Hobbes and the Enlightenment (August 2023)

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 multitude/people distinction
– Commentator: Heikki Haara (Helsinki)

Susan Meld Shell (Boston College), Republicanizing 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 (München/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)

Conference "Hobbes and the Enlightenment"
Altes Finanzamt, Landshuter Str. 4, Room ALFI 319

Conference schedule

Tuesday August 8

13.00 – 14.00 Lunch

14.00 – 14.15 Welcome 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 (München/Bielefeld)

16.30 – 17.00 Coffee

17.00 – 18.00 Susan Meld Shell (Boston College), Republicanizing 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

20.00 Dinner

Wednesday August 9

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 August 10

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 (Zürich), Adam Ferguson, Thomas Hobbes and the Return to Politics – Commentator: Sarah Strömel (Regensburg)

11.45 – 12.45 Lunch

End of official program

Download program

For participants staying on afterwards, we plan to arrange an informal hiking or kayaking event on Friday, August 11, to give them the opportunity of enjoying some of the nice scenery around Regensburg. Participation is, of course, voluntary, and at the present time, we cannot safely say whether a sufficient number of participants will be interested in, and available for, this kind of event.

Travel information

Regensburg is situated in the south-eastern part of Germany and easily accessible by train and plane. With the Albrecht Dürer Airport in Nuremberg and the Franz Josef Strauß Airport in Munich, two of Germany’s biggest airports are only about a one hour-train ride away (The train ride from Frankfurt Airport is a little longer, approx. 3,5 hours in total.). Regensburg train station is served by both ICE and local trains and located 600m from the conference venue.

Accommodation

There are several reasonably priced hotels in Regensburg. The following ones are all located within walking distance from the train station and the conference venue:

Hotel am Peterstor, Fröhliche-Türken-Str. 12 (single rooms: from 63,-€ incl. breakfast, double rooms: from 76,-€ incl. breakfast)

Hotel-Restaurant Wiendl, Universitätsstr. 9 (single rooms: from 45,50€ incl. breakfast, double rooms: from 88,50€ incl. breakfast)

Hotel Kaiserhof, Kramgasse 10-12 (single rooms: from 85,-€ incl. breakfast, double rooms: from 115,-€ incl. breakfast)

Some of these hotels also offer family rooms. Moreover, there are two hostels in Regensburg which offer both domitory beds and family rooms/apartments and a private guesthouse which offers apartments.

Hostel am Ostentor, Ostengasse 12 (https://www.hostel-am-ostentor.de)

Youth Hostel Regensburg, Wöhrdstr. 60 (requires membership in the International Youth Association) (https://www.jugendherberge.de/jugendherbergen/regensburg-262/portraet/

Ferienwohnung Schmid, Silberne Fischgasse 6 (https://www.schmid-regensburg.de)

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 the restaurants we plan to attend. The address of the conference venue is: Landshuter Straße 4, 93047 Regensburg. The conference room is on the third floor (room no. ALFI 319).