We are glad to give notice of the International Conference Conatus – Self-determination – Subjectivity – Hegel and/or/with Spinoza, which will take place at Heidelberg University (Hörsaal 04a, Neue Universität, Universitätsplatz 1), on July 8-9, 2026.
The conference is organized by Julia Peters and Oliver Toth; it is funded by the DFG and is part of the project „Conatus, Trieb und die Erkenntnis der Freiheit: Spinozas Einfluss auf Hegels praktische Philosophie“.
To attend the conference, please write to oliver.toth@uni-heidelberg.de.
For further information, please visit the website of the event.
Below you can find the program of the event.
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Wednesday, 8th of July
9:45 Welcome, coffee
10:00 Ursula Renz (Graz): Spinozean acquiescientia in se ipso vs. Hegelian Reconciliation
11:30 Yitzhak Melamed (Johns Hopkins): Spinoza and Hegel on Self-Negation
13:30 Misa Sanada (Nagoya): From Conatus to Being-with-Oneself-in-Another: Mendelssohn, Jacobi, and the Path from Spinoza to Hegel
15:00 Bojana Jovićević (Ljubljana): Knowledge and Action in Spinoza’s Ethics and Hegel’s Logic
16:30 Julia Peters (Heidelberg): Privatio nihil est? Hegel’s Critique of Spinoza on Negative Affect
17:45 Birgit Sandkaulen (Bochum): Wie passt das Theorem des conatus zu Hegels negativistischer Spinozalektüre?
Thursday, 9th of July
10:00 Oliver Toth (Heidelberg): Sensory and rational principles of action in Spinoza and Hegel
11:30 Jack Stetter (Louisiana State/South Florida): State Individuality and War in Spinoza and Hegel
13:30 Martin Saar (Frankfurt): Hegel or Spinoza? Subjectivity, Intersubjectivity and “Transindividuality”
15:00 Ana-Silvia Munte (Tübingen): Spinoza’s Conatus and Hegel’s Stocking: Why a Mended Self-Consciousness is Worse than a Torn One
16:30 James Kreines (Claremont McKenna): Philosophy of Action and Priority of the Practical, Without Human-Perspective-Defensive Reasoning: Spinoza’s Conatus and Hegel’s Self-Determination
20:00 Screening of the movie “Spinoza: Six Reasons for the Excommunication of the Philosopher” Gloriette Cinema, Hauptstraße 146, 69117 Heidelberg
Followed by a podium discussion “Spinoza and the Good Life” with the director of the film David Ofek, and Michael Engel (Heidelberg University of Jewish Studies), Yitzhak Melamed (Johns Hopkins), Ursula Renz (Graz) on the therapeutic role of Spinoza’s philosophy, moderated by Julia Peters (Heidelberg).
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