Past Events
2024
NASS Junior Scholars Event
A philosophical salon and venue for scholarly feedback. The event facilitates networking between junior and senior scholars, and exchanging projects, ideas, and sources pertaining to research related to Spinoza.
May 6, 2024
2022
“Decolonizing” Spinozist Infinity: Reading Spinoza’s Non-“Western” Influences and Reception
12pm – 2pm U.S. Eastern Time
May 6, 2022
This meeting will take place on Zoom: https://zoom.us/j/94598930370
Chair: Professor Julie Klein
Luce deLire, “Spinoza and Ibn Sina on Substance and Actual Infinity”
Gilah Kletenik, “Spinoza and Maimonides on the Indeterminacy of Infinite Substance”
Sina Mirzaei, “Spinoza’s Pantheism in Twentieth-Century Iran”
Luce is currently finalizing her dissertation titled “No Limits - No Regrets: Spinoza’s Metaphysics of Infinity” with Yitzhak Melamed at Johns Hopkins University.
Gilah is Postdoctoral Associate at the Elie Wiesel Center for Jewish Studies at Boston University. Currently, Kletenik is completing her book manuscript, Sovereignty Disrupted: Spinoza and the Disparity of Reality.
Sina is a PhD Student at Johns Hopkins University. He has previously studied philosophy in Iran and in the Netherlands as a visiting researcher for two years.
Central APA 2022:
Human relations and Necessitarian Metaphysics in Spinoza
Wednesday, 2/23, 8-11pm
Chair: Justin Steinberg (Brooklyn College, CUNY)
Sanem Soyarslan (NC State) - “Two Kinds of Friendship in Spinoza’s Ethics"
Raffaella Colombo (Università degli Studi di Milano) - "'One Like Us': Towards a Spinozian Pedagogy of Indignation"
Brandon Rdzak (Purdue University) - "Spinoza’s Necessitarian Modal Metaphysics and the Threat of Contingency"
2021
Eastern APA 2021:
Spinoza, South and North
Organizers: Jimena Solé and Julie Klein
Jimena Solé (Universidad de Buenos Aires, Argentina) - “Knowledge as Action. Rethinking Spinoza's Philosophical Project”
Sergio Rojas Peralta (Universidad de Costa Rica) - “Affect, Memory and Empathy in Spinoza”
Guillermo Sibilia (Universidad de Buenos Aires, Argentina) - “Into the flesh of the social? Spinoza and the Question of Democracy”
2021 Author Meets Critics:
Sandra Field’s Potentia (OUP, 2020) Cavendish, and Conway
Chair: Moira Gatens (University of Sydney)
Speakers: Sandra Field , Justin Steinberg , Sharon Lloyd, and Yitzhak Melamed
Pacific APA 2021:
Talks by Nadler, Klein, and Matyasi
Justin Steinberg (Brooklyn College) (chair)
Steven Nadler (University of Wisconsin) - "Spinoza vs. Aristotle on Friendship"
Julie Klein (Villanova) - "Spinoza's Critique of Prejudice"
Robbie Matyasi (University of Toronto) - "Spinoza’s Modest Realism About Universals"
NASS on ZOOM 2021:
Talks by Marshall and West
Organizer and Chair: Kristin Primus (Berkeley)
Speakers:
Eugene Marshall (Florida International University): "Spinoza on the Value of Roleplay"
Aaron West (UCLA): "Understanding (in) 1ax4: From Cognition to Definition and Essence and Back"
2020
Eastern APA 2020:
Spinoza, Cavendish, and Conway
Session organized by Julie Klein (Villanova)
Aminah Hasan-Birdwell (Columbia University) “Spinoza and Conway on Time, Duration, and Perfection”
Alison Peterman (University of Rochester) “Cavendish and Spinoza on Holist Explanations”
Nastassja Pugliese (Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro) “Conway’s Critique of Spinoza and the Metaphysics of Transmutation”
Pacific APA 2020:
Spinoza’s Minds
Session organized by Kristin Primus (Berkeley)
Aaron West (UCLA): "Understanding (in) 1ax4: From Cognition to Definition and Essence and Back"
Raphael Krut-Landau (University of Pennsylvania): "The middle standpoint in Spinoza's Ethics"
Eugene Marshall (Florida International University): “Reconsidering a Central Feature of Spinoza’s Psychology”
Central APA 2020:
Sessions Organized by Christopher Martin (University of Toledo)
What are Attributes in Spinoza’s Ethics?
