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Image Credit: Wellcome Collection, Prof. Bill Harris, Dr Flavio Dell'Acqua
THE THREE SOULS
in the History of Medicine and Natural Philosophy
5-6 October 2018
Reid Hall, Grande Salle
4 rue de Chevreuse 75006
A conference convened by Noga Arikha and Justin E. H. Smith
Keynote Speaker
Siri Hustvedt, novelist, essayist, New York

Speakers
George Makari, psychiatrist, historian of psychiatry, Cornell Weill, NY
Kathryn Tabb, philosopher, historian of philosophy, bioethicist, Columbia University, NY
Sophia Connell, classicist, Birkbeck College, University of London
Ohad Nachtomy, philosopher, Bar Ilan University and Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton
Manos Tsakiris, neuroscientist, Royal Holloway, Warburg Institute, London
Didier Sicard, internist, bioethicist, essayist, Paris
Marta Spranzi, historian and philosopher of science, Versailles
Laura Bossi, neurologist, historian of science, Sphere, Paris
Charles Wolfe, historian and philosopher of science, Ghent
Philippe Huneman, philosopher of biology, CNRS, Paris 1 Sorbonne
Laurent Cohen, neurologist, Hôpital Pitié-Salpêtrière
Justin E.H. Smith, historian and philosopher of science, Paris 7
Noga Arikha, historian of ideas, philosopher, writer, Sphere, Paris
The concept of soul seems to have outlived its use long ago. Yet, our increasing capacity to transform our bodies, and interfere in the very processes of birth and death, is accompanied by urgent questions about the nature of identity, the individual, consciousness, and the living organism. Debates in bioethics address these issues, but their public understanding is confused. Meanwhile, confusions abound regarding what the boundaries might be between the animate and the inanimate, the animal and the human, the organic and the mechanical.
We believe that a historical perspective will help understand where medicine, the sciences of mind and the life sciences stand at present with regard to these notions. It is high time to reassess the various uses of the historical idea of soul, ever since its conception by Plato as a unique spiritual substance and its division by Aristotle into three hierarchical parts. This tripartite soul survived in some form or other for over two thousand years, as an explanatory structure for everything from animal generation to higher consciousness. In the light of today’s debates regarding the relation between mind and brain and concomitant bioethical dilemmas, this persistent model requires in-depth examination.
Our conference will offer an opportunity for a dialogue between scientists, clinicians, and philosophers on the one hand, and historians of science and ideas on the other. The programme will create an unusual combination of a diachronic, historical approach with a synchronic, philosophical one.
Programme
Friday 5 October
1:30-1:45 Arrival, coffee
1:45-2:00 Welcome and presentation by Noga Arikha and Justin E. H. Smith
Introduction
2:00-2:30 Laura Bossi: The Three Souls: A Brief History of a Pervasive Idea
2:30-2:45 Discussion
Session 1
2:45-3:15 Sophia Connell: The Three Souls in Aristotle’s Biology
3:15-3:45 Karl-Léo Schwering: Animism and the Work of Identification in Medicine: The Case of Organ Transplantation
3:45-4:00 Discussion
4:00-4:15 Coffee break
Session 2
4:15-4:45 Ohad Nachtomy: Three Souls, Two Substances, One Person
4:45-5:15 Philippe Huneman: The Three Souls, the Two Lives, and the Functions: Some Remarks on Natural History, Experimental Physiology, and Kantianism
5:15-5:30 Discussion
5:30-6:00 General discussion
6:00-7:30 Cocktails
Saturday 6 October
8:45-9:00 Coffee
Session 3
9:00-9:30 Justin E.H. Smith: The Fourth Soul: Aristotle on Air as Ambient psukhē
9:30-10:00 George Makari: Soul Machine: The Invention of the Modern Mind
10:00-10:15 Discussion
Session 4
10:15-10:45 Laurent Cohen: The Fragmented Soul
10:45-11:15 Noga Arikha: Psyche, Soma, and the Self
11:15-11:30 Discussion
11:30-11:45 Coffee break
11:45-12:15 General discussion
12:15-2:00 Lunch break
Session 5
2:00-2:30 Kathryn Tabb: Madness in the Sensitive Soul
2:30-3:00 Didier Sicard: The Body’s Soul
3:00-3:15 Discussion
Session 6
3:15-3:45 Charles T. Wolfe: Trajectories in the Naturalisation of the Soul: Mind and Life
3:45-4:15 Marta Spranzi: Disorders of Consciousness, Neuroimaging and the Illusion of Objective Ethical Standards
4:15-4:30 Discussion
4:30-4:45 Coffee break
4:45-5:15 Manos Tsakiris: Heartfelt Self: Going Beyond Cardiocentrism and Encephalocentrism
5:15-5:45 General discussion
Break
Keynote
6:00-6:45 Siri Hustvedt: Never Mind, or: Plato, Placebo, Placenta
6:45-7:00 Discussion
7:00 Cocktails
In partnership with
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