Knowledge Networks, the Grote Club and Cambridge Idealism

Conference Organisers Professor James Connelly and Dr John Gibbins, Centre for Idealism and the New Liberalism, University of Hull

26-27th June 2013, Wolfson College, Cambridge

Knowledge Networks have emerged in scholarship as vital forces within the generation of new knowledge. Authors such as Randall Collins, Laura Snyder, and William Lubenow have illustrated how knowledge is often situated in specific local spaces at specific times, such as Athens, Alexandria, Rome, Constantinople, Bagdad, Cordoba, Florence, Paris, Berlin and Vienna. Studies of British Idealism have identified Oxford, Glasgow and Edinburgh, while Utilitarianism has been located primarily in the London metropolis. The Centre for British Idealism and New Liberalism with the Educational Trust at the Marshall Library, Cambridge are sponsoring a Conference into the location of Idealism and Utilitarianism within knowledge networks in the University of Cambridge.

While we invite papers on the key figure of John Grote, marking the bicentenary of the birth in 1813, we also invite broader papers on knowledge networks, those on other knowledge networks, papers on the Cambridge Utilitarians such as W. Paley, H. Fawcett, H. Sidgwick, L. H. Courtney, Leslie Stephen and the Cambridge Idealists from Coleridge to Oakeshott, including William Whewell, Augustus Hare, F. D. Maurice, James Ward, William Cunningham, Alfred Marshall, W.R. Sorley, J.M.E. McTaggart, B. Russell and G. E. Moore before the 'Refutation'. Papers contrasting the opposing philosophical commitments of the brothers John and George Grote, are also welcome.

If you would like to present a paper, please email title and abstract (200 words) to the Conference Administrator, Hannah Cooper ([email protected]) by 27th April 2014.

A more detailed CFP with further suggestions for paper topics is available on request.

1)   Knowledge Networks, Knowledge Communities and the Grote Club

Convenor – Prof William Lubenow, The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey and Wolfson College

The question asked here is how local elites are generated within local geographical, institutional and social settings. Our key note speaker here is Professor William Lubenow, who explore knowledge networks and communities in London and Cambridge in detail. Laura Snyder, especially, has drawn attention to the immense impact of ‘The Cambridge Network’ and 'The Breakfast Club' between 1820 and 1870. We invite papers exploring knowledge communities and networks, especially those promoting Idealism in Oxford and Scotland.  

2)   John Grote and Cambridge Idealists on the Validity of Utilitarianism

Convenor – Prof Paul Kelly, London School of Economics, Associate Editor Utilitas

John Gibbins will provide a short introductory talk on the effects of London and Cambridge respectively on the brothers George and John Grote’s respective allegiances to Utilitarianism and Idealism. Simon Kelly of LSE and Utilitas will convene a session on Cambridge University and its battles with the London based Utilitarians from Bentham to J S Mill, over the validity of Utilitarianism, for which proposals are invited. Proposals are invited on any aspect of the philosophy or life of John Grote. 

3)  Cambridge Idealism and Moral Sciences

Convenor – Dr Simon Cook

Idealism in the late Victorian university is usually treated as either a foil to utilitarianism or as a youthful indiscretion in the philosophical coming of age of Bertrand Russell. To the extent that idealism catches interests wider than those of the specialized historian of philosophy its appeal seems largely confined to historians of late-nineteenth century political thought concerned with the genesis of the ‘new Liberalism’. In this session we invite arguments for and against Cambridge Idealism from whatever starting points and upon whatever grounds.

Papers are invited on the place and role of idealism in philosophy, politics, economics, economic history, archaeology, anthropology or any other ‘moral sciences’ of the late Victorian and Edwardian eras.