The Early Modern Philosophy Calendar

This website is maintained by Stephen H. Daniel at Texas A&M University as a service to scholars working in the history of early modern philosophy. It brings together information about calls for papers, event schedules, and contacts about presentations, conferences, and seminars dealing with research in 16th, 17th, and 18th century philosophy.

To have an event listed, send the appropriate information to Steve Daniel (sdaniel@tamu.edu). Events posted on various mailing lists and websites (e.g., philosop, philos, MWSeminar, Facebook Early Modern Philosophy Resources, Montreal EM Roundtable, philevents, the Kantian Calendar) are incorporated into this page. If no deadline is listed for calls for papers, that means either that the deadline has passed or presentations were by invitation only.

Due to COVID-19, some in-person conferences have been moved to an on-line format. Check with organizers about their plans.

Submission Deadlines:

Mar 24, 2023: Nordic Workshop Early Mod Phil, U Jyväskylä, Finland (24-25 Aug 2023) Mar 28, 2023: 18th Century Teaching/Learning in Mathematical Sciences, Ca' Foscari U, Venice (21-22 June 2023) Mar 30, 2023: 400th Anniversary Galileo's Assayer, Museo Galileo, Florence, Italy (28-30 June 2023) Mar 31, 2023: Women & Religion: Dissenters/Workers/Writers in Early Modern Europe, U College Dublin (12-13 June 2023) Apr 1, 2023: Spinoza and Spinozisms Summer School, U Groningen, Netherlands (4-7 July 2023) May 8, 2023: Int'l Soc Intellectual History: Crisis/Change, U Edinburgh, Scotland (4-6 Sept 2023) May 15, 2023: Leibniz Soc North America, Harvard U, Cambridge, MA (29 Sept-1 Oct 2023 May 30, 2023: Soc Kantian Studies in Spanish, U Santiago de Compostela, Spain (15-19 July 2024) June 1, 2023: Logic & Human Nature: Early Modern & Enlightenment, U Bucharest (15-16 Sept 2023

March 20, 2023
Monash Social Contract Research Network (SCRN) seminar series
Philip Pettit (Princeton/Australian National U Canberra): "Slavery and the Social Contract"
9:00-10:30am GMT; 8:00-9:30pm 20 March AEDT (online)
For Hobbes, people in the condition of nature have a shared language and society but lack a sovereign and a state Language and society ensure that they are inescapably competitive, unlike other animals. A sovereign and a state would solve the problem, subjecting each to a common, pacifying power. But how are they to transition from the one condition to the other? His theory of the social contract—-better perhaps, the political contract—-is meant to solve that problem.
Registration
More Information.

March 20-21, 2023
NOVA University of Lisbon
Lisbon, Portugal
Kant’s Aesthetics: Life and Animation
    The feeling of life (das Lebensgefühl) is a central concept in Kant’s aesthetic theory. Indeed, Kant begins the "Analytic of the Beautiful" by indicating that in the judgment of taste “the representation is related entirely to the subject, indeed to its feeling of life, under the name of the feeling of pleasure or displeasure” (KU, 5: 204, §1). In the "Analytic of the Sublime," he adds that the beautiful “directly brings with it a feeling of the promotion of life,” whereas the feeling of the sublime “is a pleasure that arises only indirectly, being generated, namely, by the feeling of a momentary inhibition of the vital powers and the immediately following and all the more powerful outpouring of them” (KU, 5: 244-245, §23). Similarly, the closely related notions of animation (Belebung) and animating (beleben) are central to Kant’s account. He repeatedly speaks of the animation of the mind or the cognitive faculties, and in section 49 of the "Critique of the Aesthetic Power of Judgment," he writes of the spirit as the “animating principle in the mind” as well as of the “animation” of the soul, works of art, and ideas of reason (cf. KU: 5, 313-317, §49). In comparison with other topics that occupy recent secondary literature on Kant’s aesthetics, studies of the feeling of life and the related notions of animation and animating are of a relatively small number. Among the few studies that focus on (or make interesting mention of) these notions, influential accounts include Choi & Cohen (2021), Fugate (2018), and Makkai (2021), as well as Caygill (2000), Makkreel (1990), and Zammito (1992). It is the main aim of this conference to consider the roles that the feeling of life, as well as the related notions of animation and animating, play in Kant’s aesthetic theory.
March 20
    13:30–14:00 João Lemos & Rachel Siow Robertson: Opening remarks
    14:00–14:45 Alix Cohen (Edinburgh): "Kant on the feeling of life in aesthetics and beyond"
    14:45–15:15 Discussion, chair João Lemos
    Panel 1, chair Francisco Maia
        15:30–16:15 Anna Enström: "The sensibility of Gemüt in aesthetic judgment: On the feeling of life between Geist and the Body"
        16:15–17:00 Giulia Milli: "Lebensgefühl and Geistesgefühl in Kant’s Aesthetics"
        17:00–17:45 Ilaria Ferrara: "Lebensgefühl and Lebenskraft: The vital feeling and the vital force between aesthetic consideration and evaluative meaning"
March 21
    Panel 2, chair João Lemos
        9:30–10:00 Luigi Filieri: "The Counter-Feeling of Freedom: Kant on Passivity, Humiliation and the Power of Pure Practical Reason"
        10:00–10:30 Till Hoeppner: "Judging of an Object as a Feeling Subject: On the Relation of Cognitive to Aesthetic Judgment in Kant"
        10:30–11:00 Discussion
    Panel 3, chair Francisco Lisboa
        11:15–11:45 Moran Godess-Riccitelli: "Linger in Beauty: Disinterestedness and Aesthetic Feeling of Life"
        11:45–12:15 Gerth Hyrkäs: "Creativity in Kant"
        12:15–12:45 Discussion
    Panel 4, chair João Lemos
        14:15–14:45 David-Benjamin Berger: "The Supersensible Substrate as a Clue to Understanding the Necessity of Spirit as the Animating Principle in the Mind"
        14:45–15:15 Larissa Wallner: "The feeling of life as a reflection of transcendental subjectivity"
        15:15–15:45 Discussion
    Panel 5, chair Francisco Lisboa
        16:00–16:30 Saniye Vatansever: "The Stoic Influence on Kant’s Conception of the Feeling of Life"
        16:30–17:00 Elena Romano: "Kant’s pleasure in the beautiful: from feeling of life to common sense"
        17:00–17:30 Discussion
All times are in Western European Time (Lisbon/London). More Information at Kantaesthetics.Weebly.com.
Contact: João Lemos

March 21, 2023
María de Paz (U Sevilla): "Women in Natural Philosophy: Margaret Cavendish and Émilie du Châtelet"
Amphitheatre FCiências.ID, Ciências U Lisboa
16:00-18:00
Lisbon, Portugal
The role of women in History and Philosophy of Science has largely been neglected. In several European universities the absence of women from the canon of philosophers in regular curricula is remarkable, this absence is even more prominent when the topic of study is related to natural sciences or STEM disciplines. The purpose of this talk is to introduce to the audience the work of two women who worked in natural philosophy: Margaret Cavendish, a singular author from the 17th century and Émilie du Châtelet, an outstanding scholar from the 18th century.
Contacts: Centro de Filosofia das Ciências da Universidade de Lisboa, Silvia Di Marco.

March 21, 2023
Monash Social Contract Research Network (SCRN) seminar series
Barbara Arneil (U British Columbia): "The State of Nature and Colonialism: Empty vs Waste Land at Home and Abroad"
9:00-10:30am (Tuesday 21 March AEDT; Monday 20 March 2pm PST, 5pm EST} (online)
The ‘state of nature’ has many meanings. In previous research, I have analyzed how John Locke’s understanding of the state of nature is central to his colonial justifications of settlers’ right to property in ‘waste’ lands of America via his agrarian labour theory of property. While land and agrarian labour have been central to the process of colonization back to its earliest etymological origins in the Latin word ‘colonia’, in this paper I examine how the positing of land in its natural state as ‘empty’ or ‘waste’ in the modern British colonial imagination has shaped domestic and settler colonial policies from the 17th to 19th centuries; manifested in the practices of enclosure in Britain, dispossession in America and mass resettlement/removal of ‘idle’ and/or ‘irrational’ people(s) both at home and abroad.
Registration
More Information.

March 23-24, 2023
Reappearing Ink: Workshop on Early Modern Philosophy and Metaphilosophy
Faculty of Philosophy, Oude Boteringestraat, 52, Room Alfa
University of Groningen, Netherlands
Thursday 23rd March
    10.00-10.50 Jonathan Shaheen (Stockholms U): "Stoic Elements in Cavendish’s Metaphysics: The Case of Complete Blending as Neo-Chrysippean Mixture"
    11.00-11.50 Maaike Kopershoek (Groningen): "Émilie du Châtelet and the Nature of Fire"
    14.00-14.50 Olivia Branscum (Oklahoma): "On the Epistemic Benefits of Reading Women Philosophers: Conway and Cavendish as Cases in Point"
    15.00-15.50 Steph Marston (Birbeck, London): "Anne Conway: How (Not) to Be a Monist"
    16.15-17.05 M. Folescu & Tieying Zhou (U Missouri): "Reid and Shepherd on Beauty and the Subjectivity of Taste"
Friday 24th March
    10.00-10.50 Simon Wimmer (TU Dortmund): "Astell on Thinking Matter and Natural Immortality"
    11.00-11.50 Peter West (Northeastern U London) & Manuel Fasko (U Basel): "Mary Shepherd on Space and Minds"
    13.00-13.50 Katarina Peixoto (PD-USP-FAPESP-Brasil): "For an Elisabeth’s Geisteschichte: On the Legacy of Disappearing Ink for a Research Programme to Be Established"
    14.00-14.50 Kylie Shahar (Minnesota, Twin Cities): "Catharine Trotter Cockburn: A View of Her Own"
    15.10-17.00 Jessica Gordon-Roth (Minnesota, Twin Cities) & Nancy Kendrick (Wheaton C Massachusetts): "Mary Astell as a Virtue Epistemologist"
Contact: Anna Ortín Nadal (Groningen).

March 23, 2023
Book Discussion: The Methods of Metaphilosophy: Kant, Maimon, and Schelling on How to Philosophize about Philosophy (Klostermann 2022) by Jelscha Schmid (Basel)
5.00-7.00 pm (CET) on Zoom
Speakers: Thomas Sturm (U Autònoma Barcelona), Peter Thielke (Pomona C Claremont, CA), Naomi Fisher (Loyola U Chicago)
On the basis of an examination of Kant's, Maimon's, and Schelling's metaphilosophies, this book investigates how, starting from Kant's diagnosis of a "groping metaphysics," a philosophical research program develops whose goal is to elucidate the nature and method of philosophy itself. What unites their projects is the thesis that philosophy must begin with an investigation of its own nature, and that this investigation, because of its special object, must be accompanied by a reflection on its method. To this end, their methods are discussed on the assumption that they arise from a particular engagement with the theories and practices of the 18th century sciences. Finally, this discussion provides the basis for showing in what ways philosophical experiments, fictions, or models offer methodological solutions to the problem of developing a scientific metaphysics.
To receive the Zoom link, register here.
Contact.

March 24, 2023
Kant, Oltre Kant: Seminario Genova-Milano-Pavia-Torino
Macarena Marey (CONICET, Buenos Aires): "States of nature as theories of normativity: Kant and his predecessors"
5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. (Turin time)
Online on WebEx.
Based on text distributed in advance among participants. To receive the text and the link, please register by writing to: Gabriele Gava.

March 24-26, 2023
Blaise Pascal's Quadricentennial: Conference (in person and online)
Scripps College, Claremont, California
Vita Nova Lecture Hall (100), 385 E 9th St
Friday, March 24
I. Religion, Ethics, and Political Philosophy
    9:00-10:00  Roger Ariew (South Florida): "Pascal’s Wager in the Light of the Apologetics of His Time"
    10:15-11:15  John Schellenberg (Mount Saint Vincent U): "Pascal on Divine Hiddenness" (Zoom)
    11:30-12:30  Syliane Malinowski-Charles & Marc André Bernier (Québec à Trois-Rivières): "The Ethics of Debate in Pascal’s Provinciales"
    1:30-2:30  Ryan Hanley (Boston C): "Pascal's Political Philosophy"
II. Epistemology & Metaphysics
    2:45-3:45  Yoen Qian-Laurent (Sorbonne): "What You See is What You See: Knowledge, Belief and Truth in Pascal's Philosophy"
    4:15-5:15  Elodie Cassan (École Normale Supérieure, Lyon): "Pascal and the Port-Royal Logic"
Saturday, March 25
III. Mathematics and Natural Philosophy
    9:00-10:00  Sophie Roux (École Normale Supérieure, Paris): "Pascal and Philosophy of Science"
    10:15-11:15  Sébastien Maronne (U Toulouse): "Dettonville and Euclid’s Givens" (Zoom)
    11;30-12:30  Aaron Spink (Dartmouth C): "Pascal’s Physics"
IV. Philosophical Legacy
    1:30-2:30  Lawrence Pasternack (Oklahoma St): Kant (Zoom)
    2:45-3:45  Lydia Amir (Tufts): Kierkegaard
    4;15-5:15  Sylvain Josset (Sorbonne): "Pascal in Light of the Phenomenology of Max Scheler and Martin Heidegger"
    6:00-9:00  Conference Banquet at the Hampton Dining Room
Sunday, March 26
(IV. Philosophical Legacy cont’d)
    9:00-10:00  Michael Moriarty (Cambridge): Marxists
    10:15-11:15  Madeleine Ropars (Caen): Malebranche (Zoom)
V. Pascal’s Context
    11:30-12:30  Dan Arbib (École Normale Supérieure, Paris): Pascal and Descartes
    1:30-2:30  Daniel Colette (Marquette): Jacqueline Pascal, Gilberte (Pascal) Périer, and Marguerite Périer
    2:45-4:00  General Discussion
Website.
Contact: Yuval Avnur

March 28, 2023
Hybrid conference: Che le cose recondite vengano in luce: Four hundred years from The Assayer by Galileo Galilei
University of Notre Dame Rome Global Gateway
Via Ostilia 15
Rome, Italy
What are comets made of? Galileo Galilei published The Assayer in 1623 in order to challenge the theories of Jesuit Orazio Grassi. Although he did not find the right answer, he wanted to prove Grassi wrong. The nature of comets was an interesting issue, but explaining how science should work was even more urgent. Galileo wanted hidden things to come to light and open a new epistemology of science. This conference delves into contents and implications of Galileo’s masterpiece, where he emerges as a tenacious scientist, skillful rhetorician, and witty polemicist.
    14.00  Silvia Dall’Olio (Director, Rome Global Gateway) and Philip Larrey (Dean, Faculty of Philosophy, Pontifical Lateran U): Greetings and Welcome
    14.10-14:30: Introduction: Flavia Marcacci (Pontifical Lateran U/U Notre Dame Rome Global Gateway): “'The choleric and the competitor': The Challenge of the Comets in The Assayer by Galileo Galilei"
    14.30-15.30  Franco Giudice (U Cattolica Sacro Cuore, Milan): TBA; discussant Denis Robichaud (Notre Dame)
    15.30-16.30  Ingrid Rowland (Notre Dame): "The Assayer and Galileo as a Renaissance man"; discussant Davide Pietrini (U Urbin, Italy)
    17.00-18.00  Ugo Baldini (Padua): "How did a question of positional astronomy evolve into one on the nature of matter and sense data?"; discussant Caterina Agostini (Notre Dame)
    18.00-18.15  Conclusion and Final Remarks
Website.
Registration.
Contact: Flavia Marcacci.

