We are pleased to give notice of the workshop Pantheism versus Personhood in Classical German Philosophy, which will take place on June 9th, at the Protestant Theological University of Utrecht.

The event is organized by Ariën Voogt (PThU, Utrecht) and Vittorio Alves (KU Leuven).

For registration, please email: communicatie@pthu.nl

Below you can find a general presentation of the event and the list of the speakers.

For further information, please visit the workshop website.

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Workshop theme

Following the explosion that was the 1780s Pantheism Controversy, the issue of pantheism and its philosophical implications became a focal point of Classical German Philosophy. In the footsteps of Lessing, a new generation of thinkers – Goethe, Herder, Schleiermacher, Schelling, Hegel – enthusiastically embraced a pantheistic conception of God as hen kai pan (one and all), sparking an intense debate on the place of the human person within an encompassing absolute whole – be it nature or the absolute I. This apparent tension between the finite person and the pantheistic whole provoked a diverse set of issues and responses. Does the rejection of human personhood follow from the rejection of a personal God? Should we embrace depersonal unification with the divine All as a theoretical, spiritual or practical ideal? Is a personal God required to safeguard human freedom and individuality and to avoid nihilism? Can human and divine personhood survive in a totalizing philosophical system?

In this workshop, we will focus on systematic responses to the tension between person and pantheism within Classical German Philosophy, with a particular focus on Schelling, Jacobi, and Fichte. The purpose of the workshop is to explore this theme from a variety of angles, benefiting from international expertise on different key figures during a small-scale, intensive in-person event. We have chosen to examine the concept of personhood specifically, as it illuminates the connection between conceptions of God and the human being. This approach may better pinpoint the core issues in the debate on pantheism than, say, the concept of freedom, which is championed on all sides of the debate. Our aim is to pay particular attention to religious and existential aspects, as questions surrounding immanence and transcendence and the purpose of the human person deeply inform the philosophical debate on pantheism, and may reveal what is truly at stake in it.

Speakers

Paul Franks (Yale)
Paul Ziche (Utrecht University)
Jelscha Schmid (Heidelberg University)
Kirill Chepurin (ICI Berlin)
Ariën Voogt (Protestant Theological University)
Vittorio Alves (KU Leuven)

 

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