Cusanus Society

Here are two calls for papers from the American Cusanus Society with deadlines at the end of this week:

American Cusanus Society panel sessions at the Renaissance Society of America conference, Berlin (Humboldt-Universität), 26-28 March 2015

American Cusanus Society panel sessions at the 50th International Congress on Medieval Studies, Kalamazoo (Western Michigan University), 14-17 May 2015

Into summer

I’ll be away from home for the next two months, which makes this a good time to put this blog into its summer mode, with limited posts. Of course, please continue to send me things, though I may save them for the fall.

Also, I continue to cherish the hope that this blog will serve as a forum for queries from scholars, and the summer would seem an ideal time to post those. So if you have any queries about how to find this, and who said that, I’ll be glad to post those. I proposed this last summer, and received not a single query, but I suspect the cause was not a lack of queries, but a reluctance to reveal one’s ignorance. This summer I’m going to show the way by posting some queries of my own. I have a lot of them. Please send your own to pasnau@colorado.edu.

Let me leave you with a joke. Sorry if you’ve heard this one before.

A Franciscan priest sits down next to a Jesuit priest while riding a train to Rome. After a while the Franciscan notices that the Jesuit is smoking and praying.
Franciscan: I’m surprised to see you doing that.
Jesuit: Why’s that?
Franciscan: Well, our order asked the Holy Father for permission to do that and were denied.
Jesuit: Really? We asked the Pope, and he said we could. What did you ask him?
Franciscan: We asked if we could smoke while we prayed, and he said no.
Jesuit: Ahhhh! That’s the problem. We Jesuits asked if we could pray while we smoked, and he said, “of course!”

(Thanks to Jerry Dworkin.)

Upcoming Conferences

• Nobilitas: Crocevia di Saperi tra Medioevo ed età Moderna (Trento, May 9-10, 2014) – program here.
• Medieval Theories of Relations – XXth European Symposium of Medieval Logic and Semantics (Cambridge, June 12-16) – mentioned in any earlier post, but worth mentioning again
• The Ideal of Self-Knowledge: Perspectives from the History of Philosophy (Konstanz, July 10-12, 2014) – medievalists are well represented.
•  The 20th Annual SIEPM Colloquium, The Origin and Nature of Language and Logic in Medieval Islamic, Jewish, and Christian Thought (August 20-23, 2014, Freiburg)
• Call for Papers: The Society for Medieval and Renaissance Philosophy is sponsoring sessions at the 2015 Renaissance Society of America meeting in Berlin (March 26-28, 2015). “We invite proposals for papers on any area of Renaissance philosophy and its historiography. Proposals on different aspects of Giordano Bruno’s philosophical thought are especially welcome. Proposals should include the author’s name, professional affiliation, and contact information; the paper’s title; a brief abstract (150 words or less); keywords; a brief curriculum vitae (300 words maximum) ; and any A/V requirements. Send proposals to Prof. Donald Duclow at donduclow@earthlink.net by May 20.”

Ockham on Sale

I’ve just seen that the Franciscan Institute is offering quite a good deal on William Ockham’s Opera. The 7-volume philosophical works is selling for $495, marked down from $700.   The 10-volume theological works is selling for $595, marked down from $900.

Philosophize This (Medieval) !

The Daily Nous has just turned me on to Stephen West’s podcast series, Philosophize This! West is very far being a professional philosopher (you should read his life story!), but, and in part for that reason, his podcasts are really great — clear, down-to-earth, witty, and tolerably accurate. (You have to listen to them — reading the transcripts doesn’t do them justice.)  The reason I’m posting this here is that West is currently working his way through the Middle Ages.  Check it out!