[SydPhil] Reminder: Knox Peden, ANU @ Wed 22 Oct 2014 15:30 - 17:00 (Seminars)

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This is a reminder for:

Title: Knox Peden,  ANU
The History of Spinozism as a Philosophical Problem

When the Amsterdam synagogue excommunicated the young Baruch Spinoza in  
1656 for his "abominable heresies" and "monstrous deeds" the writ insisted  
that "the Lord will not spare him, [...] and all the curses that are written  
in this book shall lie upon him, and the Lord shall blot out his name from  
under heaven."  Roughly 150 years later, the German Romantic poet Novalis  
described Spinoza as a "man drunk on God" (Ein Gottbetrunkener Mensch). A  
further 200 years later, the historian Jonathan Israel named Spinoza as the  
more or less singular progenitor of a Radical Enlightenment that yielded a  
distinctly modern and secular, though as yet imperfectly realized, concept  
of democracy. Meanwhile, one critic has assailed the contemporary  
resurgence of Spinozism in domains ranging from political theory to the  
neurosciences as "a last ditch Salvationist movement, aimed at redeeming  
the status of -isms. It stands for 'ismhood', a necessarily total secular  
faith fusing conceptual satisfaction and moral political guidance."

The vagaries of context seem insufficient to account for the plurality of  
meanings "Spinozism" has sustained in the history of philosophy. This talk  
will consider this problem from several perspectives and, using its  
reception in twentieth-century France as a test case, will explore the  
philosophical challenges involved in seeking to understand Spinoza's  
thought as a historical phenomenon.
When: Wed 22 Oct 2014 15:30 - 17:00 Eastern Time - Melbourne, Sydney
Where: Muniment Room, Main Quad, University of Sydney
Calendar: Seminars
Who:
     * Dalia Nassar- creator

Event details:  
https://www.google.com/calendar/event?action=VIEW&eid=NGx1bDNvbzljZG8yMzNjbm9mbjk5ZDFkOG8gMm1lN2M3ZnIzb21wbDRyaHZrcG1sYTUzNjhAZw

Invitation from Google Calendar: https://www.google.com/calendar/

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