Kopie von: Maimonides Centre for Advanced Studies

The Maimonides Centre for Advanced Studies is a DFG-Kolleg-Forschungsgruppe directed by Prof Dr Giuseppe Veltri. It opened in October 2015 and will run for nine years. The central aim of the Maimonides Centre is to explore and research scepticism in Judaism in its dual manifestation as a purely philosophical tradition and as a more general expression of sceptical strategies, concepts, and attitudes in the cultural field.

9-10 August 2023

Abstract

It is widely accepted that Judaism and Christianity helped to form a long-lasting barrier between humans—created in God’s image and destined to rule the planet—and all other living creatures. To this day, the human-animal distinction permeates human society, culture, and religion. Yet recent studies have nuanced our understanding of the human-animal boundary, offering valuable insights into the shared worlds that arise through interspecies interactions. Across periods and areas of study, scholars have also demonstrated how different attitudes and environmental ethics have been applied to animals in various religious sources, breeding scepticism and doubt about the line that separates humans and animals.

This interdisciplinary workshop aims to rethink the perceived borders between humans and animals within religious culture and theology. We seek to examine critical interpretations of the human-animal relationship within religious traditions and to reveal voices that either promoted moral consideration for animals or challenged dogmatic assumptions about humans’ uniqueness and supreme role in creation. Our goal is to contextualise these voices in broader theoretical and historiographical perspectives that will open new ways to consider animals in the history of thought, scepticism, and religious traditions.

Convenor

· Ran Segev (Universität Hamburg)

Participants

· Beth Berkowitz (Barnard College, Columbia University)

· Celia Deane-Drummond (University of Oxford)

· Aaron Gross (University of San Diego)

· David Grumett (University of Edinburgh)

· Alma Massaro (Università degli Studi di Genova)

· Kate Rigby (Universität zu Köln)

· Jonathan Schorsch (Universität Potsdam)

 14-15 August 2023

Abstract

While René Descartes and Michel de Montaigne, who are often associated with early modern scepticism, both worked outside of an institutional context, scepticism was a prevalent theme in European universities during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. From Iberian Jesuits to Parisian Thomists and secular professors in Italy, scholars engaged with scepticism in various ways, including discussions on certitude in sense perception and reflections on religious fideism, as well as sceptical attitudes inherent in the complex reception dynamics of the medieval intellectual heritage and the Aristotelian sciences. This workshop will delve into these issues with presentations on the sixteenth-century reception of Sextus Empiricus, sceptical trends in commentaries on the Summa Theologica and in the Commentarii conimbricenses, and theories of intelligible species as a locus of expressing sceptical tendencies. Through these individual talks and ensuing discussions, we aim to gain new and insightful perspectives on the intricate connection between the intellectual pursuits of early modern universities and the long-standing tradition of European scepticism.

Convenor

• Micheal Engel (Universität Hamburg)

Participants

• Michael Della Rocca (Yale University)

• Antonella Del Prete (Università di Torino)

• Amos Edelheit (Maynooth University)

• Daniel Heider (University of South Bohemia)

• Simona Langella (Università di Genova)

• Hélène Leblanc (UCLouvain)

• Zita Tóth (King’s College London)