Andreas Blank
Free University, Germany  
Academic Year, 2002-03
The Interaction between Physiology
and Philosophy of Mind in Leibniz

Andreas Blank earned his Ph.D. in 1998 at the Center for Philosophy and Philosophy of Science at the University of Konstanz. Since then, he has held Visiting Lecturer positions at the Humboldt University of Berlin and the Free University of Berlin. His research interests focus on seventeenth century metaphysics and philosophy of science and on the history of early analytic philosophy. He is the author of a monograph about the logical structure of Leibniz’s metaphysics (Der logische Aufbau von Leibniz’ Metaphysik, Berlin-New York: De Gruyter, 2001), as well as numerous articles on the philosophy of Leibniz and the early Wittgenstein. His current research projects concern the role of the Stoic conception of pneuma in the development of Leibniz’s theory of matter, and the influence of the constructivism in Neo-Kantian philosophy of science on Wittgenstein’s early philosophy of logic.

June 2008

Articles:

“Julius Caesar Scaliger on Corpuscles and the Vacuum.” Forthcoming in Perspectives on Science. “Composite Substance, Common Notions, and Kenelm Digby’s Theory of Animal Generation.” Science in Context 20 (2007), 1–20.
“Wittgenstein on Action, Expectation, and Internal Relations, 1930–1932.”
Inquiry 50 (2007), 270–287. “Formal Concepts and Material Points in the Early Wittgenstein.” Canadian Journal of Philosophy 37 (2007), 245–262.
“Dalgarno, Wilkins, Leibniz and the Descriptive Nature of Metaphysical Concepts.” In Leibniz and the English Speaking World. Edited by Pauline Phemister and Stuart Brown. Dordrecht: Springer, 2007, 51–61.

Presentations:

“Clauberg, Arnauld, and Locke’s Critique of Maxims”, Invited Lecture, Conference on Locke and Port Royal, Maison Francaise d’Oxford, Oxford, UK,
2 May 2008 “Sennert, Boyle, and Leibniz on Organisms and Subordinate Forms”, Invited Lecture, Colloque Leibniz et les machines de la nature, ENS & Sorbonne, Paris, France, 14–15 March 2008 “Existential Dependence and the Question of Emanative Causation in Protestant Metaphysics, 1570–1620”, Invited Lecture, Early Modern Philosophy Colloquium, University of Chicago, USA, 7 March 2008 “Jean Riolan the Elder on Animal Generation and the Question of Pantheism”, Invited Lecture, Nature et surnaturel. Philosophies de la nature aux 16e et 17e siecles, Université du Luxembourg, 22–23 February 2008

May 2011
Biomedical Ontology and the Metaphysics of Composite Substances, 1540–1670. Munich: Philosophia, 2010.


“Daniel Sennert on Poisons, Epilepsy, and Subordinate Forms.” Perspectives on Science 19 (2011): 192–211.

“Material Souls and Imagination in Late Aristotelian Embryology.” Annals of Science 67 (2010): 187–204.

“Julius Caesar Scaliger on Plant Generation and the Question of Species Constancy.” Early Science and Medicine 15 (2010): 266–286.

“Sennert and Leibniz on Animate Atoms.” In Machines of Nature and Composite Substances in Leibniz. Edited by Justin E. H. Smith and Ohad Nachtomy. Dordrecht: Springer, 2011, 115–130.

“On Interpreting Leibniz’s Mill.” In Interpretation. Ways of Thinking about the Sciences and the Arts. Edited by Peter Machamer and Gereon Wolters. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2010, 111–129.

May 2012

Articles:

“Wittgenstein on Verification and Seeing-As, 1930–1932.” Inquiry 54 (2011): 614–632.

“Sennert and Leibniz on Animate Atoms.” In Machines of Nature and Composite Substances in Leibniz. Edited by Justin E. H. Smith and Ohad Nachtomy. Dordrecht: Springer, 2011, 115–130.

Talks:

“Derogatory Judgments and Late Aristotelian Theories of Noncomparative Justice”, Department of Philosophy, University of Hamburg, Germany, April 2012

“Domingo de Soto on Noncomparative Justice and the Benefit of Doubt”, Department of Philosophy, Bogazici University, Istanbul, Turkey, March 2012

“Mary Astell on Self-Esteem”, Conference on ‘Philosophizing Women and Theories of Affectivity in the 17th Century”, Eötvös University, Budapest, Hungary, March 2012