Prof. Dr. Johan Olsthoorn

Employment

Education

Research stays

Books

Special Issues

Journal Articles

Book Chapters

Book reviews, dictionary entries, miscellaneous (selection)

# = keynote; * = invited talk. Including presentations via Zoom/Teams

1. ‘TBA’
     * Research seminar in philosophy, Univ. of Regensburg, Nov. 19, 2025
2. ‘Grotius on the ‘infinite right’ to kill in defence of one’s life and goods’
     Conference on Hugo Grotius, Leiden Univ., June 19-20, 2025
3. ‘Rights-forfeiture, punishment, and war’
     * Conference in honour of A. John Simmons, Chicago, May 14-18, 2025
4. ‘Justifications of human bondage in antislavery writings: the case of Cugoano’
     * Conference at Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington D.C., Feb. 12-14,
        2026
     * Research seminar in the history of philosophy, Univ. of Jyväskylä, April 30, 
        2025
5. ‘Natural rights, human rights, and punishment’
     # Conference on human rights, Univ. of Regensburg, Feb. 10-12, 2025
6. ‘Paternalistic justifications for imperial rule, from Aristotle to Bentham’
     * Workshop at Centre Bentham, Sciences Po Paris, June 24-25, 2024
7. ‘Racial natural slavery in Grotius’s just war theory’
     Grotius workshop, Univ. of Amsterdam, Dept. of Law, June 7, 2024
8. ‘After abolition: Cugoano on ‘lawful servitude’ and the injustice of slavery’ [published]
     * Workshop on human rights in colonial contexts, Lund Univ., June 11-12,
        2024
     * Political theory seminar, King’s College London, Nov. 22, 2023
     * Conference on slavery in early modern philosophy, Boston Univ.,
        Nov. 11-12, 2023
     - OZSW conference, Leiden Univ., June 2-3, 2023
9. ‘Locke on natural law and natural rights’ [published]
     * Annual meeting of the Locke Working Group, NYU, May 18-19, 2023
10. ‘The problem of penal slavery in Quobna Ottobah Cugoano’s abolitionism’ [published]
      * NY/NJ early modern philosophy seminar, CUNY, May 17, 2023
      * Early modern philosophy seminar, Utrecht Univ., Sept. 22, 2022
      - Rethinking the narratives of early modern phil., U. Copenhagen,
         Sept. 14-16, 2022
11. ‘Infinite right: proportionality and liability in early modern ethics of war’ [published]
      * Philosophy seminar, Stellenbosch Univ., August 18, 2022
      * Philosophy seminar, Univ. of Cape Town, August 3, 2022
12. ‘Hobbes on justice’ [published]
      * Hobbes research seminar, Sorbonne, Paris, June 2, 2026
      * Author-meets-critics, Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies,
         April 28, 2025
      * Philosophy seminar, Univ. of Valladolid, March 21, 2025
      # Dutch Seminar in Early Modern Philosophy VIII, Univ. Groningen,
         June 23-24, 2022
13. ‘Human rights and the ethics of compulsory prison labour’
      - ECPR conference, Univ. College Dublin, August 12-15, 2024
      * Online workshop ‘Facts, concepts, values and norms’, Univ. of Bucharest,
         June 7, 2022
      * Legal philosophy seminar, dept. of law, Univ. of Amsterdam,
         March 15, 2022
14. ‘Hobbes on injustice, injury, and rights’ [published]
      Third Biennial European Hobbes Society Conference, Dubrovnik,
      Nov. 18-20, 2021
15. ‘The right to wage private wars of subsistence’ [published]
      * Workshop on the public uses of coercion and force, Univ. of Amsterdam,
         June 7, 2019
16. ‘Enforcing global justice: war, necessity, and remedial rights of the global poor’ [published]
      Yaoundé PhD seminar, Catholic Univ. of Central Africa, Cameroon,
      Aug. 20-25, 2018
17. ‘Self-ownership and despotism: Locke on property in the person, divine dominium of human life, and rights-forfeiture’ [published]
