Early Modern Philosophy Group

Early Modern Philosophy Group is a scholarly association dedicated to the study of thinkers and texts of the early modern period. It convenes scholars working on figures such as René Descartes, Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, and Baruch Spinoza, fostering research on manuscripts, correspondence, and editions connected with Queen Anne-era networks and continental republics of letters. The Group engages with archives, libraries, and university departments across Oxford, Cambridge, Edinburgh, Harvard University, and Princeton University.

History

The Group traces origins to informal seminars that connected scholars of Pierre Gassendi, Nicolas Malebranche, Antoine Arnauld, Blaise Pascal, and Hugo Grotius with those studying manuscripts from the collections of Bodleian Library and British Library. Early meetings featured work on correspondence of Samuel Pepys, Robert Boyle, Isaac Newton, John Locke (physician), and contributors to the Royal Society. Growth in the late 20th century paralleled editorial projects on the writings of François de La Mothe Le Vayer, John Toland, Anthony Collins, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, and scholars working on continental figures such as Giambattista Vico, Antoine-Augustin Bruzen de La Martinière, and Émilie du Châtelet. Institutional recognition came through collaborations with British Academy, Royal Historical Society, American Philosophical Society, Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin, and university presses: Cambridge University Press, Oxford University Press, and Princeton University Press.

Aims and Activities

The Group promotes editorial, archival, and interpretive work on authors including Thomas More, Niccolò Machiavelli, Francis Bacon, Baruch Spinoza, Samuel Pufendorf, Hobbes', Locke's correspondents, and the wider networks linking Iberian Inquisition-era exile letters, Dutch Golden Age print culture, and salons of Paris and Amsterdam. It supports projects on textual transmission involving repositories such as Vatican Library, Museo Galileo, and Biblioteca Nacional de España, and on philosophical scenes tied to University of Padua, University of Leiden, University of Cambridge, and University of Oxford. Activities include seminars on manuscripts by Henry More, John Norris, Margaret Cavendish, Thomas Traherne, and on short treatises by Robert Boyle, John Wilkins, Joseph Glanvill, and Samuel Clarke.

Membership and Governance

Members comprise editors, historians, and philosophers affiliated with institutions like King's College London, University College London, Yale University, Columbia University, University of Chicago, University of Toronto, McGill University, University of St Andrews, University of Warwick, and research centres such as the Institut d'Histoire Moderne et Contemporaine, the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, and the Warburg Institute. Governance typically includes an elected committee with roles analogous to chair, secretary, and treasurer, and liaison posts to societies such as the Royal Society of Edinburgh and the Hispanic Society of America. Membership criteria often recognize contributions on figures such as David Hume, Adam Smith, Francis Hutcheson, George Berkeley, Richard Price, Mary Astell, Anne Conway, John Dryden, Charles I of England, Oliver Cromwell, and archival editors working on the papers of John Milton and John Locke.

Conferences and Publications

The Group organizes annual and biennial conferences hosted at locations including University of Oxford, University of Cambridge, University of Edinburgh, Trinity College Dublin, Eton College (for symposiums), and international venues such as Columbia University, Princeton University, Yale University, Harvard University, Universität Leiden, Universität Göttingen, Università di Padova, and Universidad Complutense de Madrid. Proceedings and edited volumes appear with publishers including Cambridge University Press, Oxford University Press, Routledge, Brill, Bloomsbury Academic, Routledge, and specialized journals linked to History of Philosophy Quarterly, British Journal for the History of Philosophy, Journal of the History of Ideas, and the Royal Society's series. Special issues have focused on texts by Gassendi, Descartes', Leibniz', Spinoza', Malebranche', Newton', Hobbes', and on cross-cultural reception involving figures such as Ibn Sina-influenced translators preserved in Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana.

Influence and Criticism

The Group has influenced curricular syllabi at departments such as Philosophy Department, University of Oxford, Philosophy Department, University of Cambridge, Princeton University Department of Philosophy, and research funding priorities at bodies like the Arts and Humanities Research Council and the National Endowment for the Humanities. Critics have argued that attention to canonical figures—Descartes, Locke, Hobbes, Spinoza, Leibniz, Newton, Bacon, Pascal, Hume, Smith—can marginalize lesser-known authors including Anne Finch, John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester, Justus van Effen, Juan de Mariana, Diego de Saavedra Fajardo, Francisco Suárez, Luis de Molina, Moses Mendelssohn, Solomon Maimon, Giordano Bruno, Sebastian Castellio, Marcello Malpighi, Giuseppe Biancani, and writers preserved in archives such as Archivio di Stato di Venezia and Archivo General de Indias. Debates within the Group engage comparative work on reception across national traditions—French Enlightenment, Scottish Enlightenment, German Aufklärung, Spanish Siglo de Oro, and Dutch Golden Age—and on methodological links to projects at the Max Planck Institute and the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique.

Category:Philosophy organizations