Early Modern Laws of Nature: Secular and Divine

Keynote Speakers: Prof Eric Watkins (University of San Diego) and Prof Sophie Roux (ENS Paris)

The workshop is co-organised by the Ian Ramsey Centre for Science and Religion, University of Oxford (Dr Ignacio Silva), and the Faculty of Philosophy, University of Groningen (Dr Andrea Sangiacomo).

Call for papers

This one-day workshop will examine the theological debates that influenced the birth and development of the notion of laws of nature from the sixteenth century until the critical Kant. It is widely accepted that the laws of nature were born as a theological justification of the order found in nature by sixteenth and seventeenth centuries natural philosophers and theologians. It is also widely recognised, however, that by the mid-eighteenth century the laws of nature were assumed to guide and explain the workings of the natural world without any reference to the divine. The laws of nature, therefore, moved from being essentially tied in their beginnings to the nature of God, to becoming a secular concept by the midst of the so called scientific revolution. The goal of this event will be to uncover the philosophical and theological concepts at stake both at the birth and later development of the laws of nature, seeking a greater understanding of the transition from being a theological notion to becoming a non-theological notion.

The organisers expect to receive papers ranging from issues surrounding the theological underpinnings of the laws of nature in the philosophies of nature of sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, Cartesian and Scholastic understandings of the laws of nature, and to secular discourses on the laws of nature by the mid-eighteenth century.

The workshop will host Prof Eric Watkins (University of San Diego) and Prof Sophie Roux (ENS Paris) as keynote speakers, and offers up-to five slots for shorter presentations. Please send your paper proposal (of not more than 500 words) to ignacio.silva theology.ox.ac.uk with the subject “Workshop: Early Modern Laws of Nature: Secular and Divine”, not later than 30 April 2016.

Participation at the workshop is free of charge (with prior registration to ignacio.silva theology.ox.ac.uk ), and a small number of travel bursaries (in particular to UK and Dutch scholars) are available for those who wish to attend the discussions.

This workshop is possible due to a grant from the Faculty of Theology and Religion, University of Oxford , and it is part of the activities of the NWO-Veni Project “Occasionalism and the secularization of early modern science” run by Dr Andrea Sangiacomo.

When & where?

Thursday 7 July 2016, 9:30AM - 5:30PM