March 29, 2023
Kant Zentrum NRW
Stephan Zimmermann: 'Was versteht Kant unter einer „Ausnahme“? Zur Unterscheidung vollkommener und unvollkommener Pflichten in der Grundlegung zur Metaphysik der Sitten'
Zoom link
18:00 – 20:00 CET
Kant Zentrum Series Site.
Contact: Larissa Berger.

March 31-April 1, 2023
"'The Bohemian Leibniz': Logic and Metaphysics in Leibniz and Bolzano"
AKH Campus Spitalgasse/Alserstraße
University of Vienna, Austria
Alte Kapelle, Entrance in the passageway from Hof 1 to Hof 2
March 31
    Not without reason, Bolzano once was awarded the honorary title “The Bohemian Leibniz“: Leibniz and Bolzano were among the most capable logicians of their times and Bolzano’s philosophical views were heavily influenced by Leibniz. While Leibniz’s influence on Bolzano’s views is visible, it hardly has been discussed in detail. The aim of this workshop is to improve this situation by advancing the exchange between Leibniz and Bolzano scholars on two tightly interrelated parts of their philosophical systems: Logic and Metaphysics.
    Firstly, we want to discuss themes in logic, in the broadest sense, common to Leibniz and Bolzano against the background of the distinction between subjective mental states and their objective contents. Bolzano explicitly drew the distinction, focussing in much of his theoretical philosophy on abstract objective contents. Thereby he departs from an understanding of logic that focuses on mental acts or states and that, arguably, Leibniz adhered to. Nevertheless, Bolzano frequently cites Leibniz as an inspiration and he even takes the distinction to be already contained in Leibniz’s writings. In order to properly assess Leibniz’s influence and his discussion of Leibniz, we need to clarify what Leibniz’s and Bolzano’s positions on notions such as truth, knowledge, propositions or ideas were.
    Secondly, Leibniz and Bolzano were famously concerned with reasons and metaphysical principles. But while Leibniz adhered to the Principle of Sufficient Reason, Bolzano was skeptical of this principle and Leibniz’s arguments for it. Concerning other Leibnizian principles, Bolzano rejects some, such as the Predicate in Subject Principle, while he accepts others, such as Mereological Atomism and the Principle of the Identity of Indiscernibles. Since it is often assumed that Leibniz’s principles are tightly related to one another, such a partial adoption is intriguing. In order to achieve a better understanding of its tenability, we want to discuss such metaphysical principles in Leibniz and Bolzano, which are also central for their logical systems. The schedule of the conference:
    10:00-11:30 Sebastian Bender (Humboldt U Berlin): "How many PSRs? Leibniz on Intelligibility and Reasons"
    11:45-13:15 Maria van der Schaar (Leiden): "Leibniz on Cogitatio Possibilis and the Sign of Assertive Force"
    14:30-16:00 Julia Borcherding (Cambridge): "Knowing and Necessity: Leibniz’s Epistemology of Necessary Truths"
    16:30-18:00 Jan Claas (Vienna): "Conceptual Analysis and Unconscious Ideas"
April 1
    10:00-11:30 Wolfgang Künne (Hamburg): "Zwei Monadologien" (in German)
    11:45-13:15 Gonzalo Rodriguez-Pereyra (Oriel C Oxford): "Bolzano on the Identity of Indiscernibles"
    14:30-16:00 Stefan Roski (Hamburg): "Bolzano on Complete Causes and Causal Regularities"
    16:30-18:00 Edgar Morscher (Salzburg): "Bolzano on Miracles and Probabilities"
Website.
Contact: Jan Claas.

April 5-8, 2023
APA Pacific Division Meeting
The Westin St. Francis, 335 Powell Street
San Francisco, California
Wednesday, Apr. 5
    1:00-4:00  Modern Philosophy and Indian Philosophy, chair Ralph H. Craig III (Stanford)
        1:00-1:45  Parimal Patil (Harvard): “Causal Explanations Without Causal Relations”
        1:45-2:30  Fatema Amijee (British Columbia): “How to Create the Best of All Possible Worlds”
        2:30-3:15  Keota Fields (Massachusetts Dartmouth): “Shepherd on External Objects: Is She a Bundle Theorist?”
        3:15-4:00  Catherine Prueitt (British Columbia): “Utpaladeva on Externality”
    4:00-6:00  Kant
        4:00-5:00  Morganna Lambeth (Purdue): “A Realist Reading of Kant? Disentangling Heidegger from Riehl and Külpe”; commentator David Suarez (Toronto); chair Robin Muller (Cal St Northridge)
        5:00-6:00  Mathis Koschel (Southern California): “The Idea of Mechanistic Nature”; commentator Thomas Marré (Catholic U America); chair Russell Wahl (Idaho St)
    6:00-9:00  New Narratives: Monism, Self-Knowledge, and Self-Governing Powers in Seventeenth-Century European Philosophy, chair Katharina Kaiser (UC Berkeley)
        6:00-7:00  David Cunning (Iowa): “Cavendish on Self-Motion: What It Is and What It Isn’t”
        7:00-8:00  Olivia Branscum (Oklahoma): “Self-Knowledge as (Conscious?) Self-Feeling in Cavendish’s Later Writings”
        8:00-9:00  Kristin Primus (UC Berkeley): “With Oneself and with Another: Spinoza on Knowledge of Selves”
Thursday, April 6
    1:00-4:00  Modern Philosophy
        1:00-1:55  Iziah Topete (Penn St): “Amo on the Meaning of Freedom”; commentator Dwight Lewis (Minnesota); chair Brandon Look (Kentucky)
        1:55-2:50  Jesse Loi (Ohio St): “The Role of Demonstration in Instructive Knowledge in Locke”; commentator Lex Newman (Utah); chair Stephen H. Daniel (Texas A&M)
        2:55-3:50  Jan Forsman (Iowa): “Teresa’s Demons: Teresa of Ávila’s Influence on the Cartesian Skeptical Scenario of Demonic Deception”; commentator Lex Newman (Utah); chair Jack Stetter (Loyola New Orleans)
    4:00-6:00  Book Symposium: Daniel Sutherland, Kant’s Mathematical World; chair Thomas Land (Victoria)
        4:00-4:30  R. Lanier Anderson (Stanford)
        4:30-5:00  Jeremy Heis (UC Irvine)
        5:00-5:30  Tyke Nunez (U South Carolina)
        5:30-6:00  Daniel Sutherland (U Illinois, Chicago)
    4:00-6:00  Locke on Demonstration; chair Susan Castro (Wichita St)
        4:00-4:30  Jennifer Marusic (Edinburgh): “Locke on Moral Demonstration”
            4:30-5:00  Julie Walsh (Wellesley C): comments; discussion
        5:00-5:30  Patrick Connolly (Johns Hopkins): “Locke on Substances and the Nature of Demonstration”
            5:30-6:00  Julie Walsh (Wellesley C): comments; discussion
    8:00-10:00  Hume Society: Preview of the Future of Hume Studies: Recent Work by Graduate Students, chair Liz Goodnick (Metropolitan St U Denver)
        8:00-9:00  Bridger Ehli (Yale)
        9:00-10:00  Tarik D. LaCour (Texas A&M)
Friday, April 7
    1:00-4:00  Physics and Metaphysics in Leibniz; chair Michael Hansen (Brigham Young)
        1:00-1:40  Peter Myrdal (U Turku, Finland): “Force and the Metaphysics of Powers in Leibniz”
            1:40-2:10  Stephen Puryear (North Carolina St): comments; discussion
        2:10-2:50  Donald Rutherford (UC San Diego): “Mind over Matter: Leibniz’s Grounding of Physical Force in the Reality of Monads”
            2:50-3:20  Stephen Puryear (North Carolina St): comments; discussion
        3:20-4:00  Questions and comments
    7:00-9:00  North American Kant Society: Book Symposium: Kristi Sweet, Kant on Freedom, Nature and Judgment: The Territory of the Third Critique; chair Oliver Sensen (Tulane)
        7:00-7:30  Kristi Sweet (Texas A&M): Summary Remarks
        7:30-8:00  Critic: Morganna Lambeth (Purdue); replies
        8:00-8:30  Critic: John H. Zammito (Rice); replies
        8:30-9:00  Questions
Saturday, April 8
    9:00-12:00  Book Symposium: Deborah Boyle, Mary Shepherd: A Guide; chair Rebecca Copenhaver (Washington U St. Louis)
        Manuel Fasko (Basel)
        David Landy (San Francisco St)
        Antonia LoLordo (Virginia)
        Deborah Boyle (Coll Charleston)
    Colloquium: History of Logic and Language  chair Kristin Primus (UC Berkeley)
        9:00-10:00  Emanuele Costa (Vanderbilt): “Elizabeth on Attributal Predication: Exclusive and Non-Exclusive Dualism”; commentator Larry Nolan (Cal St Long Beach)
    Teaching Hub: Innovative Pedagogy, chair Rebeka Ferreira (Green River Coll)
        1:00-2:00  Madeline Cronin (Santa Clara U): “Descartes Is Not Our Father? Student Driven Critical Considerations of Canonical Narratives"
    6:00-8:00  North American Kant Society; chair Kristi Sweet (Texas A&M)
        6:00-6:40  Katharina Kraus (Notre Dame): “Kant on the Self: Knowing and Being”
        6:40-7:20  Oliver Sensen (Tulane): “Kant’s Transcendental Argument for a Self”
        7:20-8:00  Patricia Kitcher (Columbia): “Practical and Empirical Knowledge of the Cognitive Self”
Website.

April 6, 2023
Séminaire International et Interdisciplinaire de Recherches Spinozistes
Université Paris 8, Maison de la recherche, salle A2 204
18:00-20:00
Pascal Sévérac (Paris Est Creteil): "Faire renaître l'enfance (avec Spinoza)"
Contact: Jack Stetter (Loyola, New Orleans)

April 13-14, 2023
Workshop: Cartesianism and Philosophy of Mind
Finnish Institute of Rome: Villa Lante al Gianicolo
Passeggiata del Gianicolo 10
Rome, Italy
Philosophers labelled as Cartesians proceed through reactions to views and arguments originating in a single source, the works of Descartes. Despite this commonality, they are variegated as to what they consider to constitute the core of “the Cartesian philosophy” and they disagree with each other about specific doctrines. In philosophy of mind especially, we find a plurality of views that are closely related to Descartes’ own views, yet they put forth additional substantial philosophical claims, not all of which are easily reconcilable with Descartes’ original views. For example, Desgabets insists that having an idea of an object entails the existence of the object outside the mind, la Forge claims that the mind is immediately conscious of everything which takes place in itself as it is acting or is acted on, Malebranche holds that the intimate presence of the mind with itself does not afford apprehension of its nature, and Elisabeth argues that the mind must have some affinities with extension in order for the union between mind and body to be intelligible. Are these views compatible with or do they mark a departure from Descartes? If the latter, do we have good reasons to think of them as Cartesian views, nonetheless? Most importantly, what is the philosophical import of these views?
    The workshop is related to our book project Cartesianism and Philosophy of Mind, which aims to shed light on its subject with an inclination toward systematic yet context sensitive discussion of the examined issues. We invite abstracts (ca. 500 words) for papers to be presented at the workshop. Send abstract submissions to Jani Sinokki no later than February 22. We expect to have 2–3 available slots. We aim to communicate results very soon after the deadline. Possible topics include, but are not restricted to, the following issues in Cartesian philosophy of mind:
    · Sensory perception
    · Intellectual perception
    · Mind–world relations (including mind–body relation)
    · Nature, structure, and function of consciousness
    · Self and the human being
    · Volitions and passions
    · Representation, signification, and language
Confirmed speakers of the workshop include Olivier Dubouclez, Steven Nadler (via Zoom), Dániel Schmal, and Lauren Slater.
Contacts: Vili Lähteenmäki & Jani Sinokki, University of Oulu

April 14, 2023
The Vital Spark: Alexander Broadie and the Scottish intellectual tradition
University of Glasgow
St Andrew’s Building, Ogilvie Room (526)
Glasgow, Scotland
    10.00-10:30: Coffee and Welcome
    10.30-11:00: Mark Elliott (U Highlands & Islands/Wycliffe Coll): "Alexander Broadie and the Scottish Intellectual Tradition"
    11.00-11:30: Philip Tonner (Glasgow): "The Shadow of Duns Scotus: Alexander Broadie and the Subtle Doctor"
    11.30-12;00: Giovanni Gellera (Geneva): "New work on 17th Century Scottish Philosophy"
    13.00-13:30: Jack Lyons (Glasgow): "The Chair of Logic and Rhetoric at the University of Glasgow"
    13.30-14:00: Maria Rosa Antognazza (Kings C London): "Alexander Broadie, Aberdeen, and Thomas Reid" (recorded contribution)
    14.00-14:30: Gordon Graham (Edinburgh Sacred Arts Foundation): "Scottish Philosophy in the Nineteenth Century"
    15.00: Summary of the Day: Potential contribution from Alexander Broadie
To confirm your attendance, contact Philip Tonner, University of Glasgow

April 14-15, 2023
British Society for the History of Philosophy Conference: Knowing in Historical and Cross-Cultural Context
University of Aberdeen, Scotland
Speakers: Peter Adamson (Ludwig-Maximilians-U München), Maria Rosa Antognazza (King’s College London), Karyn Lai (U New South Wales)
Call for Papers: this conference will explore conceptions and forms of knowing in historical and cross-cultural context. Contemporary analytic epistemology has focused on the relationships between knowing and believing and between knowing-that and knowing-how. But has this always been the case in the history of epistemology? In recent years, there has been increasing interest in social epistemology and virtue epistemology, which raises more obvious questions of historical and cultural variation. What other epistemological conceptions and concerns can be found around the world and through history? Comparative epistemology is now starting to thrive, so how can the debates here be integrated into ‘mainstream’ epistemology? Questions to be addressed include:
    • What forms of knowing other than knowing-that and knowing-how are there? Have some forms of knowing been privileged at different times and in different cultures?
    • How has the relationship between knowing and believing been understood by different philosophers, in different historical periods, and in different cultures?
    • What variation in epistemic concepts is there across history and cultures?
    • How have different cultures regarded the value of knowledge?
    • How should epistemology be reconceived to do better epistemic justice to the full range of epistemic concepts?
We welcome submissions that address any of these or related questions, from any disciplinary or interdisciplinary perspective. A special issue of the BJHP is planned, with selected papers from the conference. Abstracts of 300–400 words to be sent by 7 January 2023 to: Bshp2023@gmail.com. Abstracts should be prepared for blind reviewing, with author details on a separate page. Authors will be informed by the end of January at the latest.
Contact: Michael Beaney.

