John Locke and His Contemporaries (International Conference – June 18–20, 2026)
John Locke and His Contemporaries
June 18–20, 2026, Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń, Poland
Institute of Philosophy, ul. Fosa Staromiejska 1a
The groundbreaking character of John Locke’s philosophy and the remarkable breadth of issues he addressed – epistemology, political philosophy, economics, education, and the philosophy of religion – made his thought, from the very beginning, an object of intense analysis, debate, reception, continuation, and critique. Yet this rich body of ideas did not emerge in a vacuum. Locke’s philosophy developed within a distinct social and political context, shaped by networks of thinkers, intellectuals, and politicians active in various milieus: around the 1st Earl of Shaftesbury, in Benjamin Furly’s De Lantaarn, within The Royal Society of London, and later among freethinkers such as Anthony Collins and John Toland.
The aim of the conference is to highlight the multifaceted character of Locke’s philosophy, its lasting significance for later philosophical debates, as well as the broader intellectual background formed by thinkers who – although they have attracted far less scholarly attention than Locke himself – deserve to be brought back into focus. These include figures such as Henry More, Joseph Glanvill, Ralph Cudworth, Thomas Browne, Anthony Ashley Cooper, Earl of Shaftesbury, Richard Burthogge, John Norris, Arthur Collier, John Toland, Anthony Collins, Francis Hutcheson, and many others.
The conference is held under the patronage of the Polish Philosophical Society (Toruń Branch), the Society of Arts and Sciences in Toruń, and the quarterly Ruch Filozoficzny. The conference is also inspired by ongoing work on translations of early modern British philosophers previously unavailable in Polish, now gradually being published in the Classics of Philosophy (Klasyka filozofii) series by the Nicolaus Copernicus University Press:
https://wydawnictwo.umk.pl/serie-wydawnicze/klasyka-filozofii?page=1&line=12&sort=desc
Conference Programme
Contexts and Foundations (Thursday, June 18)
10.00 Registration
10.15 Opening of the conference
10.30 Session I
- Elisabeth Thorson (Durham University, Great Britain), Right Reason and the Limits of Political Authority: Locke, Natural Law, and the Cambridge Platonists
- Ádám Smrcz (University of Public Service, Budapest, Hungary), The Ultimate Sources of Value in Locke and Early Modernity: from Scarcity Theory to Counterfactuals and Alternative Costs
11.30 Discussion and coffee break
12.30 – Session II
- Przemysław Gut (John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin, Poland), From Normativity to Power: Spinoza’s Transformation of Natural Rights
- Magdalena Baran (University of the National Education Commission, Cracow, Poland), Freedom, Conscience, and the Public Good: Early Modern Debates on the Ethical Foundations of Liberal Governance
13.30 Discussion and lunch
16.00 Session III
- Jakub Płoski (Cardinad Stefan Wyszyński University, Warsaw, Poland), Joseph Glanvill’s Philosophy as a Platonic Source of British Empiricism
- James Hill (Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic) Lady Damaris Masham on the Foundations of Locke’s Empiricism
17.00 Discussion
Arguments and Responses (Friday, June 19)
10.00 Session IV
- Roomet Jakapi (University of Tartu, Estonia), Can the Ideas of Substance and Infinity be Mental Images?
- Dariusz Kucharski (Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University, Warsaw, Poland), Locke’s interpretation of original sin – its impact on his certain theological views.
11.00 Discussion and coffee break
12.00 Session V
- Bartosz Żukowski (University of Łódź, Poland), Post-Lockean Responses to Scepticism: Between Direct Realism and Idealism
- Giorgio Trianini (Ca’ Foscari – University of Venice, Italy), From the ‘Probable’ to the ‘Proveable’. Henry Lee against John Locke on Testimony
13.00 Discussion and lunch
15.00 Session VI
- Antoni Odorowski (Jagiellonian University, Cracow, Poland), Are the ‘New Essays’ of Leibniz a true answer to Locke’s ‘An Essay Concerning Human Understanding’?
- Jacopo Agnesina (Università del Piemonte Orientale, Vercelli, Italy), From Locke to Collins: The Complex Organization of Matter and the Emergence of Thought
16.00 Discussion
Circles and Consequences (Saturday, June 20)
10.00 Session VII
- Bartosz Działoszyński (Warsaw University, Poland), Samuel Pepys and the Early Royal Society: A Diarist’s Perspective on Experimental Philosophy
- Paweł Hanczewski (Nicolaus Copernicus University, Toruń, Poland), American Revolution and John Locke
11.00 Discussion and coffee break
12.00 Session VIII
- Adam Grzeliński (Nicolaus Copernicus University, Toruń, Poland), Free-thinking, Letters to Serena, and the Coherence of Toland’s Thought
- Guangwei Teng (University of York), Tar Water and Public Health: Berkeley and the Irish Famine of 1740–1
13.00 Discussion and lunch
The conference is held under the patronage of the Polish Philosophical Society (Toruń Branch), the Scientific Society in Toruń, and the quarterly Ruch Filozoficzny.
The research is carried out within the project British Philosophy of the 17th and 18th Centuries, funded by the National Programme for the Development of the Humanities (Narodowy Program Rozwoju Humanistyki).
Contact:
Adam Grzeliński, Institute of Philosophy, Nicolaus Copernicus University, Toruń, Poland
e-mail: adamgrz@umk.pl