      * Workshop on the problem of self-ownership, London, May 24-27, 2018
      * PSA politics of property workshop, Univ. of Nottingham, March 23, 2018
18. ‘Moral standing, liability, and rights to wage wars of national defence’
      * Research seminar in practical philosophy, Univ. of Oslo, Oct. 27, 2020
      * Workshop on the morality of war, Univ. of Nijmegen, Nov. 18, 2019
      * Law and philosophy research seminar, Univ. Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona,
         Feb. 6, 2018
      * Conference on the ethics of war, Univ. of Amsterdam, Feb. 1-2, 2018
      - UCSIA workshop on pacifism, Univ. of Antwerp, Dec. 6-8, 2017
19. ‘Leviathan Inc.: Hobbes on the nature and person of the commonwealth’ [published]
      * Conference on political philosophy, Jilin Univ., P.R. China,
         June 15-16, 2019
      * Early career workshop in history of political thought, York Univ.,
         June 14-15, 2018
      * EUI European Hobbes Society workshop, Firenze, April 27-28, 2017
20. ‘‘This man is my property’: slavery and political absolutism in Locke and the classical social contract tradition’ (with L. van Apeldoorn) [published]
      * Legal and political theory seminar, EUI, Firenze, Jan. 28, 2019
      - British Society for the History of Philosophy conference, U. Sheffield,
         April 6-8, 2017
      - Early career workshop in the history of political thought, KU Leuven,
         Feb. 20-21, 2017
21. ‘Hobbes on the rights of war’ [published]
      # Conference ‘Roman Justice and its Reception’, Swiss Institute Rome,
         Nov. 11-12, 2021
      - European Hobbes Society workshop, Univ. of Amsterdam, Nov. 20, 2019
      - International Society for Intellectual History conference, St Andrews,
         June 10-13, 2018
      * Early career seminar in history of political thought, Univ. of London,
         March 1, 2017
      * Law seminar, Univ. of Erlangen-Nürnberg, Nov. 14, 2016
22. ‘Two ways of theorizing collective ownership of the Earth’ [published]
      * ECPR, Prague, Sept. 7-10, 2016
      * Property rights workshop, NUS Singapore, July 25-27, 2016
23. ‘The theocratic Leviathan: Hobbes’s arguments for the identity of church and state’ [published]
      - Renaissance Society of America conference, Boston, March 31-April 2, 2016
      * Research colloquium on early modern political thought, UC Berkeley,
         Feb. 8, 2016
24. ‘Conceptual analysis’ [published]
      * ECPR, Prague, Sept. 7-10, 2016
      * Research seminar in political philosophy, KU Leuven, Dec. 8, 2015
25. ‘Francisco Suárez and Hugo Grotius on distributive justice and imperfect rights’ [published]
      * Conference on Suárez’s legal and political thought, Bruges,
         Nov. 24-25, 2017
      * ‘Rights at the Margins’ conference, Univ. of Helsinki, August 8-9, 2015
26. ‘Conceptual foundations of Locke’s theory of original appropriation’ [published]
      * Annual meeting of the Locke Working Group, KCL, June 18, 2021
      * Workshop on legitimacy and property, Univ. of Cambridge,
         June 23, 2015
      * LSE political theory seminar, LSE, June 11, 2015
      - Politics of property workshop, Univ. of Nottingham, April 9-10, 2015
27. ‘Egoism in Hobbes’s psychology and ethics’ (with L. van Apeldoorn)
      OZSW Conference 2014, Radboud Univ. Nijmegen, Nov. 7-8, 2014
28. ‘Grotius on natural law and supererogation’ [published]
      * History of political thought seminar, Univ. of Cambridge, Feb. 27, 2017
      - Conference on natural law in C.16th -17th, CEU, Budapest,
         Nov. 10-12, 2016
      - 5th North Sea Seminar in Early Modern Philosophy, St Andrews,
         Oct. 10-11, 2014
29. ‘Bernard Mandeville on unnatural virtue’