April 19, 2023
New York/New Jersey Early Modern Philosophy Seminar
Lauren Kopajtic (Fordham): “Prying Eyes: The Moral Significance of Curiosity in Adam Smith and Joanna Baillie”
John Jay College of Criminal Justice, 524 West 59th Street, New Building, Room 8.63.24
New York, NY
7:30 to 9:30 p.m.
Visitors must show proof of COVID-19 vaccination to enter the college. Masks are optional.
Enrique Chavez-Arvizo (CUNY)

April 20-22, 2023
Life in the Spotlight: The Philosophy of Nature around 1800 in the Context of Biocentric Debates in Environmental Ethics
Department of Philosophy, Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel
Kiel, Germany
The theme of this conference picks up on the question of life and its meaning for human beings and the environment, in the contexts of modern biocentric debates about contemporary environmental ethics and the concept of life around 1800, with emphasis on the philosophy of nature. Researchers in the field of philosophy, but also from related disciplines in the arts, are cordially invited to apply. Application documents must include: an abstract (a maximum of 400 words with no indication of authorship) and a separate document providing brief information on the applicant’s academic background (a maximum of one page). Languages: German, English. Email to leben.kiel2023@gmail.com.
    Covering or subsidizing of travel and accommodation costs cannot be guaranteed, but the organizers are endeavoring to secure funding. A post-conference publication on the theme of the conference is in prospect. For answers to questions and further information regarding the conference, please contact Dr Georg Oswald.
Website.

April 26, 2023
Kant Zentrum NRW
Karin de Boer: "Thema: Why does Kant consider the Critique of Pure Reason to proceed synthetically?"
Zoom link
18:00 – 20:00 CET
Kant Zentrum Series Site.
Contact: Larissa Berger.

April 26, 2023
New York/New Jersey Early Modern Philosophy Seminar
Kathryn Tabb (Bard College): TBA
John Jay College of Criminal Justice, 524 West 59th Street, New Building, Room 8.63.24
New York, NY
7:30 to 9:30 p.m.
Visitors must show proof of COVID-19 vaccination to enter the college. Masks are optional.
Enrique Chavez-Arvizo (CUNY)

April 28-29, 2023
W. H. Werkmeister and Southern North American Kant Society (SNAKS) Study Group Conference
Florida State University
Tallahassee, Florida
Invited speakers: Mavis Biss (Loyola Maryland), David O. Brink (UC San Diego), Melissa S. Fahmy (Georgia), Paul Guyer (Brown), Lawrence Pasternack (Oklahoma St), Jennifer K. Uleman (Purchase Coll)
Papers on all topics relevant to Kant’s moral philosophy are welcome, but at least one day of the conference will be devoted to Kant on Moral Perfectionism and Naturalism.     On the face of it, Kant rejects both moral perfectionism and moral naturalism. Moral perfectionism, he writes, while “better than the theological concept” in that it “removes the decision of the question [of right and wrong] from sensibility to the juridical court of pure reason,” is “empty” and so “useless”; moreover, because of this, it ultimately brings us back to the immoral principle of self-love. Moral naturalism, on the other hand, insofar as it is understood as equating moral facts with certain features of the empirical world, self-evidently contradicts, among other things, the sharp distinction between what is, and what ought to be. And yet if we look a bit deeper, it soon becomes clear that neither issue can be so simply decided. Kant frequently speaks of “moral perfection” and of conformity to the moral law as the “perfection of freedom.” He also includes duties to both natural and moral perfection in the Metaphysics of Morals (6:444-446). Is this terminology merely superficial or does it indicate a link to the moral perfectionism of his predecessors? In a similar way, Kant constructs the three formulae of the moral law through “a certain analogy with nature,” refers to the moral world frequently as “supersensible nature” and just as often appeals to empirical nature’s purposes when deriving particular duties (most famously that forbidding suicide in the Groundwork, 4:421-4:22). The question then arises: Even if Kant rejects moral empiricism (or at least one form of it), does this mean that he rejects any form of moral naturalism?
    This two-day conference has three aims, namely, (1) to answer the questions above by better understanding the relationship between the perfectionist and perhaps naturalistic tendencies in Kant’s moral thought and those that are generally regarded as anti-perfectionist and anti-naturalist, (2) to explore what light can be shed on other Kantian doctrines through such an approach, and (3) to clarify the relationship between moral perfectionism and moral (anti-)naturalism in Kant’s thought. All papers touching on these themes, as well as others in Kant’s practical philosophy, will be considered for presentation. Appropriate topics include, but are not limited to the following:
    · Kant’s relation to traditional forms of ‘perfectionism,’ ancient, medieval or modern (e.g. in Leibniz, Wolff or Baumgarten)
    · Kant’s interpretation of the ancient ethical rule ‘to live according to nature’
    · The role of natural teleology in Kant’s derivation of certain duties
    · The relation between ‘perfection’ and ‘nature’ in Kant or his predecessors
    · The role of the analogy with ‘formal nature’ in Kant’s three formulae of the moral law, most particularly FLN, and/or in the Typic of Pure Practical Reason
    · The connection between moral perfectionism and moral naturalism in Kant and his predecessors
    · Kant and naturalism more broadly construed
Submission Deadline: February 15, 2023. If submitting as a graduate student, please indicate such on your cover page. The best graduate student paper will receive a $200 stipend and be eligible for the Markus Herz Prize. Please submit abstracts (500 words max., excluding bibliography) with a cover sheet including your name, affiliation, and paper title here.
Contact: Courtney Fugate.

April 28-30, 2023
Reappearing Ink: Celebrating the Legacy of Eileen O'Neill
Department of Philosophy, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA
Friday, April 28
    4:30–5:45  Marcy Lascano (Kansas): “’To Spin a Garment of Memory:’ Margaret Cavendish on Memory and Remembrance”
Saturday, April 29
    9:15–10:45  Kevin Lower (Villanova): “Margaret Cavendish’s Relational Metaphysics of Action and Passion”; commentator David Cunning (Iowa)
    11:00–12:30  Lauren Kopajtic (Fordham): “Women’s Work: The Gendered Labor of Emotion Regulation in the Eighteenth Century”; commentator Lisa Shapiro (McGill)
    1:45–3:15  Michaela Manson (Monash): “Circumventing the Astellian Circle: Friendship in Astell and an Anonymous Manuscript”; commentator Deborah Boyle (Charleston)
    3:30–5:00  Qiu Lin (Cornell): “Towards a New Phase of Du Châtelet Scholarship: From Institutions de Physique (1740) to Institutions Physiques (1742)”; commentator Marius Stan (Boston College)
    6:30–8:30  Banquet; Christia Mercer (Columbia): “Anne Conway on the Critters in Our Food”
Sunday, April 30
    9:30–11:30  Syllabus workshop and brunch
Contacts: Julia Jorati, Louise Antony, Ernesto Garcia.

May 4-5, 2023
Scottish Seminar in Early Modern Philosophy
University of St. Andrews, Scotland
Keynote speakers: Jennifer Marusic (Edinburgh), Philippe Hamou (Paris-Nanterre)
May 4
    10.45-11.00 Welcome
    11.00-12.00 Jennifer S. Marušic (Edinburgh): "Locke on Moral Demonstration"
    12.15-13.00 John J. Callanan (King's College London): "Mandeville's Genealogy of Virtue"
    14.00-14.45 Michael Jaworzyn (Edinburgh): "'Freedom is a relation': Metaphysics, Freedom, and Action in the Early German Reception of Locke"
    14.45-15.30 Marzia Marconi (Pavia/Turin): "Custom as legitimate normative standard: Velthuysen's Epistolica dissertatio de justi et decori (1651) as philosophical source of Locke's 'law of reputation'"
    15.45-16.30 Julie Klein (Villanova: "Producing Agreement: Spinoza's Politics as Repressive Empowerment"
    16.30-17.15 Marie Wuth (Hamburg): "A Tale of Two States: Spinoza on the Civil and the Natural"
May 5
    9.00-9.15 Welcome
    9.15-10.00 Manuel Fasko (Basel) and Peter West (New College of the Humanities, London): "Mary Shepherd on Space and Minds"
    10.00-10.45 Clara Carus (Paderborn/Oxford): "Monads or Simple Beings in Leibniz and Du Châtelet"
    11.00-11.45 Xiao Qi (St. Andrews): "Contract and Custom: Hume's Twofold Conception of Convention"
    11.45-12.30 Enrico Galvagni (St. Andrews): "King and Hume on the Construction of Value"
    13.30-14.30 Philippe Hamou (Sorbonne, Paris): "The World Without Us: Reflections on Early-Modern Realism"
    14.45-15.30 Dario Galvao (Sorbonne, Paris/São Paulo): "When Philosophy meets Hunting: Condillac, Le Roy and the Origins of Ethology"
    15.30-16.15 Marco Fornaseri (Turin): "The Boyle Lectures as a Reaction to Irreligion in 18th-Century British Culture"
Contact: Mogens Lærke.

May 5-6, 2023
Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology Graduate Conference: The Written Word
University of Toronto, Canada
Written communication is a vital component of how knowledge is spread. Literature, in every sense of the word, plays an important role in the production, circulation, and application of knowledge in science, medicine, and technology. How is knowledge disseminated within and beyond the limits of individual disciplines and to whom? What skills are required to effectively communicate with an intended audience? Does fiction have a place in the discussion of and reaction to advances in science? We welcome proposals from graduate scholars in history, philosophy, and any other discipline whose work relates to the theme.
    We will be running the conference hybrid and there is no conference fee. We are also unable to cover travel or accommodation costs. Proposals should be about 250 words and please specify whether you would like to attend virtually or on-site in Toronto. Clearly state the main argument of the presentation and how it connects with the topic of literature in the history or philosophy of science, medicine, or technology. Presentations not related to the theme will also be considered. Proposals are due by February 28, 2023 and should be sent to the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology Conference no later than February 28. We will respond to all proposals by March 31, 2023.
Contacts: Rachel Katz and Matthew McLaughlin.

May 5-6, 2023
Traveling Early Modern Philosophy Organization
Washington University
St. Louis, MO
We welcome papers on any aspect of Modern philosophy, roughly understood as the period from Montaigne through Mill. Submissions on British philosophy after Hume are particularly encouraged. Presentations:
    Deborah Boyle (Coll Charleston): "Sympathetic Curiosity: Joanna Baillie, Elizabeth Hamilton, and the Bechdel Test in the History of Philosophy"
    Domenica Romagni (Colorado St): "Descartes on the Perception of Aesthetic Properties"
Plenary Panels:
    Newtonian Themes in Du Châtelet, organizer Qiu Lin (Cornell)
        Aaron Wells (Paderborn)
        Andrew Janiak (Duke)
    Catherine Macauley and Mary Wollstonecraft, organizer Elena Gordon (McGill/New Narratives)
        Allauren Forbes (McMaster)
Please prepare 300-500 word abstracts for anonymous review and submit them here. Papers should be suitable for a 25 minute presentation, followed by 30 minutes of Q&A. The deadline for submissions is January 27, 2023. Applicants will be notified of acceptance by February 17th.
Website.
Contacts: Richard Fry (Rutgers) or Julie Walsh (Wellesley Coll).

May 9, 2023
Monash Social Contract Research Network (SCRN) seminar series
Ioannis D. Evrigenis (Tufts U): "The Rhetoric of Science and the Science of Rhetoric in Hobbes's State of Nature"
9 May, 8pm AEST (Tuesday 9 May 11am BST) (online)
Many had discussed the state of nature before Hobbes, but it was his notorious use of that concept in De Cive and Leviathan that made it a mandatory point of reference for theorists of politics, in general, and of the social contract, in particular. Hobbes's success in using the state of nature is evident in the fact that the concept was adopted by his critics as much as by his emulators, something that continues to this day. Many have taken issue with the assertion that the natural condition of humanity is "solitary, poore, nasty, brutish, and short," a "war of every man, against every man," yet very few have dismissed the notion as irrelevant. To understand what Hobbes is doing in his account of the state of nature and why it matters, we will begin by tracing his view of how the human mind works. In particular, we will focus on the role of pride, the mechanism by which we form syllogisms, the function of the imagination, our respect for pieties, and our fascination with shock and fear. In so doing, we will reassess dominant interpretations of Hobbes's political thought and of the state of nature, as well as Hobbes's claim to have discovered a science of politics.
Registration
More Information.

