Right and Virtue: Kant and Early Modern German Philosophy

The conference explores the relationship between ethics and political philosophy, considering their separation in the Kantian tradition in its relation to the pre-Kantian prototype.

About

For decades, Kant scholars have debated over the relationship between right and virtue (or political philosophy and ethics, to indicate the corresponding branches of practical philosophy. in contemporary parlance). The debate has resulted in yet unresolved three positions: (1) right has priority over virtue; (2) virtue has priority over right; and (3) they are independent of each other. The conference seeks to shed a fresh light on this debate by combining two methodologies: a detailed analysis of Kant’s and Kantian philosophy; and the history of early modern German philosophy. The early modern German philosophers include, but are not limited to, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646–1716), Christian Thomasius (1655–1728), Christian Wolff (1679–1754), Christian August Crusius (1715–75), Alexander Gottlieb Baumgarten (1714–62), and Moses Mendelssohn (1729–86). In this context, the conference explores the resources of Kantian and early modern German philosophy to scrutinize issues in contemporary practical philosophy, which arise from the tension between ethics and political philosophy. Under the overarching theme of the relationship between right and virtue, the conference will discuss papers on these philosophers, papers on their relation to Kant, and papers that solely draw on Kant.

This conference will take place at the University of Oslo on 3 and 4 August 2022.

The conference is a part of the project DEKANT, which has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 101027095. To learn more about this project, please find further information here.

https://www.hf.uio.no/ifikk/english/research/projects/the-division-of-ethics-from-political-philosophy/

The conference also receives financial support from the Norwegian Kant Society.

Practical information

The conference is planned as a physical event, but we will enable participation by zoom as well. A zoom link will be sent to registered online participants. Questions can be directed to [email protected].