[Call for Papers] 2nd Porto Medieval and Early Modern Philosophy Summer School

Causality and Contingency
From the point of view of natural philosophy, metaphysics and epistemology
June 25-28, 2025
Instituto de Filosofia – Universidade do Porto

The Medieval and Early Modern Philosophy Thematic Line (Institute of Philosophy of the University of Porto) is pleased to announce the second Porto Summer School on Medieval and Early Modern Philosophy, on Causality and Contingency from the point of view of natural philosophy, metaphysics and epistemology.

The Summer School is essentially but not exclusively designed for PhD candidates and Master students. Applications from graduate students, postdoctoral researchers, and early careers in philosophy are also welcome.

The program will run in a blended way. There will be expository seminars presented by invited scholars, as well as workshops with presentations of papers submitted by the participants. Participants who want to present papers must submit their abstracts by the 15 April.

Description
In a famous passage of his Metaphysics, Aristotle questioned the possibility of a science of the contingent and ultimately denied its feasibility. The Middle Ages, in turn, inherited from Augustine a theoretical framework for understanding the relationship between natural causality and free will. Variations of these two models of action — the Greek model of absolute necessity and the Christian model of contingency — continued to evolve from that era through the Early Modern period up to the present time.

It is from this legacy that authors such as Anselm, Thomas Aquinas, Siger of Brabant, Duns Scotus, Ockham, to name the best known, developed models of causality and contingency, of natural necessity and chance, of movement in time and the foundation of knowledge, while engaging with theological questions such as divine omnipotence and foreknowledge, providence, human agency and freedom. It is from the confrontation with these models – rejecting, assimilating, or transforming them – that, through Descartes to Leibniz, Spinoza or Hume, the scientific paradigm and the new metaphysical perspectives of modernity will emerge.

This Summer School aims to explore the relationship between causality and contingency as examined by philosophers from the Middle Ages to the Early Modern period.

We invite papers that primarily, but not exclusively, engage with the following questions:

How did medieval and early modern philosophers answer the question: does the universe have a cause? If it does, what is the relationship between the primary cause and the secondary causes?

• Is the first cause genuinely free, assuming it exists?
• Is there any real contingency in a world created according to God’s intellect and will? Are there exceptions to a determinist and fatalist universe?
• What is the nature of matter and deprivation?
• If there are immaterial beings, are they affected by matter and time?
• Is free will a power, a cause, a choice between alternatives, or is it something else entirely?
• What is the nature of movement and time, and how does it interact with conditional statements about the future?

Invited Speakers
Professor Daniel Heider (University of South Bohemia, CZ)
Professor Nicola Polloni (Università degli studi di Messina, IT)
Professor Pascale Bermon (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique – CNRS, FR)
Professor Tiziana Suarez Nani (Université de Fribourg, CH)

Call for Applications
By April 15, applicants wanting to present papers must submit their abstracts (applicant identification, affiliation; up to 500 words length, 3 keywords) to this email: [email protected]
Confirmation of acceptance will be released to the applicants by April 20, 2025.

Poster

Fees and Support

• No fees apply to the selected participants.
• Students from outside Porto can apply for travel and accommodation grant from the Institute of Philosophy (up to 500 euros).

Scientific Committee
Anna Tropia, José Meirinhos, Paula Oliveira e Silva (chair), Vera Rodrigues

Proposal & Organizing Committee
Paula Oliveira e Silva, Vera Rodrigues.

Support
Eduarda Machado, Filipa Teixeira, Isabel Marques

LT Medieval and Early Modern Philosophy
Instituto de Filosofia da Universidade do Porto – UID/00502
Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT)