Berkeley On Infinite Divisibility,
2020
University of California, Irvine
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,
2020
Western University
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 …
Browne’S Critique Of Religious Propositions In Berkeley: A Reply To Pearce,
2020
Western University
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.
Informal Discussion,
2020
Western University
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?
Does Berkeley Anthropomorphize God,
2020
Western University
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 …
Day 3 Schedule,
2020
Western
Day 3 Schedule, Benjamin Hill
Western Ontario Early Modern Philosophy (WOEMP) Online Events
No abstract provided.
Thomas Reid And The Priority Thesis: A Defence Against Turri,
2020
Western
Thomas Reid And The Priority Thesis: A Defence Against Turri, Benjamin Formanek, Lewis Powell
Western Ontario Early Modern Philosophy (WOEMP) Online Events
No abstract provided.
What Makes Hume An External World Skeptic?,
2020
Notre Dame
What Makes Hume An External World Skeptic?, Graham Clay, David Landy, Nathan Rockwood
Western Ontario Early Modern Philosophy (WOEMP) Online Events
What would it take for Hume to be an external world skeptic? Is Hume's position on knowledge sufficient to force him to deny that we can acquire knowledge of (non-logical) propositions about the external world? After all, Hume is extremely restrictive about what can be known because he requires knowledge to be immune to error. In this paper, I will argue that if Hume were a skeptic, then he must also deny a particular kind of view about what is immediately present to the mind. I will argue that direct realisms—views that maintain that mind-independent (i.e. ontologically distinct) things are …
Informal Discussion,
2020
Western
Informal Discussion, Benjamin Hill
Western Ontario Early Modern Philosophy (WOEMP) Online Events
“What skills and capacities do you think the next generation of early modern scholars most need to advance the field?
Cancelled - Berkeley's A Priori Argument For God's Exstence,
2020
Texas A&M University, Collage Station
Cancelled - Berkeley's A Priori Argument For God's Exstence, Stephen H. Daniel, Alberto Luis Lopez
Western Ontario Early Modern Philosophy (WOEMP) Online Events
Berkeley’s appeal to a posteriori arguments for God’s existence supports belief only in a God who is finite. But by appealing to an a priori argument for God’s existence, Berkeley emphasizes God’s infinity. In this latter argument, God is not the efficient cause of particular finite things in the world, for such an explanation does not provide a justification or rationale for why the totality of finite things would exist in the first place. Instead, God is understood as the creator of the total unity of all there is, the whole of creation. In this a priori argument, we should …
Informal Discussion,
2020
Western
Informal Discussion, Benjamin Hill
Western Ontario Early Modern Philosophy (WOEMP) Online Events
If an idealist can easily live within her idealism, if idealism really is the philosophy of common sense (as Berkeley claimed), why are introductory and general ed students so resistant to adopt it?
Kant’S Long Shadow On The Interpretation Of Swedenborg,
2020
Jagiellonian University in Kraków
Kant’S Long Shadow On The Interpretation Of Swedenborg, Hasse Hämäläinen, Alin Varciu
Western Ontario Early Modern Philosophy (WOEMP) Online Events
Among the readers of Swedenborg, the Swedish thinker’s ‘theory of correspondences’ is often interpreted as treating empirical realities as only imperfect manifestations of spiritual realities (e.g. Lamm 1915, Benz 1948, Beiser 2002). This interpretation that ascribes (Platonic) idealism to Swedenborg was originally proposed by Kant in the Dreams of a Spirit-Seer (1766). Although Kant criticizes Swedenborg’s theory, he considers it no inferior to the theories of Leibniz and Wolf, which can entice a reader of Swedenborg to take Kant’s interpretation at face value: even if Kant did not agree with Swedenborg, at least he took him to be on par …
Cavendish And Berkeley On Inconceivability And Impossibility,
2020
Trinity College Dublin
Cavendish And Berkeley On Inconceivability And Impossibility, Peter West, Colin Chamberlain
Western Ontario Early Modern Philosophy (WOEMP) Online Events
In this paper, I compare Margaret Cavendish’s argument for the view that colours of objects are inseparable from their ‘physical’ qualities (such as size and shape) with George Berkeley’s argument for the view that secondary qualities of objects (such as colours, tastes, and sounds) are inseparable from their primary qualities (such as size and shape). By reconstructing their respective arguments, I show that both thinkers rely on the ‘inconceivability principle’: the claim that inconceivability entails impossibility. That is, both premise their arguments on the claim that it is impossible to conceive of an object that has size and shape but …
Day 2 Schedule,
2020
Western
Day 2 Schedule, Benjamin Hill
Western Ontario Early Modern Philosophy (WOEMP) Online Events
No abstract provided.
The Middle Standpoint In Spinoza’S Ethics,
2020
University of Pennsylvania
The Middle Standpoint In Spinoza’S Ethics, Raphael Krut-Landau, Kristin Primus
Western Ontario Early Modern Philosophy (WOEMP) Online Events
No abstract provided.
Spinoza’S Formal Essence,
2020
University of Toledo
Spinoza’S Formal Essence, Christopher Martin
Western Ontario Early Modern Philosophy (WOEMP) Online Events
Spinoza stipulates in E2def2, his definition of the essence of a thing, that the essence of each particular can neither exist nor, even, be conceived, except alongside its particular. Yet a mere eight propositions later states that God maintains an idea of the essence of nonactual particulars “in the same way as the formal essences of the singular things are contained in God’s attributes” (E2p8). While there are known interpretive controversies with each of these claims, I argue that according to E2def2, essences of particulars can only be and can only be conceived alongside the actual existence of their particular, …
Informal Discussion,
2020
Western
Informal Discussion, Benjamin Hill
Western Ontario Early Modern Philosophy (WOEMP) Online Events
“Do your students struggle with Spinoza’s geometric exposition, and if so, how do you get them past it?”
Malebranche’S Alleged Idealism,
2020
Western
Malebranche’S Alleged Idealism, Fabio Malfara, Dylan Flint
Western Ontario Early Modern Philosophy (WOEMP) Online Events
Over the span of eleven years (1683-1694), Nicolas Malebranche and Antoine Arnauld, two prominent sympathizers of the Cartesian tradition, engaged in a rigorous debate. In his initial set of criticisms, Arnauld objects that a natural consequence of Malebranche’s theory of ideas is idealism.1 This charge of idealism has puzzled scholars: why did Arnauld believe this? Han Adriaenssen2 has convincingly argued that Arnauld’s charge of idealism is founded on the representationality of Malebranchean ideas. According to Arnauld, ideas represent for Malebranche in much the same way that portraits do—by inciting a perceiver to form a conception of whatever they pertain to. …
Informal Discussion,
2020
Western
Informal Discussion, Benjamin Hill
Western Ontario Early Modern Philosophy (WOEMP) Online Events
“Why is it important that philosophers study the history of philosophy and why should we continue to teach it? Alt formulation: Why should programs continue to have history of philosophy courses as degree requirements?”
Descartes And The Monstrous Thesis,
2020
Ohio State
Descartes And The Monstrous Thesis, Evan Thomas, Zachary Agoff
Western Ontario Early Modern Philosophy (WOEMP) Online Events
No abstract provided.
