Yitzhak Melamed

In This Section

Yitzhak Y. Melamed (Assistant Professor of Philosophy) works on early modern philosophy. He received his Ph.D. from Yale University in 2005 and his M.A. (in History & Philosophy of Science) from Tel Aviv University in 1996. The main focus of his current work is Spinoza's metaphysics, though he has deep interest in most other early modern philosophers, as well as in German Idealism, and some aspects of contemporary analytic metaphysics (primarily, time, mereology and trope theory).

CV (DOC)

Contact

office: Stuart Hall, Room 231-A
office phone: 773/702-4370
email: ymelamed@uchicago.edu

Selected Publications

Salomon Maimon and the Rise of Spinozism in German Idealism (PDF)
Review of Maimon's Versuch (PDF)
On the Exact Science of Nonbeings (PDF)

Please see my CV (DOC) for a complete list of complications.

Recent Courses

23505/33505. Indivuation and the Identity of Indiscernibles

_Open to college and grad students. Can two things (such as bodies, events, moments, or thoughts) have precisely the same qualities? If so, what makes them different from each other? The course will study various theories of individuation in the early modern period and in contemporary metaphysics, Readings will include texts by: Aristotle, Thomas, Descartes, Spinoza, Locke, Leibniz, Clarke, Newton, Kant, Maimon, Russell, Max Black, Ayer, Ian Hacking, Robert Adams, and Michael Della Rocca. Autumn 2005.

26000. History of Philosophy - II: Medieval and Early Modern Philosophy

Open to college students. Prerequisites: Completion of general education requirement in the Humanities. PHIL 25000 helpful. The course is an introduction to the metaphysical thought of the 17th and 18th centuries. Among the primary topics to be discussed are: the concept of substance; the mind-body problem; the part-whole relation; the principle of sufficient reason; causation; time; skepticism; the nature and existence of God; free will. Readings will include texts by Suarez, Descartes, Spinoza, Malebranche, Locke, Leibniz, Berkeley, Hume, and Kant. Winter 2006, Winter 2007, Winter 2008.

27301/37301. The Principle of Sufficient Reason

Open to college and grad students. According to the Principle of Sufficient Reason every fact must have a reason, or explanation. In other words: there are no brute facts. If a certain penguin has three dots on its right wing - there must be a reason for this. If there are no penguins with precisely three dots on their right wings - there must be a reason for that as well. In the first half of the course we will read works by the two philosophers who introduced the principle: Spinoza and Leibniz. In the second part, we will read texts by Kant, Maimon, Hegel, Schopenhauer, and some contemporary analytic philosophers, and discuss the plausibility, implications, and justification of the principle. *Special note: Full title: The Principle of Sufficient Reason in Early Modern and Continental Philosophy. Field V. Spring 2007.

50103. Spinoza's Ethica

Open to grad students. Open to grad students. Prerequisites: Knowledge of Latin, French, German useful but not required. The seminar is an in depth study of Spinoza's major work, the Ethics, with a special emphasis on Spinoza's dialogue with Descartes. Among the topics to be discussed are: the style and structure of the book, the definition of God, the meaning of being and the question of ontology, infinity, duration and eternity, the nature of Spinoza's attributes, the substance-mode relation, Spinoza's proof of substance-monism, infinite modes, necessitarianism, the nature of ideas, parallelism, individuals and their limits, the nature of bodies, the three kinds of knowledge, the conatus and the affects, Spinoza's view of good and evil, blessedness and divine intellectual love. Spring 2008.
*Special note: co-taught with Jean Luc Marion

56000. Workshop: Early Modern Philosophy

Open to grad students. The purpose of the workshop is to provide a space for discussion of early modern philosophy among faculty and advanced graduate students, to bring to campus scholars working on innovative ideas, and to discuss relevant crucial and difficult texts.The workshop meets on alternate Fridays at 10:30 in the philosophy seminar room. For further details email Yitzhak Melamed (ymelamed@uchicago.edu) Autumn 2006.

56000. Workshop: Early Modern Philosophy

_Open to grad students. The purpose of the workshop is to provide a space for discussion of early modern philosophy among faculty and advanced graduate students, to bring to campus scholars working on innovative ideas, and to discuss relevant crucial and difficult texts. The workshop meets on alternate Fridays at 10:30 in the philosophy seminar room. For further details email Yitzhak Melamed (ymelamed@uchicago.edu) Spring 2007.

56000. Workshop: Early Modern Philosophy

56800. Spinoza's Metaphysics

Open to grad students. Metaphysics The seminar is an in depth study of the first two parts of Spinoza's major work, the Ethics. Discussion will focus on the following topics: the style and structure of the book, the definition of attribute, the substance-mode relation, infinity, duration and eternity, Spinoza's proof of substance-monism, infinite modes, necessitarianism, parallelism, individuals and their limits, the nature of bodies. Special attention will be given to the principle of sufficient reason and to the priority of the infinite over the finite as the two metaphysical principles which motivate many of Spinoza's claims. Spring 2006.

56801. Spinoza

Open to grad students. The seminar is an in-depth study of Parts 2 and 3 of Spinoza's Ethics. Discussion will focus on the following topics: the nature of thought, the doctrine(s) of parallelism, mind-body identity, the constitution of individuals, Spinoza's physics, error and its sources, holism, the three kinds of knowledge, the doctrine of the conatus, Spinoza's theory of the affects. The first week of the seminar will be dedicated to an overview of Spinoza's metaphysics (in order to bring aboard those who are not acquainted with Part 1 of the Ethics). Autumn 2006.
*Special note: Area assignment (V)