MON1SM

Schedule

Thursday July 8, 2021

9am EDT/2pm BST/3pm CET: Sarah Broadie (St. Andrews), Introduction and Welcome

9:10am EDT/ 2:10pm BST/ 3:10pm CET: Barbara Sattler (Bochum): "The birth of Western philosophy as the birth of monism"

10:25 EDT/ 3:25 BST/ 4:25 CET: Break

10:35 EDT/ 3:35 BST/ 4:35 CET: Michael Della Rocca (Yale): "Becoming One: Theology and Philosophy, Will and Intellect, Finite and Infinite in Spinoza"

11:50 EDT/ 4:50 BST/ 5:40 CET: Break

12:00 EDT/ 5:00 BST/ 6:00 CET: Graham Priest (CUNY Graduate Center): "Transcending the Ultimate Duality"

***

Friday July 9, 2021

9:00am EDT/ 2:00pm BST/ 3:00pm CET: Jonardon Ganeri (Toronto) "The Cosmos and I: Grounding Monism in Heteronymy"

10:15 EDT/ 3:15 BST/ 4:15 CET: Break

10:25 EDT/ 3:25 BST/ 4:25 CET: Maria Rosa Antognazza (King's College, London): "Being One and Purely Positive: Plurality, Negation, and Leibniz’s Opposition to Monism"

11:40 EDT/ 4:40 BST/ 5:40 CET: Break

11:50 EDT/ 4:50 BST/ 5:50 CET: Elizabeth Miller (Brown): "Separability"

Abstracts

Maria Rosa Antognazza: Being One and Purely Positive: Plurality, Negation, and Leibniz’s Opposition to Monism

This paper revisits Leibniz’s opposition to monism through the lens of a virtually unknown text of c. 1698 on the metaphysical foundations of the infinite (De Scientia Infiniti, pars II; Ms.: Leibniz-Handschriften zur Mathematik LH 35, 7, 10 Bl. 1–8). In particular, it will discuss why Leibniz thinks that “The world is not one thing, and thus not an infinite substance; GOD is neither the world nor the soul of the world”. It will argue that Leibniz’s rejection of monism is due to his conception of the “real infinite” and of what it is to be “an absolutely absolute Being”.

Jonardon Ganeri: The Cosmos and I: Grounding Monism in Heteronymy

Priority monism has run aground on the infamous subject decomposition problem: how can individual subjects be parts of a single whole, the cosmos? I will propose a solution that draws upon the concept of the heteronym, introduced into philosophy by Fernando Pessoa. Heteronymy sustains a non-mereological relationship between subjects, and can therefore offer materials for a defensible monism. I will relate Pessoa’s idea with the monism of the Indian tradition of Advaita Vedānta.

Elizabeth Miller: Separability

Jonathan Schaffer’s priority monism is one response to a puzzle about holism. I propose an alternative, pluralistic response to the puzzle and explore its consequences for our understanding of the relationship between metaphysical independence and spatiotemporal separation. Along the way, I draw connections to two topics in the philosophy of physics: Albert Einstein’s interest in the independence of spatially separated objects, and John Bell’s concern with local beables in interpretations of quantum mechanics.

Graham Priest: Transcending the Ultimate Duality

In many philosophical traditions it is held that reality is non-dual (simple). Of course, to be non-dual, as opposed to dual, is itself to partake of a certain duality. We might call the duality between the dual and the non-dual the ultimate duality. If reality really is non-dual, it must transcend this ultimate duality too. But what could this mean, and what could reality be like if this is so? In this talk I will explore the matter. To keep the discussion focussed, I will locate it in one specific tradition: the Mahāyāna Buddhist tradition. The idea that ultimate reality is non-dual goes back to the earliest Mahāyāna sūtras at the turn of the common era. Thereafter, the the question of what it means to transcend duality plays a central role in Buddhist philosophy. The point that reality must transcend even the ultimate duality plays an important role in the Chinese Sanlun philosopher Jizang (吉藏, 549-623). His discussion points the way to an answer to our problem which may be articulated with the techniques of contemporary non-classical logic.

Michael Della Rocca: Becoming One: Theology and Philosophy, Will and Intellect, Finite and Infinite in Spinoza

This paper aims to shed light on Spinoza’s metaphysics and philosophy of mind by closely examining a central feature of Spinoza’s political philosophy: the relation between philosophy itself and theology, two domains which may seem radically distinct but are, for Spinoza ultimately somehow united. The difficult task lies in explaining what “ultimately” means here, in articulating the “how” in this “somehow,” and in spelling out the distinction-undermining nature of this union between theology and philosophy. The paper then employs this kind of union in order to develop a robust account of the union between will and intellect and between finite and infinite in Spinoza. The paper will close will some implications of these kinds of unions in Spinoza for his view on the eternity of the mind.

Barbara Sattler: The birth of Western philosophy as the birth of monism

When we look at the beginnings of philosophy in the West with the Presocratics, Parmenides’ strict monism is usually seen as an outlier (and has tempted recent secondary literature into making his monism as “weak” as possible). In this paper I want to argue that, by contrast, monistic positions (of different kinds) are in fact what we find with almost all the early Greek thinkers – Parmenides’ philosophy can be seen as a high point of such monistic tendencies, while truly pluralistic positions emerge only after Parmenides. I will look at different forms of substance monism, structural monism, theological monism and logical monism that we find in these early thinkers, and investigate in how far these varieties of monism arise from general concerns concerning systematicity and the strength of explanation.

Contact

For further information contact:

Michael Della Rocca (michael.della@yale.edu)

Sarah Broadie (sjb15@st-andrews.ac.uk)

Barbara Sattler (barbara.sattler@rub.de)

Zoom Meeting Details (or just follow the link at the first page):

https://ruhr-uni-bochum.zoom.us/j/61541981406?pwd=TnVXZHJCdVhFUHYycW1rSkZudUo3Zz09

Meeting-ID: 615 4198 1406 Passwort: 851236

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Elements

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