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Impressions of the Third Biennial Conference of the European Hobbes Society

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“…it is against his duty, to let the people be ignorant, or misinformed of the grounds, and reasons of those his essential rights; because thereby men are easy to be seduced, and drawn to resist him, when the commonwealth shall require their use and exercise.”

Hobbes, Leviathan, XXX.3

From 18-20 Nov 2021, 15 scholars from 10 different countries and for the first time 8 graduate students from the University of Zagreb gathered together in the old and beautiful Mediterranean city of Dubrovnik, Croatia, for the Third Biennial Conference of the European Hobbes Society. As always, it was a joy to see familiar faces as well as to introduce new ones. 

It should be noted that the whole organization was a challenge due to the ongoing Covid-19 related crises. First, the conference had to postponed for a year as the epidemiological situation did not allow majority people to travel. As the Covid-19 global pandemic is still preventing some people from travel, some speakers were unable to attend in the end. Despite all these challenges and missing faces we had thoughtful presentations and productive discussions. Precisely, we had twelve new interesting papers on Hobbes, covering various topics related to Hobbes’s thought from those related to interpretation of Sommerville’s work as it was the case with the opening talk of S.A. Lloyd, to George Wright’s project related to translating the Latin Leviathan, Hobbes’s arguments about religion discussed by Asaf Sokolowski, the relation between Hobbes and Enlightenment by Luc Foisneau, a reconstruction of Hobbes’s state of nature through the work of Thucydides by Luka Ribarević, interpretations of Hobbes’s view on injustice and injury by Johan Olsthoorn, criticism related to Hobbes’s political science by Adrian Blau, etc. 

The full program can be found here.  

We are very grateful to the Faculty of Political Science, University of Zagreb, Croatia for providing us as organizers with grants making this EHS conference possible, as well as the Inter-University Centre Dubrovnik for hosting us and offering the grants allowing our grad students to participate in the conference. Thanks also goes out to all participants, both for coming in Dubrovnik as well as for shaping this small epistemic community and inducing an inspiring and thoughtful conversation on various aspects of Hobbes’s work.

The Inter-University Centre Dubrovnik will be open for hosting similar events and workshops in the future. We continue to welcome initiatives for various events under the aegis of the EHS. Finally, we are pleased to announce that the Fourth Biennial Conference of the European Hobbes Society will be organized by Daniel Eggers, at the University of Regensburg, Germany, in August 2023. Until then, stay safe and enjoy Hobbes!

Programme of the International Hobbes Association sessions at the APA

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The programme of the International Hobbes Association sessions at the American Philosophical Association is now available. The American Philosophical Association, Eastern Division meetings will take place in Savannah Georgia, on January 3-6, 2018. The Hobbes sessions include presentations by Eleanor Curran, Jan Narveson, Christopher Buckman, Paul Garofalo, Stewart Duncan, Elad Carmel, Shane D. Courtland, and Daniel Collette. The full programme can be found here.

Call for Abstracts: International Hobbes Association at the APA Eastern 2018

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The International Hobbes Association will be sponsoring two sessions at the American Philosophical Association 2018 EASTERN Division meetings, January 3-6 in Savannah, Georgia. You are invited to submit an abstract for a paper presentation. Papers selected for presentation will also be considered for publication in Hobbes Studies.

By August 1, 2017, please electronically submit your abstract (400 word maximum) to, IHA Sovereign (Presiding Officer), Rosamond Rhodes, (rosamond.rhodes@mssm.edu).

Call for papers: What were the early moderns afraid of?

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Call for papers for a two-day conference at the University of Antwerp. June 8-9 2017.

The early moderns seem to have had an almost endless list of fears: God, devils, ghosts, war, each other, nature, lack of knowledge, curiosity, new science, the emotions, free-thinking, sex, women, famine, execution, the law, lawlessness, death, chaos, other religions and other cultures, loss or dissolution of social rank… and their fears spanned the realms of the passions, reason, religion, culture, and politics.
The motivation for the conference is the general question of what the early moderns were afraid of, philosophically, personally, and politically. Where did these fears come from? Where did they believe they came from? How did they try to overcome these fears, or profit from them? What were they not afraid of? What did they think fear was? How different were their fears from our own?
The conference seeks to investigate some philosophical and historical aspects of early modern thought, as a means to a fuller picture of early modern conceptions of human nature and society, and to take a different approach to some historical questions. We are open to papers both philosophical and historical, addressing any aspect of fear in the early modern period.

Keynote speakers:
Winfried Schröder (Marburg)
Provisional title: Naturalism – a spectre which haunted the early moderns
Peter Schröder (UCL)
Provisional title: “I have almost forgot the taste of fear” – Some aspects of fear in the early modern mindset

Papers will be 30 minutes long, with 15 minutes for discussion. Lunches, coffee, and dinner on the first night will be provided. Unfortunately, we cannot reimburse for travel or accommodation.

Please send abstracts of 300-500 words to alissa.macmillan@uantwerpen.be by March 20, 2017, and we will let you know of our decision by the end of the month.