Suf Amichay: Avicenna on Ground
In this talk, I explore some preliminary ideas about how we may use the concept of Ground, inspired by contemporary literature, to examine the integrity of Avicenna's metaphysical system. I will suggest a new, somewhat controversial way to look at Avicenna's theory of knowledge and creation, in which ground plays an important role.
Tatiana Barkovskiy: The Joys and Challenges of Approaching 'Medieval Female Mystics' as Philosophers
In my paper, I shall set out the methodological framework for approaching the writings of thinkers commonly referred to as 'medieval women mystics' as philosophical. To do this, I will consider both the socio-historical and the philosophical aspects of their works in relation to the 'mystical' language and topoi employed in them. Whether we posit that the 'mystical' paradigm may have served as a rhetorical strategy implemented by medieval female intellectuals to assert their epistemic authority as rooted in divine revelation - or indeed a genuine 'meta-rational' experience - I hope to demonstrate that the works of medieval women contain numerous ideas of philosophical merit. Whilst they certainly employed a 'meta-rational' mystical language full of apparent contradictions and elaborate allegories, one can find many abstract and rationally compelling arguments in their works, though sometimes hidden behind discourse that appears to be self-contradictory or otherwise illogical. They discussed the same topics as other thinkers whom we recognise as philosophers, such as anthropological identity, (self-)knowledge, cognition, morality, or the structure of reality, yet in a way that relied on a strictly academic, scholastic language and structures, characteristic of glosses and books of sentences. As women, these forms were simply unavailable to them.
Caleb Cohoe: Augustine's Christian Eudaimonism and the Goal of Human Life: Why Loving God Makes You Happier than Loving Yourself
I show how Augustine can advocate for both an unrestrained love for God and an unrestrained love for happiness, continuing the eros tradition of Plato's Symposium. I argue that Augustine's theory of value and teleology mirrors that of Plato and Aristotle who hold that the Good/the God should be the object of our love, but that we, not God, are the beneficiaries of this love. For Augustine, apart from God, there are no stable and good selves to love. The better our choice of goal, the better we ourselves become. If I take my human self as the ultimate object of my love I diminish my being and become less worth loving and less happy.
Cecilia Trifogli: Thomas Wylton on Divine Ideas
Wylton's so-called Quaestio de ideis contains a rich and sophisticated discussion of divine ideas. Wylton remarks that the universal agreement among the theologians of his time about the necessity of positing a plurality of ideas in God corresponding to the plurality of things produced by God is only verbal and conceals a variety of contrasting opinions, which reflect widely different assumptions about the ontological status of divine ideas. One major contrast pointed out by Wylton is that between the view that divine ideas are principles of divine cognition (the quo) and the view that they are objects of divine cognition (the quod), Wylton supports the first view and defends it against Aquinas's attack, who maintains that positing a plurality of ideas as the quo of divine cognition undermines the simplicity of God. In my talk, I will present the main aspects of Wylton's view and explain its originality.