Steve Barbone (San Diego State University) "Priority among Attributes"
John Grey (Michigan State University) “Nature and Power in Spinoza’s Account of Composition”
Thaddeus Robinson (Muhlenberg College) "Quantity and Spatial Extension in Spinoza's Ethics"
Jack Stetter (Loyola University New Orleans) "Divine Expression in Spinoza"
Essences in Spinoza’s Ethics
Chair: Kiesha Martin (Marquette University), Chair
Christopher Martin (University of Toledo) “Spinoza’s Quick Reversal on his Definition of an Essence”
Galen Barry (Iona College) “Feuerbach's Spinozistic Argument for an Infinite Human Nature"
Torin Doppelt (Independent Scholar) “The Necessity of Natures: Geometrical Conclusions"
Matthew Homan (Christopher Newport University) "The Peculiar Common Notions of E2p39"
2019
Eastern APA 2019:
Spinoza on Goodness, Freedom, and the State
Session Organized by Andrew Youpa (SIU)
Michael LeBuffe (University of Otago)
Steven Nadler (University of Wisconsin, Madison)
Sanem Soyarslan (North Carolina State University)
Central APA 2019:
Knowledge and Happiness
Session organized by Karolina Hubner (Toronto), Justin Steinberg (CUNY)
Chair: Kristin Primus (UC Berkeley)
Don Garrett (New York University), "Panpsychism, Spinoza's Way"
Sanem Soyarslan (North Carolina State University), "Spinoza’s Account of Blessedness Explored Through an Aristotelian Lens"
John Grey (Michigan State University), "Spinoza’s Case against Introspective Self-Knowledge"
2018
Central APA 2018:
Organized by Torin Doppelt and Sarah Kizuk of the Spinoza Society of Canada
Nastassja Pugliese (University of São Paulo and University of Georgia) “Imagination as an Intellectual Tool: The Case of Spinoza and Ovid”
Matthew Homan (Christopher Newport University) “Spinoza’s Embrace of Cartesian Circularity”
Jason Yonover (Yale University) “Spinoza and the Folk PSR”
André Menezes Rocha (Université du Québec à Trois Rivières) “La Méthode Expérimentale et les Définitions Réelles chez Spinoza”
Vice and Virtue in Spinoza’s PHilosophy
Sessions organized by Andrew Youpa (Southern Illinois University Carbondale)
Clayton Bohnet (Gonzaga University) “The Temptations of Egoism and the Courtesy of Desire: An Essay on the Difference between Nobility and Ambition”
Torin Doppelt (Queen’s University) “A Sadness Born of a Fact: A Study of Spinoza’s Humility”
Christopher Martin (University of Wisconsin–Green Bay) “Spinoza on Virtuous and Vicious Essences”
Sanem Soyarslan (North Carolina State University) “Rethinking the Usefulness of Sad Passions as a Means Towards Virtue in Spinoza’s Ethics”
Lilli Alanen (Uppsala University) “Spinoza on Passivity, Active Joy, and Love of God”
John Carriero (University of California, Los Angeles) “Spinoza on Ends: Fantasy Physics and Our Self- Conception as Agents”
Karolina Hübner (University of Toronto) “Spinoza’s Conceptual Barrier”
Olli Koistinen (University of Turku) “On the Incomprehensibility of the Ethics”
Pacific APA 2018:
Spinoza’s Psychology
Karolina Hübner (University of Toronto) “Spinoza’s Metaphysical Psychology”
Valtteri Viljanen (University of Turku) “Spinoza on Activity and Passivity: The Problematic Definition Revisited”
Justin Steinberg (Brooklyn College) “Seeing the Better Better: A Spinozistic Account of Belief Revision and Moral Reform”
Contemporary Spinoza
Kristin Primus (University of California, Berkeley) “Spinoza’s Metaphysics”
Sandra Leonie Field (Yale-NUS College) “Spinoza’s Politics”
Anat Schechtman (University of Wisconsin– Madison) “Spinoza’s Epistemology”
Michael Rosenthal (University of Washington)
Julie Klein (Villanova University)
2017
Central APA 2017:
Spinoza’s Philosophy of Religion
Session organized by Ericka Tucker (Marquette)
Idit Dobbs-Weinstein (Vanderbilt)
Ursula Goldenbaum (Emory) – “Leibniz and Spinoza on Common Ground about Faith as the Genuine Basis of Religion.”
Jack Stetter (Université Paris 8) – "In What Sense is Spinoza's Free Man Religious?"
Rodolfo Garau (Max-Planck-Institute/Penn) – “Spinoza’s anti-Anthropocentric Idea of Divine Providence.”
Monism
Session organized by Ericka Tucker (Marquette)
Alex Silverman (University of Chicago) – “Monism and the Development of Spinoza’s Philosophy”
James Darcy (University of Virginia) – “The Identity of Indiscernibles and the Argument for Monism.”
Galen Barry (University of Virginia)– “Plenitude and Monism”
Brandon Rdzak (Purdue) – “Spinoza, Causation, and Creation ex Nihilo”
Christopher Martin (University of Wisconsin, Green Bay) – “Spinoza’s Platonic Deity”
2016
Central APA 2016:
Spinoza’s Politics
Sessions Organized by Ericka Tucker (Marquette)
Michael Lebuffe (University of Otago) - “Reason and Religion in the Citizen of Spinoza’s State”
James Ong (High Point University) - The philosophical and political significance of Spinoza’s ‘free people’
Céline Hervet (Université de Picardie-Jules Verne) - "Councils, Syndics, Senate and the Power of Speech in Spinoza's political philosophy: a Naturalistic Source of Deliberative Democracy?"
James Sikkema (McMaster University) "Joining Forces: Towards a Virtual-Political Mereology in Spinoza"
Sandra Field (Yale-NUS) “Aristocracy and the Logic of Spinoza”
Edwin Curley (Michigan) “On the Social Contract in Spinoza”
