Gregory Brown
513 Agnes Arnold Hall
Department of Philosophy
University of Houston
Houston, TX 77204-3004

Leibniz Society of North America Newsletter (2009-2010)

APA Sessions

  • EASTERN APA: Marriott Marquis Hotel, New York (27-30 December 2009)
  • Monday, 28 December 2009
  • Group Session 11:15 - 13:15
    • Chair: Martha Bolton (Rutgers)
    • Speaker: Brandon Look (University of Kentucky, Lexington)
    • Topic: "Leibniz on Simple Substances: Speaking in Metaphysical Rigor of Mind and World"
    • Commentator: John Whipple (University of Illinois - Chicago)

LSNA Essay Contest

  • The winner of the 2009 Leibniz Society Essay Competition is Mogens Laerke (University of Aberdeen), for his essay, "Monism, Separability and Real Distinction in the Young Leibniz."
  • Twenty-eighth annual competition (2010): In an effort to encourage the study of the philosophy of Leibniz in North America and to give recognition to deserving scholars, the Leibniz Society of North America (LSNA) is continuing its annual Essay Competition. Submitted essays should be on some aspect of the philosophy of Leibniz. They should be from twelve to twenty-five pages in length (double-spaced), and should be submitted by June 1, 2010, as determined by postmark. The winning essay (or essays) will be presented before the Society at the 2010-2011 Annual Conference of the LSNA, with the Society retaining final discretion as to the specific site. In addition, the author of a winning essay will have the option of publishing it in the Leibniz Review. To facilitate anonymous judging, the author's name should be given only on a separate title page or cover sheet and should not appear in the body or footnotes of the paper; neither should identifiable information such as full references to publications by the author. Judges reserve the right not to name a winner in the event that none of the submissions is deemed to be of sufficient quality or suitability for the award. Suitability for oral presentation may play a role in the judging. Full scholarly apparatus is preferred but not required; sufficiently developed works-in-progress will, therefore, have a chance in the competition and may be submitted. Previous one-time winners are encouraged to re-enter, but a given person can win the competition at most twice. Essays in French or German may be submitted as well as those in English, but all applicants should keep in mind the condition of presentation and should not submit an essay unless they will be able to read their paper at the Annual LSNA Conference.  There is no reimbursement for travel possible.  Please send submissions to the Coordinator of the LSNA Essay Competition: Professor Mark Kulstad, Department of Philosophy, MS-14, Rice University, Houston, TX 77251-1892, U.S.A. // (713) 348-2724 // kulstad@ruf.rice.edu

Third Annual Leibniz Society of North America Conference

Fourth Annual Leibniz Society of North America Conference

  • The Fourth Annual Leibniz Society of North America Conference will be hosted by Gregory Brown at the University of Houston (Houston, TX), 3-5 December 2010.

Leibniz Society of North America
Minutes of Discussions and Decisions of the Business Meeting
University of Kentucky
September 24-27, 2009

  • In attendance were Martha Bolton, Gregory Brown, Ursula Goldenbaum, Anja Jauernig, Mark Kulstad, Sukjae Lee, Brandon Look, and Donald Rutherford.
  • I. Election of New Officers and Executive Committee Elections
    • Martha Brandt Bolton (President) stated that the following positions were open for election and presented the following list of nominees for the respective positions.
      • President – nominee: Donald Rutherford
      • Vice President – nominee: Christia Mercer
      • Executive Committee Members – nominees: Anja Jauernig, Jeffery McDonough,  Justin Smith
      • As for the terms of office, in the case of the Vice President, given the current vacancy, the newly-elected Vice President’s term would be immediately effective upon election. As for the President and Executive Committee Members, their terms start Dec. 1st, 2010.
    • Sukjae Lee moved to vote for the selection of the nominees, and Martha Bolton seconded the motion. The vote was unanimous to elect the aforementioned nominees to their respective offices.
  • II. Old Business
    • Approval of Minutes
      • Martha Bolton requested the approval of minutes of July 17th, 2009 and they were unanimously approved.
  • III. New Business
    • Financial Report of the Leibniz Review
      • The Executive Committee noted that given the status of the Leibniz Review as an official function of the Leibniz Society of North America, the Editor of the Leibniz Review is to provide a financial report to the Executive Committee.
      • Accordingly, Brandon Look (in lieu of Glenn Hartz) provided the financial report of the Leibniz Review, and the report was unanimously approved.
    • Discussions about Future Meetings of the Society
      • Gregory Brown proposed the first week of December as the time to hold the LSNA Meeting scheduled for Houston in Dec. 2010. All members approved. It was noted that this meeting will have an open call for papers.
      • Confirmed Future Meetings:
        • 2011, San Diego (themed conference, focusing on the Des Bosses Correspondence)
        • 2012, Muenster (focus on the manuscripts currently being edited, i.e. the Correspondence of the 1690’s)
        • 2012 Fall, Montreal
      • Long Term Planning for Future Meetings
        • For 2013, Sukjae Lee suggested the possibility of Columbus and promised to report after consultation with Glenn Hartz.
        • Discussion concerning current meeting structure
          • Mark Kulstad noted that currently there appears to be a parallel structure between (1) the annual LSNA meetings, which primarily function as building the North American Leibniz community and (2) the various international Leibniz meetings geared toward building the international Leibniz community (such as 300th Anniversary of the Theodicy conference at Notre Dame (2010), and the possible conferences connected to the two further 300th anniversaries coming up, i.e. the Monadology and Principle of Nature and Grace (2014) and the Clark Correspondence (2016)).  Mark suggested that this type of parallel structure might be maintained with a view to utilizing the annual LSNA meetings to foster new scholarship among younger Leibniz scholars, hence continuing to build the North American Leibniz community.
          • Various suggestions were made in light of this proposal: Martha Bolton and Ursula Goldenbaum concurred that the annual LSNA meetings provides a valuable venue for nurturing younger scholars; Don Rutherford noted that the occasional inclusion of international scholars at the LSNA might be desirable to build international cooperation, and Anja Jauernig suggested that by alternating between a meeting that is open-ended in terms of topics and a topic-focused meeting, where international scholars could be invited, could harmonize the goals of nurturing future scholars and building international cooperation.
    • Website
      • Anja Jauernig mentioned that upon searching the Leibniz Society website on the web, users were led to Don Rutherford’s old site. The Ex Com members confirmed that the official website of the LSNA is www.gwleibniz.com, maintained by Greg Brown, and suggested that there be a link provided from Don’s old site to Greg’s site. 
    • Current Status of Eastern Division APA LSNA Meetings
      • Don Rutherford asked about how the attendance was at the LSNA Meetings at the Eastern Division APA, and Martha Bolton responded by noting that the moving of the talks to lunch time or afternoon has brought about much success in terms of attendance and participation.
    • On this note of success, the meeting was adjourned, after the Ex Com members thanked Brandon Look for hosting the LSNA meeting at University of Kentucky.

Respectfully submitted,

Sukjae Lee (in lieu of Laurence Carlin)