2015 Conference
2015 Conference: Academic Programme
Thursday, 23 July 2015
| 09.00-09.15 | Welcome addresses (Lord and Lady Shaftesbury, Patrick Müller) and preliminaries |
| Section 1 – The First Earl of Shaftesbury | |
| 09.20-09.45 | Andrew Agha, Columbia
Agents, Africans and Agriculture on the Ashley: The First Earl of Shaftesbury’s Presence on Carolina’s Colonial Frontier |
| 09.50-10.15 | John Spurr, Swansea
John Locke’s “Memoir” of the First Earl of Shaftesbury |
| 10.15-10.30 | Discussion |
| 10.30-10.45 | Coffee break |
| Section 2 – Locke and the Earls of Shaftesbury | |
| 01.35-02.00 | Nigel Smith, Princeton Whig Wit: Political Theory, Poetry and Sociability from Marvell to Toland |
| 02.05-02.30 | Lawrence E. Klein, Cambridge Cultural Patronage as Politics in the Age of Shaftesbury |
| 02.35-03.00 | Jonathan Israel, Princeton Shaftesbury as a Radical Opponent of Hobbes and Locke |
| 03.00-03.15 | Discussion |
| 03.15-03.45 | Coffee break |
| Section 4 – The Third Earl of Shaftesbury: Philosophical Issues | |
| 03.50-04.15 | Laurent Jaffro, Paris The Third Earl of Shaftesbury on the Analogy between Political and Psychological Balances |
| 04.20-04.45 | Jacob Sider Jost, Carlisle Shaftesbury’s Interests |
| 04.50-05.15 | David Alvarez, Greencastle Shaftesbury’s Non-Secular Cosmopolitanism |
| 05.15-05.30 | Discussion |
Friday, 24 July 2015
| Section 1 – The Third Earl of Shaftesbury: Political Issues | |
| 09.05-09.30 | Patrick Müller, Idar-Oberstein Manus haec inimica tyrannis: Lord Ashley and the Republican Project of the Late 1690s |
| 09.35-10.00 | Angela Taraborrelli, Rome
Political Liberty in Lord Shaftesbury |
| 10.05-10.30 | Ashley Walsh, Cambridge
The Third Earl of Shaftesbury in the Context of the Long Reformation |
| 10.30-10.45 | Discussion |
| 10.45-11.00 | Coffee break |
| Section 2 – The Third Earl of Shaftesbury: Religious Issues | |
| 01.35-02.00 | William Molesworth, Dublin
The Third Earl of Shaftesbury and John Molesworth: “Honesty, Candour, & Amor Patriae” |
| 02.05-02.30 | James Pratt, Toronto
“Virtue Pointing to Her Rugged Mountain”: Shaftesbury in Early America |
| 02.30-02.45 | Discussion |
| 02.45-03.15 | Coffee break |
| Section 4 – The Third Earl of Shaftesbury and the British Novel | |
FESTIVAL DAY Saturday, 25 July 2015
This festival of history, philosophy, and literature is designed to bridge the gap between the long eighteenth century and our time. Hopefully, it will become clear that debates in which the first and third Earls of Shaftesbury were involved are still relevant today and that learning from the past is much more important for shaping humane societies than is generally thought.
| 09.00 | Admission |
| 09.50-10.00 | Welcome address |
| 10.00-10.45 | Lawrence E. Klein: “Philosophy and the Public in the Eighteenth Century and Beyond” |
| 11.00-12.15 | Round table 1: “Freedom in a Fanatic Age” (Chair Jenni Mills)
Deals with the responsibilities of writers, and the moral aspects of freedom of expression, including self censorship, and “gatekeeper” censorship [publishers, agents etc]. How far is it the duty of the writer of fiction (different from the writer of, say, history) to tell lies in order to reach a “truth” that might direct and improve society? |
| 12.15-13.30 | Break and lunch |
| 13.30-14.15 | Jonathan Israel: “Shaftesbury, a pre-eminent Philosopher of the Early Enlightenment” |
| 14.30-15.45 | Round table 2: “Writing and Change” (Chair Lawrence E. Klein)
Deals with personal change in individual readers, and social change. Broaches the age old question “how should we live”, and the ways in which society chooses to use literature for good or ill. Is it an individual, personal experience – or can writing change society? What are the limits, if any, for literature, in comparison with “factual” writing? |
| 16.00-17.00 | Suzannah Fleming: guided tour of St Giles’s Park and Gardens |