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Marin Mersenne And Pierre Gassendi As Descartes’ Questioners, Alejandra Velázquez Zaragoza, Leonel Toledo Marín

Western Ontario Early Modern Philosophy (WOEMP) Online Events

In the following pages, we will explore the proximity of Marin Mersenne and Pierre Gassendi’s arguments against Descartes’ "Meditations." We will study how, in some of their objections, both Mersenne and Gassendi adopted a nominalist and an empiricist view regarding central topics in Cartesian epistemology, such as the idea of God, and the origin and classification of ideas in the mind. We propose that the assessment of the confrontation between the two objectors and Descartes may provide us a better picture of the complex intellectual debates that took place at the very beginnings of modern philosophy.

Dreams And Ideas: Baxter On Berkeley, Melissa Frankel

Western Ontario Early Modern Philosophy (WOEMP) Online Events

In this paper I look at a particular narrative, famously articulated by Reid, that holds that Descartes’s ‘Way of Ideas’ leads inevitably to Berkeley’s immaterialism. In the service of examining this narrative more closely, I consider Andrew Baxter’s early 18^th century criticisms of Berkeley, and especially Baxter’s view that immaterialism begins with a dream hypothesis and is therefore self-undermining. I suggest that a careful consideration of Baxter’s criticism(s) is illuminating in a number of ways: in so far as it anticipates future criticisms of and engagements with Berkeleyan immaterialism, in so far as it helps to reveal the actual …

Lunch Break!, Bon Appetit

Western Ontario Early Modern Philosophy (WOEMP) Online Events

No abstract provided.

Are Animal Machines? Gómez Pereira And Descartes On Animal Minds, Enrique Chávez-Arvizo

Western Ontario Early Modern Philosophy (WOEMP) Online Events

Forty two years before Descartes’ birth, in his Antoniana Margarita (Medina del Campo, 1554), Spanish physician and philosopher Gómez Pereira explicitly argues the following assertions:

(1) Animals lack reason

(2) Animals lack understanding

(3) Animals do not think

(4) Animals cannot feel (Bruta non sentire)

(5) Animals cannot see as we do

(6) Animals are machines

(7) Animals have no rational soul

(8) Animals have no indivisible soul

(9) Animals have no language

The above claims on animal automatism are commonly thought to have originated with Descartes. In this paper I will expound Gómez Pereira’s arguments, contra the School and …

Kant, Cicero, And The Stoic Doctrine Of The Highest Good, Corey Dyck

Western Ontario Early Modern Philosophy (WOEMP) Online Events

In this presentation I consider the context for Kant's discussion of the highest good in the Dialectic of the second Critique. I begin by showing how his original account of the highest good in the Canon of the first Critique addresses deficiencies in ancient accounts, particularly in the Stoic identification of virtue and happiness. I then consider the defense of the Stoic conception in Christian Garve's influential translation and commentary on Cicero's De officiis in 1783. It is, I contend, this account, which engages with Kant's discussion in the Canon at a number of junctures, that spurs Kant's decision …

Introduction, Benjamin Hill, Alberto Luis López

Western Ontario Early Modern Philosophy (WOEMP) Online Events

No abstract provided.

On The Ancient Roots Of Berkeley Immaterialist Idealism, Alberto Luis López

Western Ontario Early Modern Philosophy (WOEMP) Online Events

No abstract provided.

It's Alive: Margaret Cavendish On Matter, Order, And God, Marleen Rozemond

Western Ontario Early Modern Philosophy (WOEMP) Online Events

Margaret Cavendish is widely regarded as a vitalist: she considers all matter as alive, including an endowment with mental capacities, and rejects dualism. She rejects two important motives for dualism in the period. She agrees with her Cambridge Platonist contemporaries, More and Cudworth (and many others) that the order in nature ultimately comes from God’s plans. But she rejects their view that matter can’t execute God’s commands and that their execution requires immaterial entities. For Cavendish matter is shot through with rationality and the power to implement plans. This conception of matter comes with an utter rejection of the other …

Descartes And Our Philosophies, Juan Carlos Moreno Romo

Western Ontario Early Modern Philosophy (WOEMP) Online Events

We propose to show that, although we think of Descartes as a "modern Parmenides" or as the "father of Modernity", otherwise for excellent reasons, this condition is at least as ambiguous as different are the cultures or societies that arose from the breakdown of Christianity. Where the Protestant Reformation triumphed, the dominant conception of philosophy is manifestly anticartesian, although they recognize, curiously, a debt to Cartesian philosophy; for example, we recognize this due in Wittgenstein and Heidegger. Neither empiricist nor rationalist, neither analytical nor continental, nor national or identitarian either, more than a "French", "European" or "Western" philosopher, Descartes would …

