[MaFLa] invitation to a talk on "Spinoza's Mereology"by Yitzhak Melamed - WEDNESDAY, 28 November, 5.30PM ROOM 311

[Krisztina Biber]

The CEU Department of Philosophy cordially invites you to a talk 
(as part of its Departmental Colloquium series)
by
Yitzhak Melamed (Johns Hopkins University) 
on
"Spinoza's Mereology"
 
PLEASE NOTE THAT THE TALK IS SCHEDULED ON 
WEDNESDAY IN ROOM 311!!!!!!
 
Wednesday, 28 November, 2012, 5.30 PM, Zrinyi 14, Room 311
 
 
 
ABSTRACT
 
Mereology and the concept of part has a central role in Spinoza’s
metaphysics and is closely related to many of his key notions, such as
substance, Extension, power, infinity, infinite modes, parallelism,
adequacy and inadequacy of ideas, individuals, and singular things [res
singulares]. Yet, the topic has hardly been discussed in the existing
literature. Mereology became a vital field in analytic metaphysics only
relatively recently (roughly over the past two decades), and this could
explain part of the scholarly neglect among historians of modern
metaphysics who frequently follow the trends of contemporary
metaphysics. Paucity of early modern primary resources discussing
mereology was never an issue; most of Spinoza’s works include detailed
discussions of part and whole. In fact, one of the major obstacles in
the study of Spinoza’s mereology is finding a way to ease and reconcile
the tensions among various claims of Spinoza, tensions that could be due
to local inconsistencies, equivocal use of ‘part [pars]’, or genuine
changes in Spinoza’s understanding of parts and wholes. Spinoza
developed his philosophy over a period of almost two decades, and it is
clear that he kept revising his views, including, as we shall see, some
of his mereological assumptions.
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