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Conference Announcement Theme: Scepticism and Religion in al-Ghazālī, Maimonides, and Hume Type: International Workshop Institution: Maimonides Centre for Advanced Studies, University of Hamburg Location: Hamburg (Germany) Date: 7.–8.11.2017 __________________________________________________ In David Hume’s Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion, Cleanthes challenges Demea: “Or how do you mystics, who maintain the absolute incomprehensibility of the Deity, differ from sceptics or atheists, who assert, that the first cause of All is unknown and unintelligible?” By the eighteenth century, we find questions of religion and scepticism tightly intertwined but this dialectic goes back to the ancient sceptics’ critique of the gods and, when the three revealed monotheistic faiths encounter philosophy in the Middle Ages, it comes to embrace a rich variety of classical epistemological and metaphysical questions reconfigured in light of the medieval philosophical/theological context. Not only do thinkers grapple with issues of how knowledge can be acquired — by direct intuition, human reasoning, and/or divine revelation — but also with the classical question of the very possibility of knowledge, at least in the realms of metaphysics and theology. And if knowledge cannot be possessed, how should one act: by denying the claims as Academic sceptics are said to have argued, by embracing them despite, or because of, their lack of rational justification as fideists recommend, or by simply suspending judgment to free oneself from the conflict between religion and philosophy as Pyrrhonists would have reacted? In this workshop, we propose to explore parallels and discrepancies between three of the greatest philosophers in the three faiths to have canvassed this rich and inadequately studied territory between religion and scepticism leading to an even wider range of questions from atomism and causation to knowledge and the self: Abū Ḥāmid Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad al-Ghazālī (c. 1058–1111), Moses Maimonides (c. 1135–1204), and David Hume (1711–76). Although we make no claims of influence among these three thinkers, there are striking and sometimes uncanny moments of convergence and divergence in their arguments and strategies, whose mutual investigation can serve to illuminate the thought of each. Venue Maimonides Centre for Advanced Studies, Schlüterstraße 51, Room 5060, 20146 Hamburg Participants - Blake Dutton (Loyola University Chicago/USA) - Andreas Lammer (Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München / Germany) - Jennifer Marusic (Brandeis University / USA) - Paul Russell (University of British Columbia / Canada, Göteborgs Universitet / Sweden) - Mark Steiner (Hebrew University of Jerusalem / Israel) - Josef Stern (University of Chicago / USA) - Máté Veres (Université de Genève / Switzerland) - Ramona Winter (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin / Germany) Programme Tuesday, November 7, 2017 13:45 – 14:00 Welcome and Introductory Remarks Stephan Schmid (Universität Hamburg) 14:00 – 17:00 Session 1 Chair: Stephan Schmid (Universität Hamburg) 14:00 – 15:15 “Philosophy’s happy escape?” Ancient Scepticism and the Project of Hume’s Natural History of Religion. Máté Veres (Université de Genève) 15:15 – 15:45 Coffee Break 15:45 – 17:00 Al-Ġhazālī's Critical Theology Andreas Lammer (Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München) 17:00 – 17:30 Coffee Break 17:30 – 18:45 Session 2 Chair: Daniel Davies (Universität Hamburg) Al-Ghazālī and Hume on Causal Connection and Scepticism Blake Dutton (Loyola University Chicago) 19:30 Conference Dinner at La Monella (Hallerplatz 12) For participants and invited guests only Wednesday, November 8, 2017 09:30 – 12:30 Session 3 Chair: Sonja Schierbaum (Universität Hamburg) 09:30 – 10:45 Maimonides' Guide and Hume's Dialogues: A Tale of Two Sceptics Josef Stern (University of Chicago) 10:45 – 11:15 Coffee Break 11:15 – 12:30 David Hume: the First and Last “Kalamist” Mark Steiner (Hebrew University of Jerusalem) 12:30 – 13:30 Lunch Break 13:30 – 18:00 Session 4 Chair: Ariane Schneck (Universität Hamburg) 13:30 – 14:45 Fictional Beliefs about the Self in Hume’s Treatise. In what Sense are Fictional Beliefs Defective? Ramona Winter (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin) 14:45 – 15:15 Coffee Break 15:15 – 16:30 Hume on the Verbal Dispute between Theists and Atheists Jennifer Marusic (Brandeis University) 16:30 – 16:45 Coffee Break 16:45 – 18:00 Hume's Scepticism and the Problem of Atheism Paul Russell (University of British Columbia/Göteborgs Universitet) Covenors Stephan Schmid (Universität Hamburg / Germany) Josef Stern (University of Chicag / USA) Máté Veres (Université de Genève / Switzerland) Registration The event is open to the public, with advance registration via e-mail: [email protected] Website of the Workshop: https://www.maimonides-centre.uni-hamburg.de/en/events/workshops/scepticism-and-religion.html __________________________________________________ InterPhil List Administration: https://interphil.polylog.org InterPhil List Archive: https://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ __________________________________________________