May 11, 2023
Oxford Undergraduate Conference on Spinoza
Pembroke College, Oxford
Pembroke College and the Oxford Philosophy Society invite submissions from undergraduate students for its Spinoza conference. Confirmed keynote speaker is Prof. Clare Carlisle, King’s College London. We welcome submissions that explore any theme of Spinoza’s works. Submissions should be papers of up to 3000 words (excluding bibliography), prepared for blind review, and suitable for a 20-minute presentation. Submissions should include a short (200-word max.) abstract on the first page. The paper should be anonymous and submitted as an attachment to Ella-Rose Keith. A cover page with the following information should be attached in a separate document: Name, Institution, Contact email, Abstract, Paper title, Word count. Deadline for submissions 17 March 2023, 23.59 GMT. We aim to have some funding available for accepted speakers which would contribute towards travel costs and accommodation and hope to be able to confirm this nearer the time.
Contacts: Ella-Rose Keith or Anna Mayer.

May 11-12, 2023
Berlin-Hamburg Workshop in Early Modern Philosophy
Hamburg University
Hamburg, Germany
We invite abstracts of no more than 500 words on any topic in early modern philosophy (construed, roughly, as the period from Montaigne to Reid). The workshop aims to bring together established scholars, junior faculty, and advanced graduate students. The language of presentation and discussion is English. Talks should be 35-40 minutes, followed by 30-35 minutes of discussion. Deadline for abstract submissions is December 15, 2022; decisions will be made by February 15, 2023. Please submit documents in PDF format here. The abstract should be prepared for blind review (please provide your name, contact details, and institutional affiliation in the body of your email). Successful applicants may have the opportunity to apply for a travel fund of 300 EUR to cover (at least part) of their travel costs. Keynote speakers are Ruth Boeker (UC Dublin) and Vili Lähteenmäki (U Oulu). Details of the program will be available in March. Attendance is free and all are welcome.
Enquiries. Organizers: Sebastian Bender (HU), Dominik Perler (HU), and Stephan Schmid (UHH).

May 15-19, 2023
JHP Summer Seminar in the History of Philosophy: “Ancient Origins of Renaissance and Early Modern Feminism”
McGill University, Montreal, Ontario
Mindful of the challenges facing young scholars working in the history of philosophy, the Board of Directors of the Journal of the History of Philosophy has established a Summer Seminar in the History of Philosophy. The central idea of the program is that a senior scholar who works primarily in some area of the history of philosophy would undertake to direct an intensive week of summer classes for the benefit of a small group of recent PhDs whose main research and teaching are in the relevant area. Normally, the classes will focus on one or more texts that are typically not part of material that the participants would have studied as graduate students. The goal of the program is the enhancement of the expertise and understanding of the young scholars in their area of specialization. The JHP will select up to six individuals from among those who apply to participate in five days of intense classes on the announced subject. All travel and housing and food for the duration of the classes will be paid by the JHP up to $1,750.
Instructor: Marguerite Deslauriers (McGill University)
Course Description: The history of feminist philosophy often begins in the late 17th century, neglecting important earlier works. This seminar will focus on a feminist work from 1601, Lucrezia Marinella’s La nobiltà et l’eccellenza delle donne co’ diffetti et mancamenti de gli uomini (The Nobility and Excellence of Women and the Defects and Vices of Men), with two aims in mind. The first is to consider the ancient sources of Marinella’s arguments, and their transmission and transformation in Renaissance and early modern pro-woman works. The second is to consider how the concepts that emerged from this reworking of ancient sources, e.g. dignity, rationality, liberty, body, virtue, were foundational to later feminist projects. A third aim is methodological: to explore research (and teaching) with non-academic works and genres usually excluded from philosophy.
Applicants should send a letter of interest along with a CV to Prof. Mariska Leunissen. Applicants with a PhD in philosophy received no earlier than January 1, 2017 as well as advanced graduate students are welcome to apply. This seminar will be useful to those interested in the history of feminist philosophy, in the reception of ancient philosophy in the Renaissance, and in the development of egalitarian concepts. The readings will be available in English, but any knowledge of Italian, Greek, or Latin will be helpful. Deadline for submission no later than February 15, 2023. Applicants will be notified by March 1, 2023.

May 15, 2023
Monash Social Contract Research Network (SCRN) seminar series
John Protevi (Louisiana State U): "Slavery and the Social Contract"
6:00-7:30pm EDT; 8:00-9:30am 16 May AEDT (online)
This presentation will offer an overview of the figurative and literal as well as the political and penal senses of the term “slavery” in Hobbes, Locke, and Rousseau, which are only tangentially related to real world Atlantic slavery. The second part of the presentation will discuss how these senses relate to real world slavery, and its attendant phenomena of resistance and marronage.
Registration
More Information.

May 17, 2023
New York/New Jersey Early Modern Philosophy Seminar
Johan Olsthoorn (KU Leuven): “The Problem of Penal Slavery in Quobna Ottobah Cugoano's Abolitionism”
John Jay College of Criminal Justice, 524 West 59th Street, New Building, Room 8.63.24
New York, NY
7:30 to 9:30 p.m.
Visitors must show proof of COVID-19 vaccination to enter the college. Masks are optional.
Enrique Chavez-Arvizo (CUNY)

May 18-19, 2023
Big Data and the History and Philosophy of Science Conference
University of Toronto
Toronto, ON, Canada
Keynote Speakers: Pieter Francois (Oxford), Rachel Spicer (London School of Economics), and Charles Pence (UC Louvain)
Philosophers and historians of science have long been wary about the uses of individual case studies to evaluate philosophical claims about science. The possibilities of cherry-picking or shoehorning in preconceived assumptions about scientific practice into carefully selected examples have led to serious concerns about the prospects of fruitful ways of testing general claims about the process of scientific change. The aim of the conference is to bring together an interdisciplinary array of scholars from philosophy, history, computer science, AI and deep learning, information science, and the social sciences to discuss the problems and prospects with using various big data approaches in the field of the history and philosophy of science.
    With the rise of the digital humanities and the development of a variety of complementary computer-aided techniques (e.g. distant reading, topic modelling, corpus analytics), big-data approaches have become more common in several subdisciplines of history and the humanities. Specifically, they have been used prominently in two recent projects that will be represented and discussed by our first two keynote speakers: the Database of Religious History and Seshat: Global History Databank. The success and potential demonstrated by these projects suggests the benefits of these methods for the history of science. While numerous groups are working on digital humanities/HPS projects with new AI-based tools (e.g. Gingras and Guay 2011), there remain outstanding issues to be addressed to develop publicly accessible, centralized databases that can provide an up-to-date synthesis of scholarly research for specialists and non-specialists alike. Such databases raise all sorts of issues. Specifically, many questions concerning the identification, reliable extraction, and pattern analysis of historical data need to be addressed. A few, specific examples include:
    · What are the challenges of constructing historical databases? How can we build and justify their ontologies? How are key historical variables selected?
    · Can deep machine learning or AI techniques extract helpful data from primary historical texts? Should these tools be only used on primary texts or secondary texts as well?
    · Are there limits as to what big data approaches can teach us about the history of science? If so, what are these limitations?
    · Can there be a unified vocabulary to identify and define data points across diverse historical episodes? What’s the relation between local vocabularies of actor’s categories and those of historians? How can both be captured while avoiding anachronisms?
    · How is the imprecision, incompleteness, and uncertainty of historical data best represented? Is there a substantial difference between inferred and non-inferred historical data? How can differences in historical interpretation best be conceptualized?
    · Can historical data be used to derive and justify claims about various historical trends and patterns? How can computational techniques detect patterns and test hypotheses concerning, e.g., the co-evolution of theories, methods, values, and practices, or the composition of scientific communities and their dynamics?
Please submit a 500-word abstract by Google Form by February 15th, 2023. Communication of acceptance will be by March 2023. Please note that the conference aims to be both in-person and online (for those participants who cannot make it to Toronto). However, there remains an open possibility that the event will be hosted fully online.
Website.
Contact: Jamie Shaw.

May 19-20, 2023
Quadricentennial of Blaise Pascal’s Birth: 1623–2023
University of Bucharest
On the occasion of Blaise Pascal’s birth (1623–1662), the Foundations of European Modernity (FME) Research Center and the Department of French Language and Literature of the University of Bucharest, the Gilles Gaston Granger Center (CGGG) of the University of Aix-Marseille and the Department of Philosophy of the University of Szeged (Hungary), is organizing this international conference. In the wake of the work carried out by the FME Research Center in the field of intellectual, religious, and philosophical history of the early modern period, this event will bring together early scholars and specialists from various disciplines to discuss Pascal’s work and thought, their sources and influences, as well as their past and present receptions.
    In a non-exhaustive way, three thematic axes are proposed which can be approached jointly in a transversal perspective. A first line of questioning concerns the epistemological dimension of Pascal’s work and thought. This could be considered, for example, from the point of view of the history and philosophy of science, through the examination of the historical and contextual situation of the physical and mathematical work as well as in the conceptual elucidation of the conditions of the emergence of scientific production. Pascalian epistemology can also be examined in its gnoseological dimension. Considered in the sense of method, this approach should lead to a clarification of Pascal’s relation to pre-existing theories of knowledge, to "logic" or to the “dialectics” tradition of the Renaissance.
    One could also extend the understanding of epistemology beyond the strictly scientific work, to encompass rhetoric, theological polemics, reasons, and modalities of religious belief as well as biblical hermeneutics. Insofar as Pascal’s epistemological reflections accompany a discourse on the nature of the knowing subject, we will pay close attention to the various elements that outline the anthropological aspects of Pascal’s thought. In continuation of the first axis, this second axis proposes to gather under a common perspective the developments inherent to the study of man, i.e., the conception of human nature whether it is presented with a gnoseological, existential or apologetic aim. In this way, the progressive constitution of Pascalian anthropology combining the essential contrarieties of human nature with a criticism of the self, will be considered. Here again, the various sources and influences that outline Pascal’s anthropological considerations can be explored.
    Finally, a third thematic axis will supplement the previous ones and will be articulated around the issue relating to the establishment and the diffusion of the Pascalian text. Regarding the unfinished, incomplete, and inchoate character of many writings, making the genetic analysis of the work a necessary condition for the restitution of the thought, particular attention will be paid to the material and philological criticism of the manuscripts and copies that direct the editorial decisions. In this perspective, works that draw up a critical historiography of editing and commentary as well as those that propose to identify the different issues at stake in the translation of Pascalian writing will also be appreciated.
    Fifty years after the studies collected in the Annals of the University of Bucharest on the 350th anniversary of Pascal’s birth (Analele Universitatii Bucaresti. Literatura Universala si Comparata, 1, 1974), this conference intends to extend the enterprise of disseminating Pascalian thought in Romania (see bibliography indicated by: Horia Lazar, “Pascal in Romania [1965–1993]”, Courrier du Centre International Blaise Pascal, 15, 1993, 8–10). This event is organized in partnership with the Centre Régional Francophone d’Études Avancées en Sciences Sociales (CRESAS), the Institut Français de Roumanie and the Agence Universitaire de la Francophonie.
    Proposals should be sent in the form of an abstract of 200 words with a title and a short biography to Vlad Alexandrescu by 20 February 2023.

May 19-20, 2023
Early Modern Social Epistemology
Central European University (Vienna)
Speakers: Martin Lenz (Groningen), Jennifer Marusic (Edinburgh)
Traditionally, early modern epistemology is seen as strikingly individualist. It is epitomized by the Cartesian meditator’s attempt to find a foundation for the sciences on the basis of her individual reason alone. Recently, however, this picture has begun to be challenged. Concurrent with a shift in contemporary analytic epistemology towards a more practical and embodied view of knowledge, historians have begun to draw attention to the role of social features in early modern epistemologies in both canonical and non-canonical authors. This conference aims to both reflect on this shift and to further it. We welcome papers on the following questions and topics:
    · Is early modern epistemology inherently or especially individualist?
    · Are canonical early modern thinkers surprisingly social in their thinking about epistemology?
    · Are there non-canonical early modern thinkers whose epistemologies are surprisingly social?
    · Elements of social epistemology itself in early modern thinkers, including but not limited to:
        · Testimony
        · Disagreement, consensus and its epistemological implications
        · Expertise and trust in epistemic authorities
        · Prejudice and superstition
        · Intersubjectivity
        · The role of the passions/affects for knowledge
        · The social constitution of scientific knowledge (through e.g. the Royal Society)
Submission guidelines: please prepare a 500-word abstract for blind review, together with a separate document containing the title of your talk and your name and institutional affiliation. Submissions (in docx or pdf format) can be sent to erlymodernceu@gmail.com". Presentations will be given 45-minute slots (30 mins. talk + 15 mins. Q&A). There will be no parallel sessions. The submission deadline is February 15, 2023 at 23:59 CET. We expect to make our decisions by the end of February. We will aim for gender equity in accepted presentations. Members of underrepresented groups are especially welcome to apply. We hope to be able to support accepted speakers with a travel bursary of up to 200 euros. In case of any questions, please contact the organizers at earlymodernceu@gmail.com.
Organizers: Dávid Bartha (Humboldt U Berlin), Ruben Noorloos (Central European U), & Mike Griffin.

