Conferences

The project will sponsor two international conferences, both on the occasion of the 300th anniversary of Leibniz’s seminal Theodicy (1710). The first, large-scale conference, Leibniz’s Theodicy: Context and Content, will be held at the University of Notre Dame, September 16-18, 2010 and open to the public. This conference will explore the intellectual setting and philosophical content of Leibniz’s work on the problem of evil and its relation to broader issues in the early Enlightenment. It will be held in association with the North American Leibniz Society and will follow two earlier European Theodicy conferences. It will feature prominent keynote addresses, a full slate of invited speakers and commentators, a competitive call for papers, and a special graduate student session.

A second, invitation-only conference, tentatively titled Leibniz’s Theodicy: Legacy and Relevance, will be held in Lisbon, Portugal in 2011. This more intimate setting will provide scholars the opportunity to build on the advances of the previous year’s work and establish new research agendas in the growing field of early modern philosophy of religion. Some of the papers will also focus on the impact of the Theodicy on later philosophy and theology.

There are also plans to publish an edited volume of new papers on these topics based partly on the work generated by these conferences.