Call for Papers – Philosophy of Logic, Mathematics, and Physics Graduate Conference

Hello,

As the due date for submissions is fast approaching, the LMP Conference organizers would greatly appreciate it if you could circulate our call for papers for the 2018 Philosophy of Logic, Mathematics, and Physics Graduate Student Conference amongst your graduate community. Information is found below.

Many thanks,

Martin Zelko

on behalf of the 2018 LMP organizing committee

The 18th annual Philosophy of Logic, Mathematics, and Physics Graduate Conference will take place on Saturday-Sunday, June 23-24, 2018, at the University of Western Ontario in London, Ontario, Canada. We are pleased to announce that David Wallace (University of Southern California) will be giving the keynote address.

Call for Papers:
Graduate students who have not yet defended their PhD thesis are invited to submit papers on any topic in philosophy of logic, philosophy of mathematics, and philosophy of physics. Papers in philosophy of physics will be considered for the 15th Annual Clifton Memorial book prize. The contest will be adjudicated by philosophy of physics faculty members at Western.

Submission Guidelines:
The maximum paper length is 5,000 words, including footnotes and appendices (but not references). If the paper includes tables, figures, or equations, an appropriate number of words should be subtracted from the limit. Papers are to be prepared for anonymous review, and should be accompanied by an abstract (no longer than 300 words). Co-authored papers are not eligible for submission.

Deadline: Papers should be submitted via EasyChair by March 1st, 2018 at https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=lmp2018

Authors of accepted papers will be limited to 30-35 minutes for presentation, followed by a 20-minute period of discussion. We will endeavour to make accommodations available to all visiting graduate students. Two travel bursaries for underrepresented groups will also be offered this year. The 2018 LMP Conference will immediately follow the 22nd annual Philosophy of Physics Conference.

Additional information can be found on our website: uwolmp We look forward to receiving your submission,

– The 2018 LMP Conference Committee

London Spinoza Circle Meeting: Yitzhak Melamed on Thurs 15th February

At the next meeting of the London Spinoza Circle, Professor Yitzhak Melamed (John Hopkins University) will give a paper entitled ‘Spinoza’s Mereolgy’.

The meeting will take place on Thursday 15th February, 3 to 5pm, Room 402, Birkbeck College Main Building, Malet St, London WC1E 7HX. (Entrance from Torrington Square).

Abstract:

Mereology and the concept of part has a central role in Spinoza’s metaphysics and is closely related to many of his key notions, such as substance, extension, power, infinity, infinite modes, parallelism, adequacy and inadequacy of ideas, destruction, individuals, and singular things [res singulares]. Arguably, the proper elucidation of Spinoza’s mereology is the key to any discussion of the nature of finite things in Spinoza’s metaphysics. Yet, in spite of its importance, the topic has hardly been studied in the existing literature. Paucity of early modern primary sources discussing mereology was never an issue; most of Spinoza’s works include detailed discussions of part and whole. In fact, one of the major obstacles in the study of Spinoza’s mereology is finding a way to ease and reconcile the tensions among various claims of Spinoza, tensions that could be due to local inconsistencies, equivocal use of ‘part [pars]’, or genuine changes in Spinoza’s understanding of parts and wholes. Spinoza developed his philosophy over a period of almost two decades, and it is clear that he kept revising his views, including, as we shall see, some of his mereological assumptions.

In my paper I will attempt to reconstruct the outline of Spinoza’s mereology. In the first part of this paper, I will begin with a preliminary exploration of Spinoza’s understanding of part and whole and attempt to explain Spinoza’s claim that certain things are indivisible. In the second part, I will study and explain Spinoza’s view on the priority of parts to their wholes, and point out the contrast between the whole-part and substance-mode relationships in Spinoza. In the third part I will investigate the termini of Spinoza’s mereology: the largest wholes and the smallest parts (if there are any). In the fourth part, I will attempt to explain and motivate Spinoza’s claim that mereology cuts across the attributes, i.e., the fact that the parallelism among the attributes preserves the same mereological relations. In order to motivate this claim we will have to clarify the relationship between mereology and causation in Spinoza, and explain his notion of “singular things.”

All are welcome and no registration is required.

Future meetings:

March 1st, 2018 – Dr. Daniel Whistler (Royal Holloway, University of London)

3pm to 5pm, Room B30, Birkbeck College, 30 Russell Square, WC1B 5DT

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March 22nd, 2018 – Dr. Alexander Douglas (St Andrews University)

3pm to 5pm, Room 101, Birkbeck College, 30 Russell Square, WC1B 5DT

https://londonspinozacircle.wordpress.com/