May 23-24, 2023
Non-Cartesian Philosophies of Mind: Early Modern Alternatives
University of Oulu (Finland)
Tuesday, 23rd May
    9.45–19:00 Welcome and introduction
    10.00–11:00 Andrea Christofidou (Oxford): “Descartes’ Metaphysics of Mind: A Significant Turn”
    11.00–12:00 Rodolfo Garau (Hamburg): “Gassendi’s Second Thought: The Lasting Influence of the Polemic with Descartes in the Development of Gassendi’s Understanding of the Intellect”
    13.15–14:15 Laura Moretti (Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne/Ca’ Foscari Venice): “Robert Desgabets Entering the Malebranche’s Empiricist Legacy”
    14.15–15:15 Deborah Brown (Queensland): “The Matter of Thinking Matter: Descartes and Willis”
    15.45–16:45 Domenica Romagni (Colorado St): “‘The circle… a true image of the created mind’: Kepler’s Geometrical Philosophy of Mind”
    16.45–17:45 Philippe Hamou (Paris 1 Sorbonne): “Of mental substances in Locke’s Essay: subsistence, spatiality, activity”
    17.45–18.00 Concluding remarks, day 1
Wednesday, 24th May
    9.45-10:00 Welcome and coffee
    10.00–11:00 Ruth Boeker (U Coll Dublin): “Catharine Trotter Cockburn and Isaac Watts on the Power to Think”
    11.00–12:00 Jordan Lavender (Purdue): “Thought and Sensation as Directio in the Seventeenth Century: The Case of Thomas Bonarte (1612/13—ca. 1670)”     13.15–14:15 Ericka Tucker (Marquette): “Material Minds: Spinoza and the Other Descartes”
    14.15–15:15 Lena Kreymann (Humboldt U Berlin): “Leibniz on Identifying Other Minds”
    15.45–16:45 Olivia L. Branscum (Oklahoma): “Panpsychism and Vitalism in the Philosophy of Anne Conway: Interpretive and Historical-Philosophical Implications”
    16.45–17:45 Julia Borcherding (Cambridge/LMU Munich): “Dancing Figures: Cavendish on Causation and Harmony”
    17.45–18.15 Concluding remarks, day 2
Contact: Oberto Marrama.

May 23–24, 2023
Conference in Honor of Don Garrett
New York University
Kimmel Center, 60 Washington Square S
New York, NY
May 23
    9:25–9:30: Welcome
    9:30–10:50: Michael Della Rocca (Yale); chair Nathan Sasser (Greenville Technical College)
    11:00–1:00: Spinoza Panel: Karolina Hübner (Cornell), Yitzhak Melamed (Johns Hopkins), John Morrison (Barnard); chair Jason Fisette (Nevada, Reno)
    3:00–4:20: Elizabeth Radcliffe (William and Mary); chair Ehli Bridger (Yale)
    4:30–6:30: Hume Panel: Rachel Cohon (SUNY Albany), Peter Millican (Oxford), Karl Schafer (U Texas Austin); chair Lorraine Besser-Jones (Middlebury College)
May 24
    9:30–10:50: Christia Mercer (Columbia); chair Graham Clay (University College Dublin)
    11:00–1:00: Early Modern Women Philosophers Panel: Maité Cruz (Union Coll), David Landy (San Francisco St), Antonia LoLordo (Virginia); chair Timothy Lenter (U Mississippi)
    3:00–4:20: Geoffrey Sayre-McCord (U North Carolina Chapel Hill); chair Elena Gordon (McGill U)
    4:30–7:00: Naturalism panel: Angela Coventry (Portland St), Louis Loeb (Michigan–Ann Arbor), Justin Steinberg (Brooklyn Coll); chair David Barnett (Toronto)
Registration is free but required. Check in early April.
Website.
Contacts: Conference or Jonny Cottrell.

May 25, 2023
Séminaire International et Interdisciplinaire de Recherches Spinozistes
Université Paris 8, Maison de la recherche, salle A2 204
18:00-20:00
Franck Fischbach (Strasbourg): "Pourquoi le marxisme a-t-il eu besoin de Spinoza?"
Contact: Jack Stetter (Loyola, New Orleans)

May 25-28, 2023
“The Mechanization of the Natural World, 1300-1700”
Stockholm University (Frescati Campus)
Stockholm, Sweden
Mechanism or mechanical philosophy as defended by philosophers like Thomas Hobbes, René Descartes and Pierre Gassendi, offering a general picture of how the physical world is to be explained, is often seen as a replacement and rival to Aristotelianism. This general picture was, according to standard historical accounts, to dominate physical theory from the 1630’s up to the middle of the 18th century. There are two prominent aspects to the development of mechanical philosophy in the 17th century, namely the notion of matter, substrate or body underlying change and the laws of motion governing change. The mechanistic philosophers argued for a passive and material, atomist or corpuscular, view of matter and they aimed to formulate scientific laws that capture the efficient causal relations between these material parts.
    Like many conceptual shifts in the history of philosophy, detachment from the Aristotelian framework was in many respects the final result of a gradual evolution in the way nature and natural processes were explained. This conference will explore the idea that mechanism or mechanical philosophy was not just an invention of the 17th century, but that its source can be traced to the mid-14th century. The early 14th century including William of Ockham and John Buridan are fairly well-studied, but the time period in the scholastic tradition between 1350 and 1600 is very little known and much work remains to be done on the development of new ideas and concepts during this period. The conference will address how the gradual emergence of mechanical philosophy arose across the time period from the mid-1300 to the late-1600 out of the interactions between different themes like (1) the conception of causal powers, (2) new theories of matter and (3) changes in the conception of causality and the rejection of final causes. The aim of the conference is to display the richness and unity of the period 1300–1700 in the light of what has come to be called mechanism or mechanical philosophy. Possible topics include (but are not restricted to):
    – The emergence of the concept of mechanism or mechanical philosophy
    – The gradual integration of mechanics into the framework of Aristotelianism in the targeted period
    – The epistemological roles of machines before the Scientific Revolution
    – Changes in the definition of nature during the selected period
    – Changes in the conception of causal powers
    – Relations between causal powers and the laws of nature
    – Evolutions of theories of motion
    – The role of new theories of matter and quantity in the rise of mechanical philosophy
    – Relations between Aristotelianism and corpuscular theories of matter
    – Transformations of the concepts of causality and explanation in the targeted period
    – Evolution of theories of final cause
Speakers include:
    • Zvi Biener (Cincinnati)
    • Deborah Brown (Queensland)
    • Helen Hattab (Houston)
    • Mattia Mantovani (KU Leuven)
    • Calvin Normore (UCLA)
    • Robert Pasnau (Colorado Boulder)
    • Dominik Perler (Humboldt Berlin) (tbc)
    • Nicola Polloni (KU Leuven)
    • Stathis Psillos (Athens)
    • Sophie Roux (ENS Paris) (tbc)
Interested participants should send their proposal (short abstract and title) to Mechanization of Philosophy by 31 January 2023. Priority will be given to proposals about the still understudied period 1400–1600. Early career researchers and members of all underrepresented groups are especially encouraged to apply. Acceptance of the proposals will be announced by 15 February 2023. Please contact the organizers for any query you might have.
Organizers: Erik Åkerlund (Newman Institute, Uppsala), Henrik Lagerlund (Stockholm U), Sylvain Roudaut (Stockholm U).

May 25-26, 2023
Dutch Seminar in Early Modern Philosophy
Faculty of Philosophy, Utrecht University
Utrecht, The Netherlands
Speakers: Maria Rosa Antognazza (King's College), Eric Schliesser (U Amsterdam)
We welcome talks on any topic related to early modern philosophy, broadly understood (roughly the period 1500–1800 CE). We are especially interested in philosophical issues and/or works that have received less sustained scholarly attention, including, but not limited to: non-canonical authors and traditions, anonymous texts, unpublished texts, networks of correspondence, and so on. Please submit abstracts (500 words max.) suitable for anonymous review in PDF to dsemp2023@rug.nl. Please make sure the subject of the email reads: "Submission DSEMP IX". Deadline for applications: 22 January 2023 (11.59 pm Amsterdam time). Decisions will follow by mid February (at the latest). Abstracts will be peer-reviewed. We will send reviewers’ reports with feedback on abstracts to all who wish to receive this. Please note that no financial assistance can be provided to support travel expenses and accommodation for participants.
Contacts: Laura Georgescu or Jo Van Cauter.

May 31, 2023
Kant Zentrum NRW
Jens Timmermann: "Kants Theorie des Mitgefühls"
Zoom link
18:00 – 20:00 CET
Kant Zentrum Series Site.
Contact: Larissa Berger.

May 31-June 1, 2023
NYC Workshop in Early Modern Philosophy: "The Arts and Sciences"
Technion: Israel Institute of Technology, Department of Humanities and Arts
Haifa, Israel
Hybrid meeting: online and in person.
During the early modern period, philosophers paid increasing attention to the arts, the sciences, and the relationship between the two, often under the heading of techne. Early modern thinkers made important contributions to philosophical aesthetics; to the philosophy of culture, including theories about progress in the arts and sciences; and to the philosophy of technology. Philosophers like Rousseau discussed the impacts of the arts and sciences on society. Philosophers like Descarties, Leibniz, and La Mettrie examined the relationship between technological machines and living beings. Philosophers like Leibniz emphasized the aesthetic character of the world disclosed by early modern science. And philosophers like Kant considered the differences between artistic and scientific creativity. We invite submissions dealing with the philosophy of science, and its relations to arts and technology during the early modern period.
Deadline for submitting (500 word) abstracts: March 15, 2023
Confirmed speakers: Stefanie Buchenau (Paris), Domenica Romagni (Colorado State), Justin Smith (Paris), Reed Winegar (Fordham)
Website.
Contacts: Ohad Nachtomy (Technion), Lauren Kopajtic (Fordham), and Reed Winegar (Fordham)

June 1-3, 2023
Rousseau Association Colloquium: “The Real, the Possible and the Ideal in Rousseau”
Department Philosophy, University of Paris IV Sorbonne, Paris
This interdisciplinary colloquium proposes to explore the categories of the real, the possible and the ideal in the works of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, in all their literary, political, and philosophical aspects. Several approaches may be considered:
    -  Discussions of the real from the perspective of detours through fiction; confrontations of the paradox according to which understanding what is real supposes knowing how to distance oneself from facts. Paradoxically, conjectures concerning socio-political genealogies, love stories in romance novels, pedagogical fictions, and even conspiracy theories contribute to the effort of understanding what is as it is.
    -  Among the stakes of Rousseau work is to broaden our sense of the possible, to restitute to history its contingency against those retrospective illusions that tend to present a trajectory as necessary once it is chosen; symmetrically, to refuse those ideological fixations that tend in principle to legitimate what exists.
    -  Reflections on how Rousseau aims to found the possibility of critical discourse, on its transgressive function, as well as Rousseau’s singular position within the tradition of utopian thought.
    -  Rousseau’s thought pays attention to evolutions, tendencies and revolutions—that is to say to the virtualities that the present holds within itself. Different figures of the possible may thus be articulated: eventuality, potentiality, tendency.
    -  More generally, analyses of the narrative tendency in Rousseau’s thought. Why does the possible present itself through narration? What guarantees the truth of the possible in fiction?
    -  The ideal allows one to judge the real. The ideal student, the best constitution, sublime notions, perfect love: these figures of perfection hold an irreducible meaning.
    -  Delineating the ambivalences of the chimerical. Rousseau criticizes abstract rationality and systematic thinking; he promotes the "land of chimeras."
    -  Moreover, the articulation between the real, the possible, and the ideal engages the articulation of the faculties of mind—that between perception, imagination, and reason. The imaginary may be a refuge and may present itself as the condition for a happiness more real than any afforded by reality.
    -  Examining the different figures of the hero found in Rousseau’s literary and philosophical œuvre: determining its functions; delineating an ideal, imagining a possible, figuring the real.
The Rousseau Association’s meetings are bilingual (French/English). All the sessions will be plenary. Please send all proposals--including a title, abstract (max. 300 words), and mini-bio (max. 150 words)--before December 5, 2022 in a document titled name_first name_RA2023_proposal.pdf here.
Website.
Contacts: Johanna Lenne-Cornuez and Louis Guerpillon.

June 1-3, 2023
Leuven Kant Conference
Format: on-campus and online (Zoom)
Keynote speakers: Luca Fonnesu (Pavia), Inga Römer (U Grenoble Alpes), Marcio Suzuki (U São Paulo)
Submission deadline: January 11, 2023
We invite abstracts on any aspect of Kant’s philosophy for the yearly Leuven Kant Conference. The conference will feature a combination of on-campus and online talks. Participants will be able to attend the on-campus talks on Zoom. The online talks will be fully online, i.e., all participants will join a Zoom meeting regardless of their location. All talks will take place between 1 pm and 7 pm to accommodate different time zones. The selection of abstracts will be independent of speakers’ preferred options. Abstracts of no more than 500 words should be submitted through the electronic form available at the website. The abstracts, including the title, should be prepared for double-blind review by removing any identification details. Presentation time will be 25 minutes + 20 minutes for discussion. We offer limited travel grants to PhD students and other early career researchers without funding of their own. Notification of acceptance by February 15, 2023.
Website.
Contacts: Conference or Karin de Boer.

June 6-7, 2023
Workshop: Kant and Negative Aesthetics
Pavia, Italy
Keynote Speaker: Anne Pollok (Universität Mainz)
Titles and abstracts (in English) should be sent to: kantaesthetics@gmail.com.
Deadline: December 15th, 2022; length 500-750 words; notice of acceptance: January 31st, 2023
Positive aesthetic experiences, especially the pleasurable experience of beauty, undoubtedly play a key role in Kant’s aesthetic theory. Yet, Kantian scholars have also discussed whether his theory possibly entails a negative aesthetics. This workshop will be focused on this very task to investigate into the possibility, benefits, and problems of a Kantian negative aesthetics. Authors are encouraged to submit abstracts that address any aspect of negative aesthetics in Kant’s philosophy. Although the question of whether there is room for a negative aesthetics in Kant’s aesthetic theory might be addressed from the viewpoint of judgments of the ugly – as it has mostly been addressed so far in the scholarly literature (see, e.g., Allison, Ginsborg, Guyer, Cohen, and Küplen, to name just a few) – discussions that focus on loathsomeness and disgust, as well as contributions that address the topic of negative aesthetics in Kant in relation to other authors, or with an eye to contemporary debates, are also welcome. Accounts that address this topic within the framework of Kant’s critical system are particularly encouraged. Some of the papers might be selected for publication in the journal Estetica: Studi e ricerche (rated as “classe A” by the Italian MUR).
Suggested topics include, but are not limited to:
    • disharmony of the faculties
    • aesthetic displeasure
    • negative judgments of taste
    • ugliness, loathsomeness, disgust, the non-beautiful, the indifferent
    • negative judgments of taste and Kant’s practical philosophy
    • negative judgments of taste in Kant and bad art
    • negative judgments of taste in Kant, the ordinary, and everyday aesthetics
Contact: kantaesthetics@gmail.com.

