CfP: Science and Enlightenment in Feijoo’s Spain

 Online Conference, UNED / University of Oviedo, Spain

4-5 May 2022

18th Century is a key moment to understand the history of science in Spain. The most widely read Spanish-language author of that century was Benito Jerónimo Feijoo (according to calculations by José M. Caso González, his Teatro crítico and his Cartas eruditas y curiosas would have reached sales of 300,000 volumes by 1787, an astounding figure), whose work was devoted to spread and defend modern science. But was he successful? Whereas specialists such as Antonio Lafuente, Manuel Sellés and José Manuel Sánchez Ron consider Feijoo as a mere disseminator of the scientific ideas of his time, with no real contributions to the Spanish philosophical-scientific panorama, other authors, like Richard Herr, describe Feijoo’s writings as «the beginning of a new era» in Spanish intellectual life. This conference aims to address the relationship between Spanish science and the Enlightenment, dealing with the following issues: 

a) the situation of the different scientific disciplines in 18th-century Spain; 

b) Spanish science within the European context; 

c) the impact of Feijoo's work on the scientific-philosophical community and the universities; 

d) science and gender in Feijoo’s time;

e) the relevance of scientific dissemination in the Enlightenment; 

f) the role of science in the political agenda of the Enlightenment.

 

Submissions
If you are interested in presenting a paper, please send an abstract of up to 500 words suitably prepared for blind reviewing to feijoociencia2022@gmail.com before 1 April 2022. Acceptance will be notified by 8 April 2022.

Presentations
Those accepted are expected to give a live online presentation of 15 minutes followed by 15 minutes Q&A. The final programme will try to take into account the eventual time difference.
Papers can be presented in English, Spanish or French, but please note that no translation service will be provided.

Keynote Speakers

Manuel A. Sellés (UNED)

Elena Serrano (University of Valencia)

 

For further information and updates, please visit https://www.unioviedo.es/baylefeijoo/convocatoria-cfp/