JNU | RTI | Directory | Contact Us | Emergency Services | List of Holidays
-A A +A

Spinoza and the Mark of the Mental

Spinoza and the Mark of the Mental

Event End Date
Event Title
Spinoza and the Mark of the Mental
Event Details
<strong>Centre for Philosophy School of Social Sciences</strong> a talk on <strong>"Spinoza and the Mark of the Mental"</strong> <strong>Martin Lin</strong> Department of Philosophy, Rutgers University <strong>Date: January 13, 2016</strong> <strong>Abstract: </strong>The mind, according to Spinoza, is a mode of a thinking substance. The essence of a thinking substance is thought. But what is thought? Spinoza is all but silent on this question. To some extent, this silence is appropriate. Thought is what Spinoza calls an 'attribute'. As such it is fundamental and so there is nothing more fundamental in terms of which it could be metaphysically analyzed. This does not preclude, however, that there is a mark of the mental: necessary and sufficient conditions that, while not the essence of the mind, serve to distinguish the mental from the non-mental. In this paper, I consider several candidates, drawn from tradition or Spinoza's own text, for being the mark of the mental. I argue that none of them are successful. Indeed, no candidate could be successful on pain of the kind of metaphysical dualism that Spinoza rejects. I conclude by considering what this means for Spinoza's philosophy of mind.

A warm welcome to the modified and updated website of the Centre for East Asian Studies. The East Asian region has been at the forefront of several path-breaking changes since 1970s beginning with the redefining the development architecture with its State-led development model besides emerging as a major region in the global politics and a key hub of the sophisticated technologies. The Centre is one of the thirteen Centres of the School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi that provides a holistic understanding of the region.

Initially, established as a Centre for Chinese and Japanese Studies, it subsequently grew to include Korean Studies as well. At present there are eight faculty members in the Centre. Several distinguished faculty who have now retired include the late Prof. Gargi Dutt, Prof. P.A.N. Murthy, Prof. G.P. Deshpande, Dr. Nranarayan Das, Prof. R.R. Krishnan and Prof. K.V. Kesavan. Besides, Dr. Madhu Bhalla served at the Centre in Chinese Studies Programme during 1994-2006. In addition, Ms. Kamlesh Jain and Dr. M. M. Kunju served the Centre as the Documentation Officers in Chinese and Japanese Studies respectively.

The academic curriculum covers both modern and contemporary facets of East Asia as each scholar specializes in an area of his/her interest in the region. The integrated course involves two semesters of classes at the M. Phil programme and a dissertation for the M. Phil and a thesis for Ph. D programme respectively. The central objective is to impart an interdisciplinary knowledge and understanding of history, foreign policy, government and politics, society and culture and political economy of the respective areas. Students can explore new and emerging themes such as East Asian regionalism, the evolving East Asian Community, the rise of China, resurgence of Japan and the prospects for reunification of the Korean peninsula. Additionally, the Centre lays great emphasis on the building of language skills. The background of scholars includes mostly from the social science disciplines; History, Political Science, Economics, Sociology, International Relations and language.

Several students of the centre have been recipients of prestigious research fellowships awarded by Japan Foundation, Mombusho (Ministry of Education, Government of Japan), Saburo Okita Memorial Fellowship, Nippon Foundation, Korea Foundation, Nehru Memorial Fellowship, and Fellowship from the Chinese and Taiwanese Governments. Besides, students from Japan receive fellowship from the Indian Council of Cultural Relations.