Spinoza &
Modern Jewish Philosophy

Conference Schedule

Sunday, May 21st – UW Hillel

12pm   Welcome Lunch   (Conference Participants Only)

12:45pm   Welcome & Opening Remarks

Michael A. Rosenthal, Professor, University of Washington

1-3pm   Panel 1: Spinoza in the 17th Century

Session Chair: Colin Marshall, University of Washington, Department of Philosophy

Spinoza on the Divinity of Scripture – Steven Nadler, University of Wisconsin, Madison
Spinoza, His Family, and the Revolts Against Philip II and the Inquisition – Jonathan Israel, Institute for Advanced Studies

3:15-5:15pm   Panel 2: Spinoza, the Jewish Enlightenment, and German Radicals

Session Chair: John Toews, University of Washington, Department of History

Activity and Suspension: German-Jewish Spinozists Respond to Hegel – Tracie Matysik, University of Texas
The Study of Scripture and the Study of Nature – Michah Gottlieb, New York University
Solomon Maimon on Spinoza, Mendelssohn, and the Maskilim – Abraham Socher, Oberlin College

5:30-6:40pm   Dinner   (Conference Participants Only)

7:00pm   Stroum Lecture – Kane Hall Room 220

“In What Sense Was Spinoza a Revolutionary Thinker?” – Jonathan Israel, Institute for Advanced Study

8:30pm   Reception – Kane Hall Walker-Ames Room

Monday, May 22nd – Husky Union Building, Room 334

9am-11am   Panel 3: Spinoza and Jewish Politics

Session Chair: Daniel Bessner, University of Washington, Jackson School of International Studies

The Prophets at War: Hermann Cohen on Spinoza and the Moral Basis of Citizenship – Michael A. Rosenthal, University of Washington
Particularism and Universalism Revisited: Spinoza, Leon Roth, and the Category of “Jewish Philosophy” – Leora Batnitzky, Princeton University
The Zionist Critique of Spinoza’s Politics – Julie E. Cooper, Tel Aviv University

11:45-12:45pm   Lunch   (Conference Participants Only)

1-3pm   Panel 4: Spinoza, the Emotions, and Kabbalah

Session Chair: Melanie Tate, University of Washington, Department of Philosophy

Spinoza and Freud on Bodies, Images, and Affects – Julie R. Klein, Villanova University
The Greatest Thing You’ll Ever Learn: Debating Spinoza over Loving God and Being Loved in Return – Benjamin Pollock, Hebrew University
Spinoza, Platonism, and Some Jewish Thinkers – Michael Morgan, University of Toronto and Indiana University

3:30-5:30pm   Panel 5: Spinoza and Modernity

Session Chair: Ellwood Wiggins, University of Washington, Department of Germanics

Spinoza on the Election of the Hebrews – Yitzhak Melamed, Johns Hopkins University
The Hyphen in the Theological-Political: Spinoza to Mendelssohn, Heine and Derrida – Willi Goetschel, University of Toronto
Toward a History of Jewish Anti-Spinozism – Daniel Schwartz, George Washington University

7pm   Dinner   (Conference Participants Only)

Tuesday, May 23rd – Kane Hall 220

7:00pm   Stroum Lecture

“Jewish Emancipation and the Radical Enlightenment” – Jonathan Israel, Institute for Advanced Study