June 12-13, 2023
Women and Religion: Dissenters, Workers, Writers in the Early Modern European Context (ca. 1500-1700)
University College Dublin
Dublin, Ireland
This two-day seminar aims at developing approaches to the history of the early Enlightenment, focusing on the engagement of women in both the practice of religion and discussion of theology in the post-Reformation period. Our seminar will explore how social practices such as participation in religious organisations and discussion, were mutually entwined with the development of foundational Enlightenment concepts such democracy, egalitarianism, freedom of conscience, free speech, and tolerant co-existence. For example, social practices where we can see evidence of women’s participation include philanthropy, court hearings, education and caring work, letter writing, pamphleteering, as well as authoring more formal publications.
    We invite contributions on early modern women within religious contexts, focusing on how their activities fostered new cross-cultural social relations specifically in the public sphere, including transnational dimensions. Particular attention will be given to women who were members of religious minorities and dissenting groups and those who changed their religious positions or seemed to hold a plurality of views. Possible subjects include, but are not limited to:
    - Women and their participation in religious communities;
    - Women’s social relationships with men;
    - Women as educators and charity workers in local and regional contexts;
    - Women writers and religious, metaphysical, and political ideas;
    - Women’s poetry and playwriting in private and urban contexts;
    - Women’s development of new genres of writing such as speculative fiction;
    - Women and controversy;
    - Debates on the status and ‘problem’ of women and the meaning of ‘female’;
    - Women and the emerging of the public sphere.
Participants will be given 30-40 minutes for their paper presentations, followed by comments by a designated respondent and with time for a general Q&A with the seminar participants.
    The seminar will be held at UCD School of Philosophy, University College Dublin, as part of the Marie Sklodowska- Curie Postdoctoral Fellowship funded project EuWoRD (European Women and Religious Dissent: The Advent of Modernity and the Democratic Public Sphere), in cooperation and with the support of UCD Newman Centre for the Study of Religions. The deadline for submission of abstracts is March 31. Please submit a paper proposal of no more than 300 words, prepared for blind review. Please leave biographical details such as current institutional affiliation (if any) in the body of the email. Send to Francesco Quatrini. We especially welcome submissions from early career researchers. There will be no conference registration fees and there are bursaries available to support participation by those who may not have institutional funding or have caring responsibilities. We envisage this will be an inperson event. The conference events will be fully accessible to wheelchair users. The conference organisers also welcome inquiries about supporting other disability needs. Refreshments, lunches and a conference dinner will be provided to speakers.
Contact: Katherine O'Donnell.

June 13-15, 2023
John Locke Society Conference
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Plenary speakers: Margaret Atherton (Wisconsin, Milwaukee), Holly Brewer (U Maryland)
The conference will gather scholars interested in any aspect of Locke’s oeuvre, with the purpose of encouraging Locke scholarship and promoting interaction between experts in different disciplines, such as philosophy, theology, education, political theory, intellectual history, and economic thought. Paper proposals concerning any aspect of Locke’s thought, his influences, and his impact are welcome. The deadline for submission of paper abstracts (roughly 500 words) is January 15, 2023. Presentations will be 40 minutes. Please prepare your abstract for blind review. Notification of acceptance will be by mid-February. Abstracts (or other inquiries) should be sent to: Shelley Weinberg.

June 17, 2023
Cavendish Collective Virtual Workshop (online)
The Cavendish Collective is a virtual reading group dedicated to investigating the philosophical writings of Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle (1623-1673). Our participants are primarily PhD students from several universities working on Margaret Cavendish and adjacent authors in the early modern period. We are excited to host our first virtual workshop to promote collaboration among researchers interested in the writings of Margaret Cavendish. The event will consist of a series of presentations arranged thematically by topic. Each participant will receive 20 minutes of presentation time followed by 20 minutes of discussion. Since research on Cavendish is expansive and interdisciplinary, we encourage submissions from researchers in any discipline. All topics relevant to Cavendish’s writings are welcome, including but not limited to:
    • Affect, Emotion, and Passion
    • Epistemology
    • Fame and Fortune
    • Feminism
    • Gender and Queerness
    • Genre and Literary Forms
    • History of Science
    • Imagination and Fancy
    • Materialism
    • Metaphysics
    • Mind and Mentality
    • Religion
    • Social and Political Philosophy
    • Women’s Writings
We welcome submissions from researchers at any career stage. We ask that interested participants submit either abstracts of about 150-300 words or papers of about 3000 words for review. To send your submission, please use the Google form available on our website. The deadline for submissions is March 1, 2023, and presenters will be notified of acceptance no later than April 1, 2023. Upon acceptance, we ask that participants prepare papers of about 3000 words in length (or slides suitable for 20 minute presentations). We look forward to hearing from you! To register for the event, please submit your e-mail address using the registration form on our website. Please direct any questions to the Cavendish Collective.
Contacts: Tessa Brunnenmeyer, Kevin Lower.

June 21-22, 2023
The Crisis of the Traditional Structure of Knowledge: Teaching and Learning Mathematical Sciences in the long 18th Century
Ca' Foscari University
Venice, Italy
Invited speakers: Vincenzo De Risi (CNRS-SPHere, U Paris Cité; MPIWG Berlin), Brendan Dooley (U College Cork), Steffen Ducheyne (Vrije U Brussels), Sofia Talas (U Studi Padova)
    Even though historians agree that physical and mathematical sciences became academic disciplines from the early 19th century, it was during the previous century that these sciences moved to the center of European culture. A veritable "revolution in science teaching," as L. Brockliss put it ("Science, the Universities, and Other Public Spaces: Teaching Science in Europe and the Americas", in R. Porter, The Cambridge History of Science, vol. 4), took place in the 18th century and changed the content of the curricula in the philosophical faculties by bringing new subjects into university education such as experimental philosophy, mathematical physics, chemistry, and mining and renegotiating the traditional boundaries between natural philosophy, logic, mathematics, and medicine. This process was multifaceted, as the two spheres in which teaching occurred--the public spaces of universities and academies and the space of private tutoring and exchanges--were often superimposed, creating a mosaic of cases whose investigation is still ongoing. In this process, moreover, university teachers and scholars, public and private instructors and students, practitioners, and amateurs played, alongside "great thinkers," an active role not only in prompting the circulation of new ideas in natural philosophy and mathematics but also in framing new ways of knowing and in modifying the content of the transmitted knowledge.
    In this conference, we intend to chart the crisis of the traditional structure of knowledge and the emergence of new disciplines during the long 18th century (by this expression we intend, broadly speaking, a period between the second half of the 17th century and the turn of the 19th century). We aim to tackle this issue from various angles and starting from different questions, such as the following: How were new mathematical theories, such as calculus analysis and geometry transmitted and learned in the European context and beyond? How did Newtonianism and Wolffianism integrate or supplant academic teaching of Aristotelian and Cartesian physics at various universities? What role did private teaching of mathematical sciences play and how can their audiences be characterized? What were the concrete teaching practices and their related sources (textbooks, notes, and examinations)? What was the role of religious orders, such as the Jesuits, in circulation or the suppression of new ideas in physics and mathematics? How was physical and mathematical knowledge built through interactions between "centers" and "peripheries"?
    In addition to the invited speakers, there are a few slots reserved for scholars presenting work that, broadly speaking, is in line with the goal of the workshop. Abstracts should not exceed 250 words, and should be written in English (conference language). Please send your submission and inquiries (no later than 28 March 2023) to Davide Crippa (Ca' Foscari University of Venice)

June 23-25, 2023
"Kantian Constitutivism” Conference
University of Groningen
Groningen, The Netherlands
Constitutivist approaches abound in present-day normative philosophy. An approach can be described as constitutivist if it argues that some entity is subject to a certain norm because that norm is entailed by its very nature—in other words, that to be that sort of entity (at least partly) is to be subject to that norm. Constitutivist approaches in metaethics, broadly construed, aim to account for practical normativity (e.g. the content and authority of moral or prudential norms) by referring to the nature and constitutive principles of fundamental agential or rational capacities. Although it is a matter of much dispute, Kant is often seen as a constitutivist. Indeed, many prominent constitutivist approaches to practical normativity are to some degree Kant-inspired, and many prominent Kantian ethicists are metaethical constitutivists. The aim of this conference is to discuss constitutivist approaches in Kantian metaethics and Kant interpretation. Does Kant defend a form of constitutivism? Can the appeal to constitutive norms of reasoning and acting justify a Kantian account of moral principles and moral obligation? Which norms can plausibly be argued to be constitutive of which faculties or activities? How, and how successfully, can Kantian constitutivism respond to the objections raised against it? These are among the questions addressed at this conference. Speakers:
    • Carla Bagnoli (U Modena/U Oslo)
    • Vinicius Carvalho (U Groningen)
    • Pauline Kleingeld (U Groningen)
    • Sasha Mudd (Pontificia U Católica Chile / U Southampton)
    • Andrews Reath (U California, Riverside)
    • Leon van Rijsbergen (U Groningen)
    • Tobias Rosefeldt (Humboldt U Berlin)
    • Janis Schaab (Human Abilities Res Ctr Berlin)
    • Karl Schäfer (U Texas Austin)
    • Tamar Schapiro (MIT)
    • Oliver Sensen (Tulane U)
    • Jens Timmermann (U St Andrews)
We can provide (at least partial) funding to a small number of early-career researchers such as PhD students, postdocs, and junior faculty. If you fit this category and are interested in attending the conference, work on topics closely related to the conference theme, and do not have other sources of funding, you can apply for a travel and accommodation subsidy for early-career participants. Your application should be sent to kantingroningen@gmail.com and include:
    • a brief description of your research interests
    • a short academic CV
Deadline: February 15th 2023
The event is organized by the research group "Kant, Kantianism, and Morality" (U Groningen) and supported by the Dutch Research Council (NWO).
Organizers: Vinicius Carvalho (Groningen), Pauline Kleingeld (Groningen), Leon van Rijsbergen (Groningen), Janis Schaab (Human Abilities Research Centre, Berlin)
Attendance is free but registration is required. To register please go here.
Website.

June 28, 2023
Kant Zentrum NRW
Johannes Haag: tba
Zoom link
18:00 – 20:00 CET
Kant Zentrum Series Site.
Contact: Larissa Berger.

June 28-30, 2023
"Reading the Book of Nature Across Sciences, History and Philosophy": 400th Anniversary of Galileo's Il Saggiatore"
Museo Galileo, Istituto e Museo di Storia della Scienza
Piazza dei Giudici n. 1
Florence, Italy
To celebrate the 400th anniversary of Galilei’s Il Saggiatore, we are pleased to announce a conference organised by SFI (Italian Society of Philosophy), SILFS (Italian Society for Logic and Philosophy of Science) and SISS (Italian Society of History of Science), under the auspices of the Museo Galileo. Istituto e Museo di Storia della Scienza, Department of Humanities of University of Florence (DILEF) and the World Congress of Philosophy Rome 2024, entirely devoted to young researchers. The aim of the conference is to gather young researchers working in the field of philosophy, philosophy of science and history of science and to offer them the opportunity to present and discuss their papers in an informal and stimulating environment. The conference is divided into six sessions:
    1) Microcosm and Macrocosm
    2) Methods, esprit de finesse and esprit de géométrie
    3) Bodies and Evolution of the Mind
    4) Matter and Measurement
    5) Social World
    6) Ancients and Moderns
Invited speakers: Luciano Boi (Sch Adv Stud Soc Sci, Paris), Flavia Marcacci (Pont Lateran U, Rome), Massimo Mugnai (Scuola Norm Sup, Pisa)
Participation in the conference is also valid as a teacher training course. We invite submissions in the aforementioned areas of research from PhD students or scholars who completed their PhD in the last six years. In the case of a co-authored paper, at least one of the authors must be a PhD student or a scholar who completed her/his PhD in the last 6 years; only those meeting this requirement are eligible to submit the abstract. Upload an abstract in English of at most 3000 words (including references) here no later than March 30, 2023. Each abstract will go through a double blind peer review. Notification of acceptance is expected not later than the 30th of April, 2023. Each session will host four different talks (30 minutes for each talk + 10 minutes of discussion). The official languages of the conference will be both Italian and English. Young researchers who did not pass the selection are still welcome to attend.
Contacts: Pierluigi Graziani or Davide Pietrini, or visit the conference website.

July 4-7, 2023
Collegium Spinozanum IV: Summer school on Spinoza and Spinozisms in their Historical and Philosophical Contexts
University of Groningen, The Netherlands
The Collegium Spinozanum aims at bringing together advanced students and established scholars working broadly on Spinoza’s thought, sources and reception. The goal of the Summer School is to create an international forum to stimulate scholarly exchange and conversations inspired by different approaches and methodologies. Lecturers include: Raphaele Andrault (ENS Lyon), Gábor Boros (Károli Gáspár U Budapest), Yitzhak Melamed (Johns Hopkins), and Andrea Sangiacomo (U Groningen)
    Please click this link for more information and to find out how to apply. Deadline for registration is 1 April.
Contacts: Martin Lenz and ; or summerschoolphilosophy@rug.nl

July 5-7, 2023
12e Séminaire québécois en philosophie moderne / 12th Quebec Seminar in Early Modern philosophy, in conjunction with the Atlantic Canada Seminar in Early Modern Philosophy
Trois-Rivières, QC (Canada)
The Quebec Seminar in Early Modern Philosophy is a bilingual conference in the history of early modern philosophy organized by the CIREM 16-18 and its Trois-Rivières branch, the UQTR Laboratoire sur l’histoire et la pensée modernes. Its goal is to foster intellectual exchanges between works in the history of early modern philosophy (17th-18th centuries) stemming from both the continental and the analytic traditions. To this end, all participants are asked to be able to understand papers presented both in English and in French. Since 2022, the event has been combined with the Atlantic Canada Seminar in Early Modern Philosophy (organized by Thomas Vinci). Its location rotates between Dalhousie University (NS) and Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières (QC).
    We invite 45-minutes paper proposals on any aspect of early modern philosophy. Please send a 500-words abstract in English or French in Word format to Syliane Charles before March 1, 2023. Please note that the conference will be held in person in Trois-Rivières, the 2nd city founded in Canada (1634). Travelers from abroad should fly to Montreal and then take a bus Orleans Express) or a car to Trois-Rivières (ca. 2 hours). Car-pooling will be organized.
    For information on past meetings of the Quebec Seminar in Early Modern Philosophy, see here. Papers selected for this very competitive process will be eligible to be published in an electronic journal specializing in early modern philosophy, the Studia de Philosophia Moderna.

