Sciences, Philosophie, Histoire – UMR 7219, laboratoire SPHERE

Embodiment —having, being in, or being associated with a body— is a feature of the existence of many entities, perhaps even of all entities. Why entities should find themselves in this condition has often been held to be a philosophical problem. This problem is seen as including, but also going beyond, the problem of body —that is, what a body is, and how, if at all, it differs from matter— but includes much else besides. On some understandings there may exist bodies, such as stones or asteroids, that are not the bodies of any particular subjects. To speak of embodiment by contrast is always to speak of a subject that finds itself variously inhabiting, or captaining, or being coextensive with, or even being imprisoned in, a body. The reasons, nature, and consequences of the embodiment of subjects as conceived in the long history of Western philosophy, both alone and in contact with theology, art, medicine, and other domains of culture, will be the focus of this meeting, which brings together the contributors to an anticipated volume on embodiment for the Oxford Philosophical Concepts series.

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 12
room 275F, level 2, building Halle aux farines, 10 rue Françoise Dolto, 75013 Paris

Opening remarks : Justin Erik Halldór Smith (University Paris Diderot, SPHERE)

Session I Présidence : David Rabouin (CNRS, SPHERE)

10:00–11:15
Brooke Holmes (Princeton University)
The Body of Western Embodiment : Classical Antiquity and the Early History of a Problem

11:15–12:30
Rafael Nájera (Brown University)
God, Angels, and Humans : Scholastic Philosophers on the Role of the Body in Knowledge

Session II

13:30–14:45
Ohad Nachtomy (Bar Ilan University)
Embodiment, Nestedness, and Individuality in Leibniz’s view of Living Beings

14:45–16:00
Geoffrey Gorham (Macalester College)
’God Embodied’ : Hobbes’s Corporeal Deity

16:15–17:15
Discussion of the ’Reflections’ Section in the OPC Series

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 13
room 479F, level 4, building Halle aux farines, 10 rue Françoise Dolto, 75013 Paris

Session III
Presidence : Jean-Jacques Szczeciniarz (University Paris Diderot, SPHERE)

9:30–10:45
Alison Peterman (University of Rochester)
Spinoza on Feeling Embodied

10:45–12:00
Lesley-Anne Dyer (Baylor University)
Paradoxes of Embodiment in the Plotinus’ Enneads

12:00–13:15
Sarah Byers (Boston College)
Philosophical Puzzles about Embodiment : Life, Death, Flesh, Body and Soul in Augustine

Session IV

14:30–15:45
Philippe Huneman (IHPST, Paris) and Charles T. Wolfe (Ghent University)
Man-Machines and Embodiment from La Mettrie to Bernard

15:45–17:00
Helen Lang (Villanova University)
Embodied or Ensouled ? Aristotle on the Relation of Soul and Body

17:15–18:15
Planning meeting for the Oxford Philosophical Concepts volume

For more information on the OPC series, please visit :
http://blogs.cuit.columbia.edu/oxford/

Practical Informations :

Access map.

Metro : Line 14 and RER C, stop : Bibliothèque François Mitterrand or line 6, stop : Quai de la gare.

Buses : 62 and 89 (stop : Bibliothèque François Mitterrand), 325 (stop : Watt), 64 (stop : Tolbiac-Bibliothèque François Mitterrand)