      Symposium on Mandeville, KNIR/American Univ. of Rome, Sept. 4-6, 2014
30. ‘Thomas Hobbes: justice without rights’ [published]
      * Princeton, Dept. of Politics, Dec. 2, 2014
      * LSE, Dept. of Government, June 9, 2014
31. ‘Hobbes’s attempts to de-moralize the domain of justice of actions’ [published]
      5th Meeting of the European Hobbes Society, King’s College London,
      Feb. 20-21, 2014
32. ‘The labour theory of property as a principle of distributive justice’
      - Politicologenetmaal, Univ. of Maastricht, June 12-13, 2014
      * PhD seminar at King’s College London, Dep. of Political Economy,
         Feb. 19, 2014
33. ‘Positivism and the separation of justice and morals in Hobbes’s legal philosophy’ [published]
      * LSE Forum in Legal and Political Theory, LSE, Feb. 11, 2015
      - XXVI World Congress of Philosophy of Law, Belo Horizonte,
         July 21-27, 2013
34. ‘Hobbes on natural equality: a critique’
      OZSW annual conference, Erasmus Univ. Rotterdam, Nov. 15-16, 2013
35. ‘On the absence of moral goodness in Hobbes’s ethics’ [published]
      * Univ. of Adolfo Ibáñez, Santiago, Chile, July 31-Aug. 1, 2019
      * Ghent University, Sarton Centre for History of Science, Dec. 10, 2015
      - Mainz Seminar in Early Modern Philosophy, Univ. of Mainz,
         Nov. 21-23, 2013
      - 4th meeting of the European Hobbes Society, KU Leuven,
         March 26-27, 2013
36. ‘The problem of spurious replies in early modern polemics’
      European Society for Early Modern Philosophy, Univ. de Grenoble,
      Jan. 30-Feb. 1, 2013
37. ‘Spinoza on human and divine justice’ [published]
      * Author-meets-critics with Susan James, Univ. of Ghent,
         Dec. 13-14, 2012
38. ‘Why Hobbes did not hold that every civil law is just’ [published]
      * Symposium on Hobbes, King’s College London, Nov. 15, 2012
39. ‘Hobbes on justice, property rights and self-ownership’ [published]
      * 2nd meeting of the European Hobbes Society, King’s College London,
         May 16-17, 2012
      - Graduate conference in the history of political thought, QMUL,
         May 14-15, 2012
40. ‘Hobbes on traitors, rebels and enemies’ [published]
      # Graduate conference on treason and betrayal, Univ. of Groningen,
         June 30, 2025
      - European Society for the History of Political Thought, U. of Athens,
         Jan. 19-21, 2012
41. ‘The matter of duty: what is wrong and who is wronged in Hobbes’s ethics’ [published]
      * Workshop on Hobbes and the Enlightenment, Univ. of Marburg,
         Dec. 9-10, 2011
42. ‘Why justice and injustice have no place outside the Hobbesian state’ [published]
      - Harvard Graduate Conference in Political Theory, Harvard,
         October 19-20, 2013
      * Intellectual History Seminar, Queen Mary, Univ. of London,
         December 5, 2012
      - MANCEPT Workshops in Political Theory, Manchester,
         Aug. 31-Sept. 2, 2011
      - Politicologenetmaal, Univ. of Amsterdam, June 18, 2011
43. ‘Worse than death: the foundations of Hobbes’s moral philosophy’ [published]
      - European Hobbes Society meeting, Univ. of Amsterdam, Dec. 15-16, 2012
      - APA Pacific Division, San Diego, April 20-24, 2011
44. ‘Hobbes’s account of distributive justice as equity’ [published]
      - 7th Annual Pol. Theory Workshop, Manchester Metropolitan Univ.,
         Sept. 1-3, 2010
      - Grad. conference in early modern philosophy, Univ. of Bucharest,
         May 19-20, 2010
45. ‘Real good, death, and the laws of nature: re-examining Thomas Hobbes’s meta-ethics’
      6th Annual Political Theory Workshop, Manchester Metropolitan Univ.,
      Sept. 2-4, 2009
     

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