The first abstract I submitted to a conference was sent to Dr Emily Thomas, for the 'Early Modern Women on Metaphysics, Religion and Science' Conference held at the University of Groningen 2015.
(I've blocked out my personal contact details given in my emails since this is a public post and my home address given together with my abstract submissions has not changed since 2014)
Here's the abstract I submitted as an attachment with the email above:
Abstract:
Lady Mary Shepherd on Religion and Metaphysics
In this paper, I shall explore the under-researched, lesser-known Early-Modern woman philosopher, Lady Mary Shepherd. Research to date has tended to focus on comparing Shepherd’s arguments with other philosophers (Atherton 1996, Bolton 2012) or her causality in relation to events and induction (Bolton 2010). However, the focus of my paper will be on her religious and metaphysical arguments in her ‘Essays on the Perception of an External Universe’. This is because I wish to put forward the thesis that many, if not all, of Shepherd’s metaphysical arguments are rooted in and derivable from her concept of God. Shepherd states that she is careful not to construct circular arguments. Hence, when she also conversely derives arguments for her concept of and belief in God from her metaphysical arguments, I suggest she is attempting to expand on and clarify her linear argument founded on God in a way that avoids circularity. I hope to show this by reconstructing and analysing the logic and methodology behind her metaphysical explanations of personal identity, mind-body and her definition of God. I would argue that in stating her logical approach, she avoids creating logically fallacious arguments which, I think, makes her an important philosopher to research.
First, I wish to focus on and unpack how and why Shepherd argues from her definition and concept of God to her metaphysics of mind, body and personal identity. For instance, from her definition of God as an intelligent, incessantly existent cause, she concludes that our continuous sense of our personal identity and existence can be best explained by deducing that only such a God could produce our continued existence. Thus, we exist irrespective of whether we are capable of perceiving our existence or not, for example, when we are asleep, we do not cease to exist simply because we are not currently perceiving our existence. Hence, this shows that God, defined as an uninterruptible original cause, sustains our life and is the cause of our unceasing memory and sense of our personal identity. I will then go on to show how her concept of God also impacts on her account of sensation, empty space, motion and matter.
Second, I wish to demonstrate and flesh out how her religious and metaphysical theories work the other way round without becoming circular. That is to say, through Shepherd’s metaphysical arguments, we can deepen our knowledge of and find further supporting premises for her concept of God. An example of this is her philosophy of mind. She seems to claim that our relations of ideas, and so our every thought, would be rendered logically inconsistent without the existence of God, that is, a being who is distinguishable from ourselves in existence and qualities but, nevertheless, is capable of gaining our sympathy. In this way, Shepherd uniquely combines metaphysics and philosophy of emotion. She both examines emotions about God as well as refutes that our sense of our continuous, unbroken personal identity relates to any change in particles. Her stance on particles influences mind-body topics, leading her to consider the possibility of bodily resurrection of a deceased person who may well be capable of moving through limitless space in a future life. Moreover, through these topics, her explanation of the immateriality of the human mind also contains her suggested concept of the essence of God who has an universal mind that, although known to us through reason, remains obscure to us because the universal mind is not a limited body and cannot be known via the senses.
To conclude. In this paper, I try to go somewhat towards appreciating and uncovering Shepherd’s unique style of methodology and argumentation as well as the scale of her overall system of thought. I have done this by looking at how her overall philosophy is rooted in her concept of God. So, I argue, in order to understand any topic within her overall system of thought, one must first take account of her concept of God.
The document version of this abstract is available on my academia.edu at:
Here's Emily's reply:
So the following day, after learning that my abstract submissions were eligible for peer review / conference acceptance, I submitted an abstract for the BSHP Annual 2016 conference on Life and Death.
Although my 2015 abstract on Mary Shepherd was not accepted for the 'Early Modern Women on Metaphysics, Religion and Science' Conference, I was encouraged to submit again, this time to the Early Modern Dutch Seminar 2016 conference.
So I took up her suggestion and I did submit an abstract for the Early Modern Dutch Seminar 2016 conference, this time on Spinoza, titled: On the Role of True Worship for True Religion and Political Stability.
Abstract:
On the Role of True Worship for True Religion and Political Stability
In this paper, I wish to explore Spinoza’s arguments about true worship in his Theologico-Political Treatise (TTP). The topic of how to engender true worship is important because it has ramifications for Spinoza’s overall concept of true religion as well as showing the role religion has in relation to a state, particularly a Republic. Spinoza emphasises the value of underpinning religious practices with reason and understanding by illustrating how critical analysis of scripture supports piety, public peace and freedom which, in turn, strengthens religion and state alike. This is because, by strengthening reason over emotion and superstition, Spinoza is attempting to reduce potential causes of conflicts between religions and the authority of the state.
Thus, I would like to examine Spinoza’s view in his TTP that gaining a rational understanding of how and why people worship in the way they do creates a more secure basis for religion which, in turn, impacts on how people behave as citizens. In other words, rational worshippers are more likely to be rational citizens because they are more emotionally stable so more likely to be law abiding and behave in a beneficial way rather than being volatile and prone to causing civil disturbances. In this way, the state benefits from true worship because the latter helps to promote a stable, rationally based political society, especially because worship is by and large a collective activity. Therefore, I would like to focus on Spinoza’s arguments about worship and scripture and his view that how scripture is analysed and understood affects how people approach the ritual of worship (TTP 12). I would also like to show that Spinoza’s views are still relevant today. For instance, irrational religious fanaticism can, in some cases, still lead to political turmoil and war both within and between states. Therefore, in this paper, I wish to put forward the suggestion that scripture and true worship are pivotal aspects of Spinoza’s argument for true religion and the political stability of a state.
So I emailed back and accepted the opportunity to give my first academic talk at a university and present my Spinoza research paper: On the Role of True Worship for True Religion and Political Stability at the conference workshop: A Day with Spinoza.
See my next blog post for the continuation of this, including the conference details and my handout for the talk.
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