July 11-14, 2023
Centre for the Study of Medicine and the Body in the Renaissance Summer School
"Intensity and the Grades of Nature: Heat, Colour, and Sound in the Ordering of Pre-Modern Cosmos, 1200-1600"
Domus Comeliana, Via Cardinale Maffi 48
Pisa, Italy
Held in the stunning premises and terrace of the Domus Comeliana in Pisa, this CSMBR summer school will explore how heat, colour, and sound have been used, conceptualised and graded in the pre-modern cosmos shaping both disciplines of knowledge and everyday life. Central to the various cosmologies that developed throughout the period 1200-1600 was the idea that phenomena are subject to a variation in intensity. Intensity determined why objects were of higher or lesser temperature, speed, brightness, porous or dense texture, pitch, and so forth. And yet, intensity also had wider metaphysical, theological, political and cultural implications: it was instrumental to justify the order of the cosmos, the necessity of evil, and the need for hierarchies in maintaining social peace, with shades of colour especially used to mark social status, both in garments and buildings.
    Linking back to Greek philosophy and medicine (i.e Aristotle, Galen, Dioscorides) theories of intensity (intensio et remissio formarum) blossomed in the late middle ages but remained vital in early modern philosophy (e.g. Galileo, Leibniz) up to the eighteenth century, with Baumgarten and Kant attempting at measuring the quantity of virtue (quantitas virtutis) necessary to the human subject to perceive (aesthetica) an object in the external world. On the one hand, medieval and early modern theories of intensity developed an ancient desideratum to classify the world in a hierarchical order, also known as scala naturae or ‘the great chain of being’. At the extremes of the ‘chain’ were located respectively God, as the metaphysical grantor of order and the embodiment of perfection, and matter, embodying imperfection and chaos. However, on the other hand, the pre-modern period moved beyond previous attempts, as the cosmos is now spatialised and measurable. As comprehended within two opposites (i.e. perfection/imperfection, hot/cold, up/down, etc.), change occurs within “a range” (latitudo), wherein objects acquire or lose certain “degrees” (gradus) of the quality that is being intensified; thus hotter or brighter objects are so because they participate more in the specific property (formae) of heat or light. In this sense, it is significant that, while the modern cosmos was consciously built on “number,” “weight,” and “measure,” the fabric of the pre-modern world was textured in grades and shades.
    The summer school is open to scholars of all careers and stages. As per previous events, it takes place in the outstanding setting of the Domus Comeliana (50m from the leaning tower) and it spans four days, articulated as 3+1, namely three days of lectures and guided visits to the city, plus a final day dedicated entirely to workshops, roundtables, presentation and discussion of attendees’ reports. The summer school will present and discuss a variety of verbal and non-verbal sources (e.g. manuscripts, images, music pieces, and artefacts) in a multidisciplinary approach that aims at attracting and welcoming scholars with different backgrounds, interests and expertise. It features three hands-on workshops on texts, materials, and instruments and one performance-based workshop. Workshop I (M. Kemp) will involve participants in the selection of passages and visual material from Leonardo’s extensive output and in the effort to contextualise his techniques as fitting his optical theories. Workshop II (G.M. Weston) will focus on the Renaissance colour palette and the mixture of pigments involving attendees in the mixing of colours to obtain shades in accordance with 15th- and 16th-century manuals. Workshop III (F. Bigotti) will be devoted to hands-on experimentation with the replica of Santorio’s pulsilogium, an early modern instrument invented by Santorio Santori (1561-1636) to ascertain the ‘degree’ and ‘latitude’ of the pulse. Participants will be invited to experiment with the instrument in small groups, by measuring and calibrating the instrument so as to revive the experience of using what has been called “the first precision instrument in the history of medicine.” Workshop IV (L. Karshan) held by distinguished artist and honorary fellow Linda Karshan will explore the ways in which contemporary art practice has embodied Renaissance concepts of latitude as especially related to the motions of the body and the soul.
Format: Hybrid
Early Bird Deadline: 28 February 2023
Regular Deadline: 30 June 2023
The event is supported by five Santorio Fellowships worth 500 euros each. Santorio Fellowship Deadline: 15 April 2023
Info and Registration. Contact: Fabrizio Bigotti

July 18-21, 2023
Adam Smith, Adam Ferguson, John Witherspoon at 300
St Andrews Institute of Intellectual History, University of St. Andrews, UK
A conference to celebrate the 300th birthdays of Adam Smith, Adam Ferguson, and John Witherspoon, and the 250th anniversary of Johnson and Boswell’s tour of the Highlands and Western Isles. We welcome paper abstracts (400 words max) and session proposals, both on the themes of the conference and on eighteenth-century Scottish intellectual life more generally. We also welcome proposals for authors meet critics sessions on recent or forthcoming books. A limited amount of funding will be available for PhD students. Presentations by:
    • Jeng-Guo Chen (Academia Sinica, Taipei)
    • Lisa Hill (Adelaide)
    • Nigel Leask (Glasgow)
    • Gideon Mailer (Minnesota Duluth)
Submission deadline: February 23, 2023. Abstracts and proposals should be sent to St Andrews Conference.
Website.
Contact: James Harris.

July 18-22, 2023
Hume Society Conference 2023
Brigham Young University
Provo, Utah
Papers are welcome on any topic relating to the life, times and thought of David Hume, and particularly on the themes for this year’s conference:
    • Hume and Affectivity
    • Hume and Asian Philosophy
    • Hume and the Human Sciences
Papers should be no more than thirty minutes reading length (4000 words) and should be submitted with an abstract (200 words). All self-references should be deleted for anonymous review. Papers and abstracts must be submitted in English. Papers should not have been published by the date of the conference. Hume Society Young Scholar Awards are given to qualifying graduate students whose papers are accepted through the normal anonymous review process. Deadline for Submissions: December 30, 2022.
Submissions can be made here. For further general information, please go to the Hume Society website. If you have further questions regarding paper submissions, contact Hsueh Qu. For questions concerning the location and hosting of the conference, please contact the local organizer, Katie Paxman.

July 31-Aug 4, 2023
International Leibniz Congress
Hanover, Germany
Significant research contributions and debates in recent years have concerned aspects as diverse as Leibniz's concept of the infinite and infinitesimally small; the investigation into Leibniz's correspondence network in the larger context of the early modern Republic of Scholars; his policy towards sciences as well as his handling of historical sources and of information from Russia and China. Of particular interest are also the sometimes controversial discussions on Leibniz's philosophy of law, the strongly metaphysical theory of justice, the modern transformation of the monadology and the question of harmony, continuity and discontinuity, which is directly related to the congress motto. The congress aims to represent these approaches in all their breadth and diversity. The congress is open to all topics related to Leibniz.
    In order to promote the exchange among Leibniz researchers in advance, participants are expressly called upon to submit section proposals in addition to individual talks. The organisers invite all interested researchers, experts and friends to participate. Please register talks with title and abstract (not longer than 1 page), with your address and institution at Leibniz Congress by 31st December 2022. Accepted contributions should be submitted in the shape of a publishable text in a Word file (up to 10 pages) by 30th April 2023. These will be published as a reader in a PDF file in time for the congress. Editorial interventions are no longer possible after submission.
Website.
Contact: Julia Jorati.

August 8-10, 2023
European Hobbes Society Conference: “Hobbes and the Enlightenment”
Regensburg, Germany
Although the title assigns particular importance to the traditions referred to as the Scottish Enlightenment (Hutcheson, Hume, Smith), the French Enlightenment (Voltaire, Montesquieu, Diderot), and the German Enlightenment (Leibniz, Thomasius, Wolff, Kant), we are also interested in how Hobbes was received among pre- or early Enlightenment figures, such as Cumberland, the Cambridge Platonists, Shaftesbury, and women philosophers of the 17th and 18th centuries, such as Margaret Cavendish, Anne Conway or Mary Astell. We think that paying close attention to the manifold ways in which Hobbes has influenced 17th and 18th century philosophy is worthwhile in its own right. However, we also hope that the topic will enable us to further communication between the EHS and colleagues who would not perhaps conceive of themselves as ‘Hobbes scholars', but who are genuinely interested in Hobbes’s philosophy and approach it through the prism of other early modern thinkers and their works. Our current plan is to stick to the format employed in previous conferences, that is, to have pre-circulated papers that are briefly presented by the authors and then commented on by one or two pre-assigned commentators. Seven speakers have already been identified:
    • Stephen Darwall (Yale)
    • Ursula Goldenbaum (Emory)
    • James Harris (St Andrews)
    • Sarah Hutton (York)
    • Michaela Rehm (Bielefeld)
    • Susan Meld Shell (Boston Coll)
    • Simone Zurbuchen/Valentin Braekman (Lausanne)
In addition, we have reserved up to five slots for papers selected from this call. Apart from the panels devoted to the overall theme of the conference (as specified above), there will probably be an open panel where any kind of Hobbes-related research can be presented (depending on the submissions we receive).
    Conferences of the EHS traditionally employ a workshop format: Rather than giving longer talks or presentations, speakers are asked to provide written papers which are pre-circulated to all participants. The papers should contain new, unpublished material and not be longer than 10,000 words. At the conference, speakers will only give a brief introduction to their paper (5-10 minutes). The papers will then be commented on by a preassigned commentator (10-15 minutes) and discussed in the plenum. Since it is vital that commentators get the time required to work out an appropriate feedback and that all participants get the chance to read all papers before the conference starts, papers must be available by Monday, July 24th. We think that paying close attention to the manifold ways in which Hobbes has influenced 17th and 18th century philosophy is worthwhile in its own right. However, we also hope that the topic will enable us to stimulate dialogues between the EHS and colleagues who would not perhaps conceive of themselves as ‘Hobbes scholars’, but are interested in Hobbes’s philosophy and approach it through the lens of other early modern thinkers.
    Regensburg is situated in the southeastern part of Germany and easily accessible. With the Albrecht Dürer Airport in Nuremberg and the Franz Josef Strauß Airport in Munich, two of Germany’s biggest airports are only a one hour-train ride away. (The train ride from Frankfurt Airport is a little longer, about 3.5 hours in total.) Regensburg train station is served by both ICE and local trains. And for those of you who prefer to come by boat, the Danube river runs directly through the city centre. We will send out information about accommodation in Regensburg at some later point. We have already secured a limited amount of funding and will apply for further funding in order to be able to at least cover accommodation costs for all speakers. For the day after the conference (i.e., August 11th), we plan to organize some kind of informal activity event: Regensburg is close to a number of rivers and surrounded by hills, and since we will meet in the summer, we thought it would be nice to provide those who are interested in this kind of activity with an opportunity to go hiking or kayaking (and thereby reward themselves for all the hard work done during the previous days).
    If you would like to present a paper at the conference, please send a 350-500 word abstract to Daniel Eggers no later than 15 January 2023. Abstracts will be sent out for blind review. Decisions will be communicated by mid-February.

August 24-25, 2023
Nordic Workshop in Early Modern Philosophy
University of Jyväskylä, Finland
The purpose of the NWEMP is to foster collaboration between scholars of early modern philosophy in the Nordic region. This summer, we have the special privilege of having Olli Koistinen (Turku) and Heikki Haara (Helsinki) as our invited speakers. In addition, we are privileged to have a round table discussion with Camilla Serck-Hanssen (Oslo), Timo Kaitaro (Helsinki), Villi Lähteenmäki (Oulu) and Peter Myrdal (Turku). The round table discussion focuses on an important figure and colleague in early modern philosophy, the late Lilli Alanen and discusses the past and the future of early modern philosophy in Nordic countries. Please send a title and a short abstract on any topic in early modern philosophy to Katariina Lipsanen by March 24th. Each slot will be 45 minutes (30 minutes for talk and 15 minutes for discussion). We kindly ask you to send your submission as a PDF-file attachment and render it anonymous for blind review. Decisions will be notified in early April.

August 30, 2023
Kant Zentrum NRW
Reza Mosayebi: "Kants Metaphysik von race"
Zoom link
18:00 – 20:00 CET
Kant Zentrum Series Site.
Contact: Larissa Berger.

