It seems quite natural that our our cognitive states are caused by objects and people around us. But how are they caused? What kind of causality is at stake? And how is this type of causality related to other types? Early modern philosophers gave different answers to these questions, rejecting traditional Aristotelian answers and creating new ones. The conference examines their answers and pays particular attention to the way they integrated their accounts of causation and cognition into all-embracing metaphysical models. It focuses on a large number of authors, ranging from Suárez to Reid, and looks both at classical thinkers (e.g. Descartes, Leibniz, Hume) and at neglected philosophers (e.g. Cavendish, Sergeant). It analyzes their background theories about the relationship between mind, matter and God, thus building a bridge from philosophy to early modern science and theology.
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Conference Review: “Causation and Cognition in Early Modern Philosophy”
31.5.2018 | |
09:15 - 09:45 | Causation and Cognition - A Philosophical Puzzle (Introduction) Sebastian Bender Dominik Perler |
09:45 - 11:00 | Suárez on Cognition and Occasional Causation Dominik Perler |
11:00 - 11:15 | Break |
11:15 - 12:30 | Berkeley on Causation, Cognition, and Volition Sebastian Bender |
12:30 - 14:00 | Lunch |
14:00 - 15:15 | Causation and Cognition: La Forge and Cordemoy Tad Schmaltz |
15:15 - 15:30 | Break |
15:30 - 16:45 | Consciousness, Unconsciousness and Final Causality: Cudworth contra Descartes Sarah Hutton |
16:45 - 17:00 | Break |
17:00 - 18:15 | Malebranche on Human and Divine Cognition Stephan Schmid |
19:30 - 21:00 | Dinner |
1.6.2018 | |
09:15 - 10:30 | “For motion produceth nothing but motion” – The Mechanical Mind in Hobbes and Spinoza Daniel Garber Martine Pécharman |
10:30 - 10:45 | Break |
10:45 - 12:00 | The Many Faces of Spinoza's Causal Axiom Martin Lin |
12:00 - 13:30 | Lunch |
13:30 - 14:45 | Embodied Cognition without Causal Interaction in Leibniz Julia Jorati |
14:45 - 15:00 | Break |
15:00 - 16:15 | Locke on Causation and Cognition Jennifer Marusic |
16:15 - 16:30 | Break |
16:30 - 17:45 | John Sergeant on the Formal Cause of Cognition Han Thomas Adriaenssen |
19:30 - 21:00 | Dinner |
2.6.2018 | |
09:15 - 10:30 | Reason, as a Kind of Cause Peter Kail |
10:30 - 10:45 | Break |
10:45 - 12:00 | Reid on Causation and Intentionality James Van Cleve |
12:00 - 14:00 | Lunch |