Call for Abstracts
Philosophy and Science in the Early Modern Period
Workshop
University of Helsinki
28 July - 2 August 2008
Chair: Enrique Chávez-Arvizo
The City University of New York
During the
THE 11th INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE OF
International Society for the Study of European Ideas
Language and the Scientific Imagination
Philosophy and Science in the Early Modern Period.
This one-day workshop will examine the two-fold theme philosophy and
science in the early modern period-roughly the period from Montaigne
to Kant.
In a well-known metaphor, René Descartes -- often called 'the father of
modern philosophy' -- compares philosophy to a tree: "The roots are
metaphysics, the trunk is physics, and the branches emerging from the
trunk are all the other sciences". Whether this is (standardly)
interpreted as averting that philosophy is the foundation of science
or (revisionistically) that science is the basis of metaphysics, one
thing remains clear enough: Descartes' holistic view of philosophy
sees all knowledge as interconnected. Descartes' project of a general
science or general discipline -- mathesis universalis -- which would yield
the foot-print for a number of different fields of enquiry seems
devised to encompass the whole of metaphysics, physics, and other
sciences such as medicine, mechanics, and morals. The workshop will
contribute to the discussion of the main conference theme, "Language
and the Scientific Imagination" by expounding and critically assessing
precisely this interplay between philosophy and science in a crucial
period in our intellectual history.
Please submit (preferably by e-mail) a brief (one-page, double-spaced)
abstract by April 15th, 2008, including name, affiliation, and e-mail
address to:
Professor Enrique Chávez-Arvizo
Department of Art, Music, and Philosophy
John Jay College of Criminal Justice
The City University of New York
899 Tenth Avenue
New York, NY 10019
USA
Tel. (Direct): +1 (212) 237-8347
Tel. (Philosophy Department): +1 (212) 237-8325
Fax: +1 (212) 237-8333
EChavezArvizo@JJay.CUNY.edu
Conference Website URL: http://issei2008.haifa.ac.il/