Hobbes and the Enlightenment (8–10 August 2023)
We are pleased to announce the fourth biennial conference of the European Hobbes Society (EHS), which will take place in Regensburg, Germany, in August 2023.
The conference focuses on how Hobbes’s ideas were discussed and taken up by other thinkers of the 17th and 18th centuries. Its aim is to provide a better understanding of the manifold – and often indirect – ways in which Hobbes’s theory influenced the philosophy of the Enlightenment and to stimulate dialogue between Hobbes scholars and other historians of early modern philosophy.
EHS conferences traditionally follow a workshop format: speakers will submit written papers which are circulated to all participants in advance. At the conference, these papers will be commented on by pre-assigned commentators and discussed in the plenary session.
Please find further information about the upcoming conference below.
If you would like to attend the conference, please register by sending an email to daniel.eggers(at)ur.de (opens your email program). Registration is open until 24 July.
Organisers: Prof. Dr. Daniel Eggers, Prof. Dr. Eva Odzuck, Dr. Dietrich Schotte
Information
Speakers
List of speakers
Stephen Darwall (Yale), Hobbes, Pufendorf and modern moral philosophy
– Commentator: Sonja Schierbaum (Würzburg)
James Harris (St Andrews), Hobbes, Pufendorf and Locke on the distinction between the multitude and the people
– Commentator: Heikki Haara (Helsinki)
Susan Meld Shell (Boston College), Republicanising Leviathan: Kant’s Cosmopolitan Synthesis of Rousseau and Hobbes
– Commentator: Michael Walschots (Mainz)
Ursula Goldenbaum (Emory University), Leibniz as Hobbes’s best student
– Commentator: Sarah Tropper (Graz)
Sarah Hutton (York), Hobbes, More and Conway
– Commentator: Ariane Schneck (Munich/Bielefeld)
Robin Douglass (King’s College London), Self-love, Dominion, and Sociability: Campbell and Mandeville in the Shadow of Hobbes
– Commentator: Monica Brito-Vieira (York)
Amy Chandran (Harvard), Leviathan’s Theodicy: The Justice of God and the Politics of Grace
– Commentator: Gonzalo Bustamante Kuschel (Santiago de Chile)
Signy Gutnick Allen (Zurich), Adam Ferguson, Thomas Hobbes and the Return to Politics
– Commentator: Sarah Strömel (Regensburg)
Claudia Dumitru (Princeton), Hume and Hobbes on scarcity
– Commentator: Johan Olsthoorn (Amsterdam)
Theodor Berwe (Mainz/Bochum), Hobbes’ constructive legacy: The role of genetic definition in early modern philosophy
– Commentator: Hans Rott (Regensburg)
Programme
Conference: "Hobbes and the Enlightenment"
Old Tax Office, Landshuter Str. 4, Room ALFI 319
Conference programme
Tuesday 8 August
13.00 – 14.00 Lunch
14.00 – 14.15 Welcome and introduction
14.15 – 15.15 Robin Douglass (King’s College London), Self-love, Dominion, and Sociability: Campbell and Mandeville in the Shadow of Hobbes – Commentator: Monica Brito-Vieira (York)
15.15 – 15.30 Break
15.30 – 16.30 Sarah Hutton (York), Hobbes, More and Conway – Commentator: Ariane
Schneck (Munich/Bielefeld)
16.30 – 17.00 Coffee
17.00 – 18.00 Susan Meld Shell (Boston College), Republicanising Leviathan: Kant’s Cosmopolitan Synthesis of Rousseau and Hobbes – Commentator: Michael Walschots (Mainz)
18.00 – 18.15 Break
18.15 – 19.00 Meeting of the European Hobbes Society
8.00 pm Dinner
Wednesday 9 August
9.30 – 10.00 Coffee
10.00 – 11.00 Theodor Berwe (Mainz/Bochum), Hobbes’s constructive legacy: The role of genetic definition in early modern philosophy – Commentator: Hans Rott (Regensburg)
11.00 – 11.15 Break
11.15 – 12.15 Claudia Dumitru (Princeton), Hume and Hobbes on scarcity – Commentator: Johan Olsthoorn (Amsterdam)
12.15 – 13.15 Lunch
13.15 – 14.15 Ursula Goldenbaum (Emory University), Leibniz as Hobbes’s best student – Commentator: Sarah Tropper (Graz)
14.15 – 14.30 Break
14.30 – 15.30 Amy Chandran (Harvard), Leviathan’s Theodicy: The Justice of God and the Politics of Grace – Commentator: Gonzalo Bustamante Kuschel (Santiago de Chile)
15.30 – 16.00 Coffee
16.00 – 17.00 James Harris (St Andrews), Hobbes on people and multitude: Context and argument – Commentator: Heikki Haara (Helsinki)
19.00 Dinner
Thursday 10 August
9.00 – 9.30 Coffee
9.30 – 10.30 Stephen Darwall (Yale), Hobbes, Pufendorf and modern moral philosophy – Commentator: Sonja Schierbaum (Würzburg)
10.30 – 10.45 Break
10.45 – 11.45 Signy Gutnick Allen (Zurich), Adam Ferguson, Thomas Hobbes and the Return to Politics – Commentator: Sarah Strömel (Regensburg)
11.45 – 12.45 Lunch
End of official programme
For participants staying on afterwards, we plan to organise an informal hiking or kayaking event on Friday 11 August, to give them the opportunity to enjoy some of the beautiful scenery around Regensburg. Participation is, of course, voluntary, and at present we cannot say for certain whether a sufficient number of participants will be interested in, and available for, this sort of event.
Travel Information
Regensburg is situated in the south-east of Germany and is easily accessible by train and plane. With Albrecht Dürer Airport in Nuremberg and Franz Josef Strauß Airport in Munich, two of Germany’s largest airports are only about an hour’s train journey away (the train journey from Frankfurt Airport is a little longer, taking approximately 3.5 hours in total). Regensburg railway station is served by both ICE and local trains and is located 600 metres from the conference venue.
Accommodation
There are several reasonably priced hotels in Regensburg. The following are all within walking distance of the train station and the conference venue:
Hotel am Peterstor, Fröhliche-Türken-Str. 12 (single rooms: from €63 including breakfast, double rooms: from €76 including breakfast)
Hotel-Restaurant Wiendl, Universitätsstr. 9 (single rooms: from €45.50 including breakfast, double rooms: from €88.50 including breakfast)
Hotel Kaiserhof, Kramgasse 10–12 (single rooms: from €85 including breakfast, double rooms: from €115 including breakfast)
Some of these hotels also offer family rooms. Furthermore, there are two hostels in Regensburg which offer both dormitory beds and family rooms/flats, as well as a private guesthouse offering flats.
Hostel am Ostentor, Ostengasse 12 (https://www.hostel-am-ostentor.de (external link, opens in a new window))
Youth Hostel Regensburg, Wöhrdstr. 60 (membership of the International Youth Association required) (https://www.jugendherberge.de/jugendherbergen/regensburg-262/portraet/ (external link, opens in a new window)
Ferienwohnung Schmid, Silberne Fischgasse 6 (https://www.schmid-regensburg.de (external link, opens in a new window))
Conference venue
The conference will not take place on the university campus but in a building called Altes Finanzamt, which is closer to the hotels and restaurants we plan to visit. The address of the conference venue is: Landshuter Straße 4, 93047 Regensburg. The conference room is on the third floor (room no. ALFI 319).