Too Funky: Sympathy and Emanation

The Institute for Philosophy at Leiden University, with support from Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research, is proud to announce the conference "Too Funky: Sympathy and Emanation" on April 10-11, 2009 (the Easter special) at Leiden, the Netherlands.

The conference is the second one to explore 'funky' notions of causation in historical perspective. 'Funky' causes are defined negatively as those notions of causation that are neither final nor (Humean) efficient causation. In this conference we focus primarily on emanation and sympathy, but a few sympathetic cousins of these notions will also be discussed.

All are welcome. But please rsvp with Eric Schliesser (nescio2@yahoo.com) before March 31, 2009.

The conference will be held at 'De Grote Beer', Rembrandtstraat 27, Leiden.

Programme

Friday, April 10

10:00-11:15
Eyjólfur Kjalar Emilsson (Oslo)
"Plotinus on Emanation, Activity and Causation"
 
Coffee and tea

11:30-12:45
Frans de Haas (Leiden)
"Magnetism, Sympathy and the Soul in late Antiquity"

Lunch

13:30-14:45
Heleana Theixos (Dublin)
"Sympathy for the Torturer who Suffers More than the Tortured: A Look at the Socratic Notion Accompanied by Modern Psychological Research"

15:00-16:30
Martin Stone (Leuven)
"From Synderesis to Moral Sentiment:  The Changing Role of Conscience in the Renaissance and its Implications for Early Modern Philosophy" 


Saturday, April 11

10:00-11:15
Martine Pecherman (Paris)
"The Naturalism of Henry More and Ralph Cudworth, or The Demand for a 'Plastic' Causality"

Coffee and tea

11:30-12:45
Christia Mercer (Columbia University)
“Sympathy as a Core Ingredient in Early Modern  Philosophy: Leibniz and Conway”

Lunch

13:15-14:30
Alexis Smets (Nijmegen)
"Alternative Schemes of Causality: Early Chemistry and the Language of Signatures"

Coffee and tea

14:45-16:00
Dale Jacquette (Bern)
"Newton 's Non-Causal Concept of Emanent Effect"

Coffee and tea

16:30-18:45
Paul Ziche (Utrecht)
"Causal Chains and Geometrical Unification - Schelling on Explanation and Construction."  


On Thursday, April 9, 16:00 Christia Mercer will also give a Zeno lecture "Leibniz and Spinoza on Epistemological Optimism" in Leiden.