August 31-September 1, 2023
Kantian Foundations of Democracy Conference: Progressivism and Conservatism in Kantian Political Philosophy
IFIKK, University of Oslo
Speakers: Howard Williams (Cardiff University), Frederick Beiser (Syracuse University)
Kant has often been called a “moderate” political thinker. On the one hand, he builds his political philosophy on the innate right of humanity that pertains to all human beings. This provides an egalitarian foundation on which he condemns the permissibility of slavery, colonialism, and hereditary privileges. On the other hand, Kant seems to envision a patriarchal, classist society in which women and laborers are not considered full citizens and therefore have no say in legislation. These two aspects of Kant’s political thought are also reflected in his immediate followers, who were both progressives and conservatives. While some used the Kantian framework for reactionary theories (see, e.g., August Wilhelm Rehberg, Freidrich von Gentz), others thought that Kant’s views were not egalitarian enough, thereby aiming to correct his political theory by placing it on more egalitarian Kantian grounds (e.g., Johann, Adam Bergk, Johann Benjamin Erhard). The Second KanDem-Conference seeks to explore the theme of progressivism and conservatism in Kant’s political philosophy and his immediate followers. The conference focuses on themes including, but not limited to:
    ·  Kant and his immediate successors on revolution
    ·  Kant and his immediate successors on active citizenship
    ·  Kant and his immediate successors on women’s and worker’s rights
    ·  Kant and his immediate successors on colonialism
    ·  Kant and his immediate successors on hereditary privileges
    ·  Kant and his immediate successors on political autonomy
    ·  Kant and his immediate successors on political progress
    ·  Kant and his immediate successors on economic and property rights
    ·  Kant and his immediate successors on political legitimacy (of states, governments, etc.)
Although we welcome contributions that focus exclusively on Kant, we are particularly interested in presentations that approach Kant’s or Kantian political philosophy through the lens of lesser-known Kantian figures, such as Johann Heinrich Abicht, Jakob Sigismund Beck, Johann Adam Bergk, Friedrich Bouterwek, Johann Gottlieb Buhle, Johann Benjamin Erhard, Paul Johann Anselm von Feuerbach, Johann Gotlieb Fichte, Georg Forster, Friedrich Gentz, Georg Friedrich Goess, Karl Heinrich Heydenreich, Johann Christoph Hoffbauer, Ludwig Julius Friedrich Höpfner, Gotlieb Hufeland, Gustav Hugo, Wilhelm von Humboldt, Ludwig Heinrich von Jakob, Christoph Gottlob Jähne, G. F. Kellner, Karl Salomo Zachariä von Lingenthal, Friedrich von Manger, Johann Gebhard Ehrenreich Maass, Salomon Maimon, Georg Samuel Albert Mellin, Johann Heinrich Meyer, Christian Friedrich Michaelis, Johann Georg Nehr, Christoph Friedrich Nicolai, Johann Wilhelm Petersen /Jo Wilhelm Placidus, Heinrich Ludwig Pölitz, Karl Ludwig Pörschke, Elise Reimarus, Karl Leonhard Reinhold, J. C. C. Rüdiger, Johann Christian Gottlieb Schaumann, Augustin Schelle, Friedrich Schelling, Friedrich Schlegel, Theodor Schmalz, Carl Christian Erhard Schmid, Konrad Stang, Heinrich Stephani, Wilhelm Gottlieb Tafinger, Johann Heinrich Tieftrunk, K. J. Wedekind, Ferdinand Christoph Weise, and I. D.Westphal.
    We invite submissions of abstracts of 300-400 words, excluding references and footnotes. Abstracts must be prepared for blind review, but include personal information (affiliation, contact info) in the submission email. Please send your anonymized abstract to Elisabeth Widmer (University of Oslo). Deadline: February 28th, 2023; notification: March 31st, 2023.
Organizers/contacts: Michael Kryluk or Elisabeth Widmer.

September 4-6, 2023
International Society for Intellectual History Conference: "Crisis and Change in Intellectual History since c. 1450"
University of Edinburgh, Scotland
Keynote speakers:
    • Anna Becker (Aarhus University)
    • Dmitri Levitin (All Souls College/Caltech)
    • Silvia Sebastiani (EHESS, Paris)
    • Colin Kidd (University of St Andrews)
It is common to characterise the present age as one of ‘crisis’, whether this is a crisis of democracy, capitalism, liberalism, the natural environment, conventional standards of factbased truth, or another feature of the modern world that had previously seemed secure. The Greek term krisis literally means a moment of decision, or turning point. ‘Crisis’ therefore is often believed to precede, and to precipitate change. It is not surprising then that ‘crisis’ has been widely used by historians as a means of explaining intellectual change in the past. The term features in the titles of works ranging from Paul Hazard’s famous La Crise de la conscience européenne of 1935, to Reinhard Koselleck’s Kritik und Krise of 1959, and John Burrow’s The Crisis of Reason, published in 2000. Participants in the conference are encouraged to explore the meaning and relevance of ‘crisis’ in relation to any topic in intellectual history since c. 1450. No particular definition of ‘crisis’ will be assumed. The term should be taken in its broadest possible sense. Papers may focus on historical debates about crisis, or on crisis as an interpretative tool to account for intellectual change. Participants may also wish to examine alternatives to ‘crisis’ as an explanation for intellectual change. Possible themes for papers include, but are not restricted to:
    • Political crisis as a catalyst for intellectual change
    • Crisis and histories of knowledge
    • Crises of expertise in history
    • Religious crisis and conflict
    • Economic crises
    • Social change conceptualised as crisis
    • The history of cultural crises
    • Uses of the term ‘crisis’ in writings on intellectual history
    • Histories of responses to real or perceived crises
    • Environmental and climate crisis
    • Institutional crises as catalysts for intellectual change
    • Crises of intellectual disciplines
    • Alternatives to crisis as an explanation for intellectual change
We invite anyone working on these topics, or in any relevant field of intellectual history, to submit proposals for 20-minute papers. Proposals for panels, consisting of three 20-minute papers, or four 15-minute papers are also welcome. Papers and panels may concentrate on any period, region, tradition or discipline relevant to the conference theme. The language of the conference is English. Proposals for papers should be no longer than 250 words. For panel proposals the word limit is 750 words. All proposals should include titles and abstracts of papers, as well as the names, email addresses, and institutional affiliations of speakers. Proposals should be sent to hca-isih2023@ed.ac.uk no later than 8 May 2023.
Contact: Thomas Ahnert.

September 4-8, 2023
European Consortium for Political Reserch
Charles University
Prague, Czech Republic
Session on "Kant on Global Politics"
Contact: Jakub Szczepanski.

Website

September 15-16, 2023
Logic and Human Nature: Early Modern and Enlightenment Confluences
University of Bucharest, Romania
Invited speakers: Peter Anstey, Élodie Cassan, Philippe Hamou, Martine Pécharman
We intend this workshop to help with the preparation of contributions to a special issue of an international journal (to be specified). We aim for a first submission around November 15, 2023. We are seeking 2-4 additional contributors to this workshop & publication project. Please send a developed abstract (ca. 1500 words) to Sorana Corneanu and Tinca Prunea by June 1, 2023. Notifications of acceptance will be received by June 15, 2023. Inquiries can be sent Sorana Corneanu.
    The theme of this workshop/special issue is the redescription of logic as an art for directing and correcting the work of the operations of the mind in its search for truth in several quarters of early modern and Enlightenment philosophy. This historical approach to logic has been labelled ‘logic of ideas’ or ‘facultative logic’ and various assessments have been proposed of its significance for the history of logic or for the epistemology and scientific methodology of the period. In this workshop, we aim to address the foundational rationale of this type of logic, signalled by the appearance of ‘self-knowledge’ or ‘the knowledge of man’ among the aims of logic. That is to say, we aim to study the confluences between logic and the investigation of human nature, be it in the form of the early modern natural history of the understanding or of the Enlightenment science of man, and understand their historical and philosophical consequences. We aim to look at works presented or received as logics / arts of thinking, or at works on the human mind / human nature that use logical frameworks.
    One set of issues has to do with the articulation of logical and anthropological concerns. For example: the relation between artificial logic, natural logic and the natural history of the understanding / the science of human nature / the history of man; the problem of error and its place within a natural historical / natural logical / artificial logical project; the expansion of the set of powers of the mind understood as relevant to logic and the role of the body in this context; the crossovers with theological and medical anthropology; The pairing of logical structures with the operations of the mind responsible for their creation and validation; the consequences of this for the accounts of definition and argumentation, of demonstrative and probable reasoning, of abstraction and generalization, etc.
    Another set of issues has to do with the articulation of description and normativity. For example: the way norms of good thinking were (meant to be) embedded in the experimental description of mind/man; or else, the nature of logical rules and their legitimation with reference to natural logic; the relation between logical rules and the idea of best practice in the arts and sciences; the relation between norms of thinking and the persona of the good or bad thinker; the problem of the universal or culturally embedded nature of the norms; the way the norms sometimes involve a practical project, with pedagogical consequences.
Contact: Tinca Prunea.

September 27, 2023
Kant Zentrum NRW
Alessandro Pinzani: tba
Zoom link
18:00 – 20:00 CET
Kant Zentrum Series Site.
Contact: Larissa Berger.

September 29-October 1, 2023
Leibniz Society of North America
Harvard University
Cambridge, MA
Papers on any aspect of Leibniz’s philosophy will be considered and should have a reading time of approximately 45 minutes. Submissions should take the form of abstracts of about 500 words in length, prepared for anonymous review. They should be submitted as attachments to emails in PDF format to Jeff McDonough. The deadline for the receipt of submissions is May 15, 2023. Authors will be notified by June 15 of the program committee’s decision. Selected authors will be expected to send complete drafts of their presentations to their commentators by August 15, 2023.

October 25, 2023
Kant Zentrum NRW
Rachel Zuckert: "Kant’s Philosophy of History as Response to Existential Despair"
Zoom link
18:00 – 20:00 CET
Kant Zentrum Series Site.
Contact: Larissa Berger.

November 10-11, 2023
NYU Conference on Issues in Modern Philosophy: Love and Friendship
New York University, New York
Friday, November 10
    9:30–9:55 Check–in and Coffee
    9:55 Welcome
    10:00–12:00 Ryan Patrick Hanley (Boston C): "Adam Smith"; commentator Samuel Fleischacker (Illinois Chicago)
    2:00–4:00 Marcia Baron (Indiana U Bloomington): "Immanuel Kant"; commentator Kyla Ebels–Duggan (Northwestern)
    4:30–6:30 Frederick Beiser (Syracuse): "German Romanticism"; commentator Owen Ware (Toronto)
Saturday, November 11
    9:30–10:00 Check–in and Coffee
    10:00–12:00 Andrew Huddleston (Warwick): "Friedrich Nietzsche"; commentator Claire Kirwin (Northwestern)
    2:00–4:00 Michelle Kosch (Cornell): 'Simone De Beauvoir"; commentator Susan J. Brison (Dartmouth)
    4:30–6:30 Simon May (King's C London): Contemporary, commentator Alexander Nehamas (Princeton)
Website
Contacts: John Richardson, Don Garrett, and Anja Jauernig.

November 28-30, 2023
Australasian Seminar in Early Modern Philosophy
University of Otago
Dunedin, New Zealand
Invited speakers: Karolina Hübner (Cornell), Peter Thielke (Pomona)
We hope to include both individual presentations and panels of 2-4 speakers on figures and themes in seventeenth and eighteenth century philosophy. For individual papers, please send two versions of an abstract of about 500 words no later than March 1, 2023. For panels, please send two versions of an abstract of about 1000 words. One version of the abstract should include authors' names and affiliations. The second should be prepared for blind review. Send abstracts by e-mail attachment as a pdf file to Michael LeBuffe. All abstracts will be acknowledged. Successful participants will be notified by April 15, 2023.

November 29, 2023
Kant Zentrum NRW
Andrea Esser: tba
Zoom link
18:00 – 20:00 CET
Kant Zentrum Series Site.
Contact: Larissa Berger.

January 15-18, 2024
APA Eastern Division Meeting
Sheraton New York Times Square, 811 7th Avenue
New York, New York
Submission deadline: February 15, 2023.

January 31, 2023
Kant Zentrum NRW
Kang Qian: "The Difficulty of Deriving Practical Reason from Pure Self-Activity: On Kant’s Solution of the Circularity between Freedom and Morality"
Zoom link
18:00 – 20:00 CET
Kant Zentrum Series Site.
Contact: Larissa Berger.

February 21-24, 2024
APA Central Division Meeting
Astor Crown Plaza New Orleans French Quarter, 739 Canal Street
New Orleans, Louisiana
Submission deadline: June 1, 2023.

March 20-23, 2024
APA Pacific Division Meeting
Hilton Portland, 921 SW 6th Avenue
Portland, Oregon
Submission deadline: September 1, 2023.

April 24, 2024
Kant Zentrum NRW
Andrea Esser: tba
Zoom link
18:00 – 20:00 CET
Kant Zentrum Series Site.
Contact: Larissa Berger.

July 15-19, 2024
VI Congreso Internacional de la SEKLE (Society of Kantian Studies in the Spanish Language): 300th Anniversary of Immanuel Kant's Birth
Universidad Santiago de Compostela
Santiago de Compostela, Spain
Kantian Ways of Thinking
    The motto "Ways of Thinking" metaphorically evokes the Camino de Santiago and the beautiful hosting city, as well as the many pathways and ways opened by Kantian thought three centuries after his birth. From our perspective, we consider the developmental history of his thought not only as following a single path but many, something which is also true regarding the history of his reception. Etymologically, the words 'way' (camino/Weg) and 'ways' (caminos/Wege) suggest the problem of method or methods of Kant’s thinking and there is in our thinker “a path that is thus far entirely unexplored” (KrV A98), namely, that of the Transcendental Deduction of the categories. But there are a variety of ways – both national and international – that can bring Kant researchers to Santiago de Compostela on the occasion of the tricentenary of his birth. As well as the aforementioned themes, contributions on any other aspect of Kant’s thought are welcome. The languages of the congress are Spanish, German, Portuguese, English, Italian, French and Galician. The modality will be hybrid.
    Proposals (title and abstract: no more than 1000 words) must be sent to kksekle24usc@gmail.com" before the May 30, 2023. Communication of acceptance will be sent before the 15th of October 2023.
Attendance Fees: In the three sections, associates of SEKLE will receive a 50% discount. Free entry will be considered in the case of those from countries in military conflict or in serious economic crisis. In all cases, the registration fee will entitle the attendee to a participation certificate and congress materials.
    · University professors presenting: enrollment before December 31, 2023: 120 euros; January 1-March 31, 2024: 140 euros; April 1-July 15, 2024: 160 euros.
    · Independent Researchers Presenting: enrollment before December 31, 2023: 50 euros; January 1-March 31, 2024: 70 euros; April 1-July 15, 2024: 90 euros.
    · Participants not Presenting: enrollment before December 31, 2023: 20 euros; January 1-March 31, 2024: 30 euros; April 1-July 15, 2024: 40 euros.
Organizing committee: María Jesús Vázquez Lobeiras (Santiago de Compostela), Alba Jiménez Rodríguez (Complutense de Madrid),Paula Órdenes Azúa (Heidelberg), Fernando Moledo (Hagen), Pedro Jesús Teruel Ruíz (Valencia), Manuel Sánchez Rodríguez (Granada).

September 8-13, 2024
International Kant Congress
University of Bonn
Website.
November 1, 2022: deadline for full paper submissions.
Contact: Dietmar Heidemann.

January 8-11, 2025
APA Eastern Division Meeting
Sheraton New York Times Square, 811 7th Avenue
New York, New York
Submission deadline: February 15, 2024.

April 15-20, 2025
APA Pacific Division Meeting
Westin St. Francis, 335 Powell Street
San Francisco, California
Submission deadline: September 1, 2024.