Leibniz’S Analysis Of Change: Vague States, Physical Continuity, And The Calculus, Richard Arthur

Western Ontario Early Modern Philosophy (WOEMP) Online Events

One of the most puzzling features of Leibniz’s deep metaphysics is the apparent contradiction between his claims (1) that the law of continuity holds everywhere, so that in particular, change is continuous in every monad, and (2) that “changes are not really continuous,” since successive states contradict one another. In this paper I try to show in what sense these claims can be understood as compatible. My analysis depends crucially on Leibniz’s idea that enduring states are “vague,” and abstract away from further changes occurring within them at a higher resolution—consistently with his famous doctrine of "petites perceptions." As Leibniz …

Spinoza On Language, Luis Ramos-Alarcón

Western Ontario Early Modern Philosophy (WOEMP) Online Events

Some scholars have understood that Spinoza’s extreme rationalism, nominalism, conventionalism, and rejection of a semantic theory of truth make his philosophy incapable to use language for philosophical and scientific purposes; insofar he considered language a source of inadequate knowledge, falsity, and error. Thus Spinoza finds contradiction in his inevitable use of language to express his philosophy. This paper has four aims: first, propose an explanation on why language is inadequate knowledge for Spinoza; second, present differences between inadequacy, falsity, and error in language; third, argue on the Spinozian use of the geometrical method as a solution for the adequate use …

Introduction, Benjamin Hill, Alberto Luis López

Western Ontario Early Modern Philosophy (WOEMP) Online Events

No abstract provided.

Poetry For Seers Or The Peruvian Visual Poetic Tradition In Front Of New Media, Michael Hurtado, Pamela Medina, Enrique García, Michael Prado

Electronic Literature Organization Conference 2020

Since the first decades of the twentieth century, Peruvian poetic tradition has been characterized by experimental uses of language. Among these possibilities, some records tensioned this medium from the link with the plastic arts, as in the case of the poetry of José María Eguren, while others opted for the playing with the spatiality and visuality of the blank sheet, such as in the case of the work of Carlos Oquendo de Amat. However, it is not until the appearance of the poetry of César Vallejo, specifically with a poems like Trilce in 1922, that these breakages force us to …

Berkeley On Infinite Divisibility, David Mwakima

Western Ontario Early Modern Philosophy (WOEMP) Online Events

Berkeley, arguing against Barrow, claims that the infinite divisibility of finite lines is neither an axiom nor a theorem in Euclid The Thirteen Books of The Elements. Instead, he suggests that it is rooted in ancient prejudice. In this paper, I attempt to substantiate Berkeley’s claims by looking carefully at the history and practice of ancient geometry as a first step towards understanding Berkeley’s mathematical atomism.

Berkeley On Perceptual Discrimination Of Physical Objects, Keota Fields

Western Ontario Early Modern Philosophy (WOEMP) Online Events

Commentators are divided over whether Berkeley holds that physical objects are immediately perceived by sense. As I read Berkeley, discrimination is necessary for perceiving physical objects by sense. Berkeley says that discrimination requires perceiving motion. Since motions can only be mediately perceived according to Berkeley, physical objects can only be mediately perceived by sense. I defend this reading against the following objections. First, that perception of physical objects is non-conceptual. Second, that physical objects are divinely instituted collections of ideas rather than psychologically associated collections of ideas. Third, that some physical objects are small enough to be immediately perceptually discriminated …

A Commentary On Tracy Bowell’S “Whataboutisms, Arguments And Argumentative Harm”, Mark Battersby

OSSA Conference Archive

A commentary on Tracy Bowell's Whataboutisms, Arguments and Argumentative Harm summarizing her arguments and suggesting that the use of "argumentative harm" is not a helpful way to identify fallacious uses of "whatabout" questions.

Browne’S Critique Of Religious Propositions In Berkeley: A Reply To Pearce, Benjamin Formanek

Western Ontario Early Modern Philosophy (WOEMP) Online Events

No abstract provided.

Whataboutisms, Arguments And Argumentative Harm, Tracy A. Bowell

OSSA Conference Archive

Whataboutisms have received scant attention in argumentation theory, yet they are common persuasive moves in debates about social and political issues and can occur in the form of arguments. This paper analyses these arguments, showing that while whataboutisms tend to make for bad arguments, there can be instances of good argument employing a whataboutist move. The final section of the paper considers arguments employing whataboutsims as instances of argumentative harm.

