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

Leibniz Society of North America Newsletter (2012-2013)

APA Sessions

  • EASTERN APA: Marriott Atlanta Marquis, Atlanta, GA (27-30 December 2012)
  • Wednesday, 28 December 2012
  • Group Session GVIII-9, Leibniz Society of North America, 11:15 - 13:15.
    • Chair: TBA
    • Speaker: Shane Duarte (Stanford University)
    • Title: "Leibniz and Prime Matter"

LSNA Essay Contest

  • 2012 Leibniz Society Essay Competition: The winning essay in the 30th Annual Leibniz Society of North America Essay Competition is "Complexity, Existence and Infinite Analysis," by Giovanni Merlo (Barcelona).
  • Thirty-first annual competition (2013): 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, 2013, as determined by postmark. The author of the 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. 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 in English.  Please send submissions to the Coordinator of the LSNA Essay Competition: Professor Laurence Carlin, Department of Philosophy, University of Wisconsin Oshkosh, 800 Algoma Blvd., Oshkosh, WI 54901, U.S.A. // (920) 424-1368 // carlin@uwosh.edu

Seventh Annual Conference of the Leibniz Society of North America

Leibniz Society of North America
Business Meeting
Montréal, Canada
19 October 2012

  • Approximately 15 LSNA members were in attendance, including two members of the executive committee (Justin Smith and Don Rutherford).
  • Approval of the slate of new Executive Committee Members
    • Nominees: Vice-President (replacing Christia Mercer), Ursula Goldenbaum; Secretary-Treasurer (replacing Laurence Carlin), Stephen Puryear; board member (replacing Sukjae Lee), Richard Arthur; board member (replacing Ursula Goldenbaum: Ohad Nachtomy.
    • As per the constitution the slate was advanced and seconded (by François Duchesneau). A call was made for further nominations. None was received. Thereafter the slate was approved by a unanimous voice vote. Congratulations to our new officers, whose terms begin in December, and many thanks to those EC members who are rotating off the committee!
  • II. Future LSNA Meetings
    • The other item of business was future conference plans. It was generally agreed that the first six annual conferences, each very different in focus, have been unqualified successes. The Montréal meeting worked very well, following as it did the international Colloque Leibniz-Bayle. This brought a number of leading European Leibnizians to Montréal, and most were able to stay for the LSNA meeting.  At the moment, we still have no firm plans for an annual conference in 2013. We had been discussing with Sukjae the possibility of holding it later in 2013 in Seoul. Several EC members spoke on behalf of this possibility; others raised potential hurdles it may involve. I believe that we must now move toward a final decision about this. The outstanding issues are: 1) whether Sukjae will be able to secure the funding needed to host the conference; 2) whether we can count on the attendance of a sufficient number of (English-speaking) scholars to make the meeting a success. Over the last few conferences, only a handful of LSNA members (including EC members) have been able to attend the meeting if they were not also on the program. In the end the result may not be very different at a Seoul conference, with the possible exception of the number of graduate students who have been able to participate in conferences held in North America. I reported at the meeting that I would seek an update from Sukjae on where things stand at his end.
    • Beyond this, a number of ideas were floated for future meetings. Both Evelyn Vargas (La Plata) and Paul Rateau (Paris) were enthusiastic about hosting LSNA meetings at their institutions. Matters are always complicated in Argentina, but there are many philosophers interested in Leibniz in South America, so this could be an attractive possibility. Paris would also be an excellent option. Paul stressed the idea of holding the LSNA meeting in conjunction with another Leibniz-related conference (as with the Colloque Leibniz-Bayle) as a way of generating additional participants. This seems a sound general strategy wherever the meeting might be held.
    • ased on what we learn and decide about the possibility of Seoul 2013, I plan to open this matter up for discussion with the membership as a whole. Several active members who are not currently on the EC (e.g., Greg, Dan) have voiced their interest in hosting conferences in the near future (1714-16). I don't think it is too early to start finalizing some of these arrangements and fixing dates. Any other thoughts from you would be welcome.
  • Finally
    • Finally, on behalf of the Executive Committee, I want to thank Justin for arranging an excellent annual conference at Concordia. There was a nice range of papers; with one exception, the facilities were flawless (Justin will know what I mean); and the food was fantastic!

Respectfully submitted,

Donald Rutherford