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LSNA Conference 2025

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The Nineteenth Annual Conference of the Leibniz Society of North America will be held at North Carolina State University in Raleigh, NC, October 17–19, 2025

For questions about the conference contact Prof. Stephen Puryear (smpuryear@ncsu.edu).

Friday, October 17
1:00-1:30 – Coffee and welcome
1:30-3:00 – Robert Ziegler (University of Virginia), “Where’s the Goodness in Leibniz’s Teleology?” Comments: Hao Dong (Johns Hopkins University)
3:00-3:15 – Break
3:15-4:45 – First Keynote: Andrew Janiak (Duke University), “The Vis Viva Debate in Leibniz, Clarke and Du Châtelet”
4:45-5:00 – Break
5:00-5:30 – Memorial celebration of Robert Merrihew Adams (1937-2024)
5:30-6:30 – Executive Committee meeting
7:00 – Dinner at Lobera Tacos & Tequila (We will reserve a private room and all attendees are encouraged to join us at their own expense.)

Saturday, October 18
9:00-9:30 – Continental breakfast
9:30-11:00 – Richard Arthur (McMaster University), “Transcreation and Contiguity: Understanding Leibniz on Continuous Creation.” Comments: John Whipple (University of Illinois Chicago)
11:00-11:15 – Break
11:15-12:45 – Laura E. Herrera Castillo (Leibniz-Forschungsstelle Münster), “Beyond Passive Reception: Sophie of Hannover, G.W. Leibniz, and the Exchange on F. M. Van Helmont.” Comments: Chloe Armstrong (Denison University)
12:45-2:00 – Lunch (on your own)
2:00-3:15 – Michael Veldman (Hamilton College), “Breaking the Harmony: Du Chatelet on Hypotheses after Leibniz, Masham, and Wolff.” Comments: TBA
3:15-3:30 – Break
3:30-5:00 – Second keynote: Julia Borcherding (University of Cambridge), “Missed Connections: Leibniz and the ‘English Ladies’”
5:00-5:15 – Break
5:15-6:15 – Business meeting of the LSNA (open to all LSNA members)
6:30 – Dinner (on your own)

Sunday, October 19
9:00-9:30 – Continental breakfast
9:30-11:00 – Fr. Bonaventure Chapman (The Catholic University of America), “Hoffmann, Crusius, and Kant: Three Pietist Responses to the Perceived Threat of Leibniz’s Principle of Sufficient Reason.” Comments: Brandon Look (University of Kentucky)
11:00-11:15 – Break
11:15-12:45 – Aurora Yu (University of North Carolina), “Equivalence and Sufficiency: Du Châtelet’s Theory of Hypothesis and Its Compatibility with Leibnizian Simplicity.” Comments: TBA
12:45 – Conclusion of conference

LSNA Conference 2024

Julia Jorati

18th Annual Conference of the Leibniz Society of North America

Paris, Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne

June 13–15, 2024

Joint Meeting with the Société d’Études Leibniziennes de Langue Française (SELLF)

 

Conference Schedule

The schedule is available here.

LSNA Conference 2023

Julia Jorati

17th Annual Conference of the Leibniz Society of North America

Harvard University

Barker Center, Thompson Room (110), 12 Quincy Street, Cambridge MA 02138

September 29–October 1, 2023

Organizers: Jeffrey K. McDonough (jkmcdon@fas.harvard.edu)
and Julia Jorati (jjorati@umass.edu)

 

Conference Schedule

All times are US Eastern Standard Time

Friday, September 29

12:00–1:15pm

Optional visit to Harvard Art Museums

1:30–1:45pm

Coffee and Welcome

1:45–3:15pm

Tzuchien Tho (University of Bristol), “Living Force and Stationary Action: Leibniz at the Limits of Analytic Mechanics”

Comments: Marius Stan (Boston College)

3:15–3:30pm

Coffee break

3:30–5:00pm

Keynote Address by Donald Rutherford (UCSD, Emeritus), “Leibniz’s General Science and the Pursuit of Wisdom”

5:00–5:30pm

Toast and Celebration of Donald Rutherford on the Occasion of his Retirement from Teaching

5:30–6:30pm

EC Business meeting

7:00pm

Dinner at Nirvana Restaurant (participants only)

Saturday, September 30

9:00–9:30am

Continental Breakfast

9:30–11:00am

Katherine Dunlop (UT Austin), “Leibniz and Du Châtelet on the Ideality and Epistemology of Space and Time”

Comments: Michael Futch (University of Tulsa)

11:00–11:15am

Coffee Break

11:15am–12:45pm

Andrew Burnside (Vanderbilt), “PSR Problems: Spinoza, Leibniz, Du Châtelet”

Comments: Fatema Amijee (University of British Columbia)

12:45–2:00pm

Catered lunch in Robins Library

2:00–2:15pm

Coffee break

2:15–3:45pm  

Osvaldo Ottaviani (Technion), “Leibniz on Substance, Subject, and the Absolute”

Comments: Brandon Look (University of Kentucky)