Recovery And Reconstruction Of Principles Of Academic Debate As Dialectical Model: An Outline Of A Procedural Model Of Argumentative Rationality, Curtis Scott Jacobs

OSSA Conference Archive

Academic debate theory has developed over 125 years. According to debate theory, reasonable argumentation satisfies six obligations: (1) self-administration; (2) making prima facie/presumptively adequate moves; (3) clash; (4) meeting the burden of proof; (5) rejoinder/rebuttal; and (6) extension. These obligations define a kind of procedural rationality of argumentation distinct from the kinds of rationality elaborated by logical and rhetorical theories. Those obligations are grounded in the pragmatics of conversation and visible in debate practice.

Informal Discussion, Todd Derose

Western Ontario Early Modern Philosophy (WOEMP) Online Events

What types of problems--whether methodological, pedagogical, or philosophical--are unique to Berkeley scholarship?

Commentary On Marcin Lewińksi’S “Metalinguistic Disagreements, Underdetermination And The Straw Man Fallacy: Toward Meaning Argumentativism”, John P. Casey

OSSA Conference Archive

No abstract provided.

Commentary On: Christina Pontoppidan’S “Where Do You Place Your Argument? The Toulmin Model Revisited And Revised From A Rhetorical Perspective”, Manfred E. Kraus

OSSA Conference Archive

No abstract provided.

Commentary On Petar Bodlović: "Presumptions, Burdens Of Proof, And Explanations", David Godden

OSSA Conference Archive

No abstract provided.

Does Berkeley Anthropomorphize God, Kenneth Pearce

Western Ontario Early Modern Philosophy (WOEMP) Online Events

Berkeley occasionally says that we use analogy in thinking and speaking of God (Alc, §4.21). However, the scholarly consensus is that Berkeley rejects the traditional doctrine of divine analogy and holds instead that words like ‘wise’ apply to God in precisely the same way as they apply to Socrates. The difference is only a matter of degree (Daniel 2011; Curtin 2014; Pearce 2018; Fasko 2018). Univocal theories of the divine attributes have historically been charged with anthropomorphism—that is, with imagining God to be too similar to human beings (see Maimonides, Guide, ch. 1.1). Can Berkeley fairly be charged with anthropomorphizing …

Where Do You Place Your Argument?, Christina Pontoppidan

OSSA Conference Archive

Toulmin’s logical approach to argumentation affects the purpose and design of his argument model. The author argues that, even though the model has proven useful and influential in the rhetorical tradition, it misses the most central aspects of persuasive argumentation and the rhetorical role of the topics. The author outlines a rhetorical argument model that takes the metaphor of places seriously and shows the process of building a persuasive argument guided by different types of topical places.

Presumptions, Burdens Of Proof, And Explanations, Petar Bodlović

OSSA Conference Archive

On the standard view, there are different types of presumptions but, nevertheless, they all asymmetrically allocate the burden of proof. In this paper, I distinguish two meanings of the “burden of proof” and argue that two types of presumptions, practical and cognitive ones, allocate the burden of proof in different senses. Consequently, the standard accounts of presumptions are either more fragmented than scholars usually admit, or they have lower explanatory potential.

Metalinguistic Disagreements, Underdetermination And The Straw Man Fallacy: Toward Meaning Argumentativism, Marcin Lewinski

OSSA Conference Archive

The goal of this paper is to critically analyze some of the dubious assumptions about language and meaning hidden in the dominant accounts of the straw man fallacy. I will argue that against the background of the resurgent conception of language as an underdetermined and in-principle negotiable entity (Dorr & Hawthorne 2014; Ludlow 2014; Plunkett & Sundell 2013, 2019), some alleged straw man attacks are better seen as reasonable moves in the metalinguistic disagreements permeating our ordinary argumentative practice.

Reply To Commentary On “Between Evidence And Facts: An Argumentative Perspective Of Legal Evidence”, Wenjing Du, Minghui Xiong

OSSA Conference Archive

No abstract provided.

Commentary On Harmony Peach’S “Piggybacking In? A Critical Discourse Analysis Of Argumentation Schemes”, Moira L. Kloster

OSSA Conference Archive

No abstract provided.

Commentary On Macagno And Rapanta, “Coding Empathy”, José Ángel Gascón

OSSA Conference Archive

No abstract provided.