NOTICE: We regret that we had to postpone this conference due to the spread of the COVID-19 virus. Plans are underway to reschedule for an online meeting on the last two Wednesdays of May 2021 and the first two Wednesdays of June 2021. Contributors will be contacted with details in late Fall 2020.
Contact information: Richard.Taylor@Marquette.edu
“Philosophy in the Abrahamic Traditions: Structures of Being, World and Mind”
hosted by the Institute of Ismaili Studies,London, UK 11-13 June 2020
The Institute of Ismaili Studies, Aga Khan Centre, 10 Handyside St., Kings Cross, London, UK
This event is made possible thanks to the support of
the Institute of Ismaili Studies in London,
the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science in Berlin,
the DeWulf-Mansion Centre of the Institute of Philosophy at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven,
the Universidad Panamericana in Mexico City, and
the Department of Philosophy at Marquette University in Milwaukee.
Preliminary Program
AAIWG London 2020: Structures of Being, World, and Mind.
11 June 2020 Thursday
9:00 – 9:30 Morning Coffee & Registration
9:30 – 10:00 Formal Welcome
10:00 – 12:00 1. Ismaili Thought: Between Neoplatonism and Aquinas (Special IIS Panel)
Speakers:
Farhad Daftary (The Institute of Ismaili Studies, UK), Chair and discussant
Carmela Baffioni (The Institute of Ismaili Studies, UK), “ISmailism as a possible philosophical medium between East and West: the case of the Ikwān al-Ṣafā’”
Daniel De Smet (CNRS, Paris, France and Katholieke Universiteit Leuven), “Aquinas and the Ismailis: A Comparative Exegesis of the Hexameron, the Six Days of Creation”
Farès Gillon (The Institute of Ismaili Studies, UK), “Spiritual Rebirth and Initiation: the pre-philosophical roots of al-Kirmanī’s ‘two perfections’”
13:30 – 15:30 2. Metaphysics of Being in Aquinas and the Arabic Tradition
Speakers:
- Richard C. Taylor (Marquette University and Katholieke Universiteit Leuven), “The Liber de causis in the Metaphysics of Being in Aquinas”
- David B. Twetten (Marquette University), “The Essence-Existence Distinction behind Aquinas: Avicenna as Turning Point”
- Damien Janos (Université de Montréal), “Tashkīk al-wujūd in Fārābī and Avicenna”
- Matteo DiGiovanni (Universita Degli Studi Di Torino), “Metaphysical Formalism vs Anti-Formalism: Historico-Philosophical Explorations from Averroes to Aquinas”
- Commentator: Daniel DeHaan (University of Oxford)
15:30 – 16:00 Coffee Break
16:00 – 18:00 3. New Readings of Avicenna
Speakers:
- Rosabel Pauline Ansari (Georgetown University), “Tashkīk as an Epistemological Problem”
- Catherine Peters (Loyola Marymount University), “The Causality of ‘Nature’ in Avicenna’s Physics of the Healing”
- Billy Dunaway (University of Missouri, St. Louis), “Necessary Existent Theology”
- Commentator: Jon McGinnis (University of Missouri, St. Louis)
19:00 Conference dinner
12 June 2020 Friday
10:00 – 12:00 4. The Nature of the “Intellect that Becomes All”
Speakers:
- Inna Kupreeva (St. Andrews), “nous hulikos in Alexander of Aphrodisias”
- Stephen Ogden (The Catholic University of America), “The Potency of the Material Intellect in Averroes”
- Therese Cory (Notre Dame), The Problem of the “Determinate Nature” of the Possible Intellect in Albert and Aquinas”
- Commentator: TBD
13:30 – 15:30 5. Intellectual Felicity and Conjunction with the Agent Intellect in Greek, Arabic, and Medieval Latin Philosophy and Theology
Speakers:
- Michael Chase (CNRS, Paris), “Porphyrian Noetics in Avicenna and Mullā Ṣadra: From Rejection to Recuperation”
- Tracy Wietecha (LMU Munich, MPIWG Berlin), “Intellectual Perfection and Albert the Great’s Ethica”
- Luis Xavier López-Farjeat (Universidad Panamericana, Mexico City), “Struggling to Make Sense of Happiness in al-Fārābī’s Philosophy”
- Commentator: Sajjad Rizvi (University of Exeter)
15:30 – 16:00 Coffee Break
16:00 – 18:00 6. Medieval and Renaissance Testimony on When to Trust Authority
Speakers:
- Brett Yardley (KULeuven, Marquette University, Milwaukee), “Virtuous and Vicious Trust in Epistemic Authority”
- Nicholas Oschman (Marquette University, Milwaukee), “Taqlīd and the Fārābīan Tradition”
- Andrea Robiglio (Katholieke Universiteit, Leuven), “Beware of yourself! Dante on the measure of trust”
- Commentator: Katja Krause (MPIWG, TU Berlin)
19:00 Conference Dinner
13 June 2020 Saturday
8:30 – 9:00 Morning Coffee
9:00 – 11:00 7. Title TBD
Speakers:
- Cristina Cerami (CNRS, Paris), “Alexander, Avicenna and Averroes on mixis: cosmological and ontological stakes of an ongoing debate”
- Beate Ulrike La Sala (Freie Universität, Berlin), “Cosmology and Psychological Concepts in Ibn as-Sīd al-Baṭalyausī’s Kitāb al-Ḥadāi’q”
- Adam Takahashi (Toyo University, Tokyo), “God, Celstial Soul and Providence: Thomas Aquinas’ De caelo et mundo and His Use of Greek and Arabic Commentators”
- Commentator: Olga Lizzini (Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam)
11:00 – 11:30 Coffee Break
11:30 – 12:30 Open Discussion
12:30 Farewell
Suggestions concerning accommodation are below.
Note: In accord with usual AAIWG events, presenters and commentators should plan on covering their own costs for travel, housing, and some meals. Additional information on luncheons and a conference dinner for program participants is forthcoming.
Organized by Janis Esots, Katja Krause, Luis X. López-Farjeat, and Richard C. Taylor.
Panel Paper Abstracts (forthcoming)
Some hotel options
As for the hotels at a walking distance from the institute, the closest ones appear to be The Hub by Premier Inn (50 Wharfdale Road, Kings Cross, N1 9FA) and Premier Inn London Kings Cross (26-30 York Way, Kings Cross, N1 9AA) https://www.premierinn.com/gb/en/hotels/england/greater-london/london/london-kings-cross.html?ARRdd=26&ARRmm=02&ARRyyyy=2020&NIGHTS=1&ROOMS=1&ADULT1=1&CHILD1=0&COT1=0&INTTYP1=DB&BRAND=PI ; the first one charges about £100 per night per single room; the second – above £150.
There are some B&B’s on the southern side of Euston Road just opposite St Pancras terminal but they may not be suitable. Should the two aforementioned ones be booked out/ too expensive, a number of AAIWG members familiar with the Tavistock recommend it. It charges ca. £100 (+/-10) per night per single room with breakfast and are around 1 mile away from the IIS (so still in a walking distance). The Tavistock has always been a moderately priced good choice, a number of colleagues have mentioned. See https://www.imperialhotels.co.uk/en/tavistock?channel=ppc&gclsrc=aw.ds&&gclid=Cj0KCQiAqY3zBRDQARIsAJeCVxMngywcziYeszfyhqJSFF4vbGpdZ9SzFm3dLlLbUCzaQ_E-pxfwvWEaAmnIEALw_wcB