3:45–4:00pm

Coffee break

4:00–5:45pm

Henry Straughan (Yale), “Personal Identity and Punishment in Leibniz and Locke”

Comments: Kristen Irwin (Loyola Chicago)

5:45–6:30pm

Business Meeting of the LSNA (open to all LSNA members)

7:00pm

Dinner at Collett Restaurant (participants only)

Sunday, October 1

9:00–9:30am

Continental Breakfast

9:30–11:00am

Miriam Aiello (Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche), “Remembering ‘without Mark’: the Cognitive and Moral Significance of Reminiscence in Leibniz’s New Essays“

Comments: Julia Borcherding (University of Cambridge)

11:00–11:15am

Coffee break

11:15am–12:45pm

Keynote address by Marleen Rozemond (Toronto) “Leibniz and Cudworth”

12:45–2:00pm

Catered lunch in Robins Library

2:15–3:15pm

Optional visit to the Harvard Museum of Natural History

LSNA Conference 2022

Julia Jorati

16th Annual Conference of the Leibniz Society of North America

Princeton University

(in-person)

October 21-23, 2022

Organizers: Brandon Look (look@uky.edu) and Dan Garber (dgarber@princeton.edu)

 

Conference Schedule

All times are US Eastern Standard Time

Friday, October 21st

1:00-2:30pm

Aleksandra Horowska (University of Wrocław), “Do Animals Have Any Rights? The Leibnizian Perspective”

Comment: Ursula Goldenbaum (Emory University)

2:45-4:15pm

Mike Hansen (Brigham Young University), “Mills, Cheese, and Worms in Leibnizian Perception”

Comment: Stewart Duncan (University of Florida)

4:30-6:00pm

Qiu Lin (Duke University), “A Different Monadology: Du Châtelet on Monads, Bodies, and Sensory Impression”

Comment: Clara Carus (Paderborn University)

6:30pm

Reception

Saturday, October 22nd

9:00-10:30am

Filippo Costantini (University Ca’ Foscari of Venice/McMaster), “Leibniz’s Abstractionist Approach to Quantity”

Comment: Noa Shein (Ben-Gurion University of the Negev)

10:45am-12:15pm

Jen Nguyen (Harvard University), “Leibniz’s Comparativism about Quantity”

Comment: John Whipple (University of Illinois-Chicago)

12:15-1:30pm

Lunch

1:30-3:00pm  

Vincenzo De Risi (Max Planck Institute, Berlin), “The Genesis of Relationism: Leibniz’s Early Theory of Space and Newton’s Scholium”

Comment: Michael Futch (University of Tulsa)

3:15-4:45pm

Stephen Puryear (North Carolina State University), “Did Leibniz Escape the Labyrinth of the Continuum?”

Comment: Samuel Levey (Dartmouth University)

5:00-6:00pm

Business Meeting

6:30pm

Dinner

Sunday, October 23rd

9:00-10:30am

Julia Borcherding (University of Cambridge), “The Power of Love and the Force of Reason: Leibniz and Du Châtelet on the Foundations of Morality”

Comment: Andrew Janiak (Duke University)

10:45am-12:15pm

Alejandro Naranjo Sandoval (University of California-Davis), “Faculty Monism in Leibniz, Wolff, and Baumgarten: How to Best Deny the Distinction Between Perception and Thought”

Comment: Brandon Look (University of Kentucky)

LSNA Conference 2021

Julia Jorati

15th Annual Conference of the Leibniz Society of North America

 University of Kentucky

 

Conference held virtually via Zoom.

Organizer: Brandon Look (look@uky.edu)

 

Conference Schedule

All times are US Eastern Standard Time

November 6, 2021

11:00-12:20

Michael Hansen (BYU), “Point of View in Leibnizian Perception”

Commentator: Stephen Puryear (North Carolina State)

12:30-1:50

James Mackey (Western Ontario), “Leibniz and the Problem of Personal Identity”

Commentator: Julia Jorati (UMass Amherst)

2:00-3:20

Nicholas Birmingham (Western Ontario), “Fiction, Symbol, Infinitesimal: The Leibnizian Concepts of Transcendental Philosophy”

Commentator: Caterina Marinelli (Rome)

December 11, 2021

11:00-12:20

Alessandro Becchi (Florence), “Natural Machines and Contingent Truths in Leibniz”

Commentator: Arnaud Pelletier (Brussels)

12.30–1.50

Fatema Amijee (British Columbia), “Leibniz and Du Châtelet on Substance and Sufficient Reason”

Commentator: Anne-Lise Rey (Paris-Nanterre)

2.00–3.20

Laura Pelegrín (Diego Portales), “Natorp’s Early Reading of Leibniz”

Commentator: Brandon Look (Kentucky)

January 22, 2022

11.00–12.20

Åsne Grøgaard (Oxford), “The Unimportance of Hope in Leibniz’s Philosophy”

Commentator: Donald Rutherford (UC San Diego)

12.30–1.50

Keynote: Ursula Goldenbaum (Emory), “Leibniz and Locke on Natural Equality of Human Beings”

Commentator: Julia Borcherding (Cambridge)

2.00–3.20

Business Meeting