13th International Summer School in German Philosophy: Acosmism from Spinoza to German Idealism

This year’s Summer School will focus on a central metaphysical issue: The relationship between God and the world. As Kant and Hegel famously argued in their responses to the ‘charge’ of Spinozism, identifying God and the world (as they thought Spinoza did) threatens to dissolve the composite mereological structure of the finite, contingent world into a unity from which no further distinctions could be derived. In order to evaluate the exegetical and philosophical merits of this claim, which also plays an important role in contemporary metaphysics, we will closely examine Spinoza’s monism and some of the most prominent maneuvers in German Idealism to respond to the premises, arguments, and assumptions that underpin it.

The sessions will be led by Prof. Markus Gabriel (Universität Bonn), Prof. Nicholas Stang (University of Toronto) and Prof. Karl Schafer (University of Austin, Texas).

Keynote speakers include:

Prof. Michael Della Rocca (Yale University)

Prof. Kristin Primus (UC Berkeley)

Prof. Karolina Hübner (Cornell University)

Prof. Gregory Moss (Chinese University of Hong Kong)

To register and receive the full programme and reader, please contact Alex Englander at alexeng@uni-bonn.de