor
Agostini (Lecce): Descartes and More on the infinity of the world
10.40-10.55
Coffee break
10.55-13.00 Reading group (II): Descartes and
supernaturalism
Convenors: Vlad Alexandrescu, Grigore Vida, Daniel
Garber
Texts: Descartes to X, September
1629 (AT I 21); to X, early 1638? (Clerselier II 159); to Morin, 12 September
1638 (AT II 365); to Mersenne, 19 June 1639 (AT II 557-558); to Elisabeth,
November 1646 (AT IV 531-532); to Mersenne, 25 January 1647 (AT IV 593-594); to
Silhon, March or April 1648 (AT V 136-137); Descartes, Cogitationes privatæ (AT X 218); Le Monde (AT XI 443); Principes
de la philosophie, art. 187 (AT IX-2 308-309); Annotationes in sua
Principia philosophiæ (AT XI 654)
13.00-15.00
Lunch break
Section 1
16.00-16.40
Sarah Ellenzweig (Rice, English): Richard Bentley’s Boyle Lectures and the
Epicurean void
16.40-17.00
Coffee Break
17.00-17.40
Veronika Szànto (Budapest): Margaret’s Cavendish’s hierachical vitalism
Section 2
16.00-16.35 Ed Slowik (Winona State): The ‘situation’ of the unextended
in Leibniz’s immaterialist metaphysics
16.35-16.50 Coffee Break
16.50-17.25 Andrea Strazzoni (Rotterdam): The concept of nature in early
modern Dutch philosophy
17.25-18.00 Rodolfo Garau (UniTo/MPIWG Berlin): Gassendi’s experimental
naturalization of astrology
19.00 Dinner
Friday, 11 July
9.15-9.50
Olivier Dubouclez (Liège): Fascination as a case of action at a distance in
Early Modern science
9.50-10.40 Jennifer Rampling (Princeton): Alchemy, theory of matter and natural magic
10.40-10.55
Coffee break
10.55-13.00 Reading group (III): Heaven on Earth: Celestial
Virtues in Early Modern Astrology and Alchemy
Convenors: Jennifer Rampling (Princeton), Steven Vanden
Broecke (Ghent)
Texts: Basic readings: Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, Ia.q105.a3-4; Cornelius
Agrippa, On Occult Philosophy, book I
(chapter 12-16; chapters 1-11 highly recommended); Pierre Bayle, Various Thoughts on the Occasion of a Comet,
selected passages; John of Rupescissa, De
consideratione quintae essentiae, selected passages; ps.-Ramòn Lull, Novum Testamentum, selected passages;
Additional readings: Cornelius Agrippa,
On Occult Philosophy, book III
(chapters 3-9); Joshua Childrey, Indago
Astrologica, selected passages; John Goad, Astro-Meteorologica, selected passages.
13.00-15.00
Lunch break
Section 1
16.00-16.35: Alison Peterman
(Rochester): Spinoza on the common notions
16.35-16.50 Coffee break
16.50-17.25 Michael A. Rosenthal (Washington): Spinoza on beings of
reason
17.25-18.00 Raphael Krut-Landau (Princeton/ENS): Spinoza’s naturalism
about the emotions
Section 2
16.00-16.40 Charles T. Wolfe (Ghent): Medical Epicureanism and
Philosophical Epicureanism: La Mettrie and Diderot
16.40-17.00 Coffee break
17.00 -17.40 Tinca Prunea-Bretonnet (NEC Bucharest): Baumgarten’s
conception of the transcendental and its role in Kantian philosophy
19.00 Dinner
Saturday, 12 July
9.15-9.50 Steven
Vanden Broecke (Ghent) : L’analyse de Michel de Certeau du croire et les avantages possibles pour
l’étude historique des rapports entre la science et la religion
9.50-10.40
Roger Ariew (South Florida) : Leibniz and the Petrifying Virtue of the
Place
10.40-10.55
Coffee break
10.55-13.00 Reading group (IV): Naturalism in Spinoza and Leibniz
Convenors: Daniel Garber, Roger Ariew, Yitzhak Melamed,
Michael Rosenthal
Texts: Spinoza, Ethics, part I,
particularly props. 15&S, 16, 17, 18, 28-33, appendix; part III, pref.;
part IV, pref. (note also the version of E1p18 from the Opera Posthuma in a separate file); Spinoza, Short Treatise (KV) I.4; Spinoza, TTP chapt 6, note; Leibniz,
“Two Sects of Naturalists”; Leibniz, “On Nature Itself”
13.00-15.00
Lunch
16.00-16.40
Peter Anstey (Sydney): Early modern experimental philosophy and the principles
of religion
16.40-17.00 Coffee break
17.00-17.40 Justin E. Smith (Paris) : The Unity of human species in
Aristotle, Leibniz and Kant
18.00 Dinner
Sunday, 13 July
9.30 Departure
to Bucharest
This Seminar is supported by two research grants of
the Romanian National Authority for Scientific Research,
CNCS-UEFISCDI, project number PN-II-ID-PCE-2011-3-0998: Models of Producing and Disseminating
Knowledge in Early Modern Europe: the Cartesian Framework and project
number PN-II-ID-PCE-2011-3-0719: From
Natural History to Science: the emergence of experimental philosophy.
