Online Bayle Seminar 2025

While secondary literature on Bayle has gained impetus in recent years, with a new generation of researchers (e.g. Argaud, Van der Lugt, Levitin), colloquiums and meetings about Bayle are still rare. The aim of this online seminar is precisely to remedy this situation. It is open to all scholars, so as to get to know each other and stimulate the research dynamics. PhD students, recent PhD graduates and Post-docs in particular are invited to participate. 

As a result, this seminar will provide a space for reflection on our various research topics (criticism, atheism, toleration, theodicy and more), disciplinary approaches (philosophical, theological, historical and literary) and interpretative debates. Any proposal on or related to Bayle may be submitted, including works or chapter thesis in progress. For instance, it may focus on Bayle's sources of thought, his polemical reception with his contemporaries and intellectual legacy in the Enlightment and beyond. In sum, it is forming a "Republic of Letters 2.0" in the very spirit of the Rotterdam philosopher.

29 January, 3 pm UTC+1: Introductory session

12 February, 3 pm UTC+1: Parker Cotton (UToronto) “Baylean humility as Christian virtue”

5 March 3pm UTC+1: Kosta Calfas (Carleton University)  “Bayle’s liberal realism”

9 April 11am UTC+1: Ionut Untea (Southeast University, Nanjing) “Advancing by Backward-facing Truth in the Republic of Letters: Early Elements of Anthropodicy in Bayle”

14 May 3pm UTC+1: Eva Rothenberger (Universität Augsburg) “Monta(i)gne – personne absente-présente dans le Dictionaire de Bayle ”

18 June 3pm UTC+1: Kenneth Novis (Oxford University)  “Pierre Bayle on Atheism, Action, and Belief”

Request videoconference link to: [email protected] 

Organizing committee:
Andy Serin (EPHE-PSL, université Paris 1. Panthéon-Sorbonne)
Ana Alicia Carmona Aliaga (université de Franche-Comté)