'Feeding on the nectar of the gods': Appropriations of Isaac Newton's thought, ca. 1700-1750
Type: Call for Papers
Date: July 5, 2016 to July 6, 2016
Subject Fields: Early
Modern History and Period Studies, History of Science, Medicine, and
Technology, Humanities, Intellectual History, Religious Studies and
Theology
CFP: 'Feeding on the nectar of the gods': Appropriations of Isaac Newton's thought, ca. 1700-1750
Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium. Meeting Dates: 5-6 July 2016.
Call For Papers Deadline: April 24, 2016
CONFERENCE THEME
The
conference theme is the diffusion of Newton’s thought during the first
half of the eighteenth century across Europe. The seeming ease with
which Newton’s ideas were diffused has long been described as
self-evident. State-of-the-art research has, however, shown that the
spread and success of Newton’s corpus was far from obvious. More
particularly, it has been suggested that the successful diffusion of
Newton’s ideas was not merely determined by the obvious merits of the
scientific claims which Newton developed in his two major works, the Principia (first edition: 1687) and the Opticks
(first edition: 1704), but also by local factors and contexts, such as
inter alia: (a) already established scholarly and educationally dominant
traditions or systems; (b) theological and religious fractions,
sensibilities, and worldviews; and (c) metaphysical and methodological
orientations. Seen from this perspective, if we want to fully understand
the successful spread of Newton’s ideas, we need to take into account
the multifarious ways in which his ideas were appropriated in order to
meet local 'needs'. At the same time, we need to pinpoint the
characteristics of those very ideas in virtue of which they could be
successfully ‘exported’ to different intellectual and scientific hubs
across Europe. The scientific committee welcomes presentations that
contribute to our understanding of the spread of Newton’s thought across
Europe from approximately 1700 to 1750.
CALL FOR PAPERS
Abstracts of approximately 500 words should be sent to the conference chair Prof. dr. Steffen Ducheyne (e-mail: steffen.ducheyne@vub.ac.be) by 24 April 2016.
Decisions will be made shortly thereafter. There will be room for 12
contributed presentations (20-22 minutes for the actual presentation +
10-8 minutes for Q&A). Abstracts will be evaluated anonymously by
the scientific committee according to the following criteria: 1.
quality, 2. relevance to the conference theme, and 3. capacity to
engender a diverse coverage of the diffusion of Newton’s thought.
KEYNOTE SPEAKERS
Marta Cavazza (Università di Bologna)
Tamás Demeter (Hungarian Academy of Science)
Steffen Ducheyne (Vrije Universiteit Brussel)
Mordechai Feingold (Caltech)
Niccoló Guicciardini (Università degli Studi di Bergamo)*
Rob Iliffe (University of Oxford)
Scott Mandelbrote (University of Cambridge)
* Lecture sponsored by the Belgian Society for Logic and Philosophy of Science.
PROGRAMME
The final programme will online by the end of April on the conference website (http://www.vub.ac.be/CLWF/activities/newton2016.shtml).
SCIENTIFIC COMMITTEE
Marta Cavazza, Tamás Demeter, Steffen Ducheyne, Mordechai Feingold, Niccoló Guicciardini, Rob Iliffe, Scott Mandelbrote.
ORGANIZING COMMITTEE
Liesbet
De Kock, Sven Delariviere, Steffen Ducheyne, Joachim Frans, Pieter
Present, Jip van Besouw, Yannick Van den Abbeel, Nigel Vinckier.
Contact Info:
Prof. dr. Steffen Ducheyne (steffen.ducheyne@vub.ac.be)
Vrije Universiteit Brussel
Centre for Logic and Philosophy of Science
Pleinlaan2, room 5B425
B-1015 Brussels
Belgium
Contact Email: