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

Leibniz Society of North America Newsletter (2015-2016)

APA Sessions

  • EASTERN APA: Washington Marriott, Wardman Park, Washington, D.C. (6 January - 9 January 2016)
  • Thursday, 7 January 2016
  • Leibniz Society of North America, 17:15 - 19:15.
    • Chair: Ursula Goldenbaum (Emory University)
    • Speaker: Jeffrey McDonough (Harvard Universtiy)
    • Title: "Leibniz on Infinite Analysis: Provable, Decidable, Contingent"
    • Commentator: Thomas Feeney (University of St. Thomas)

LSNA Essay Contest

  • 2015 Leibniz Society Essay Competition: The winner for 2015 is John Whipple, Assistant Professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago, for his essay, "Leibniz and the Art of Exoteric Writing."
  • Thirty-fourth annual competition (2016): 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, 2016, 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 by email attachment (Word or pdf format) to the Coordinator of the LSNA Essay Competition: Professor Laurence Carlin, Department of Philosophy, University of Wisconsin Oshkosh: carlin@uwosh.edu

Ninth Annual Conference of the Leibniz Society of North America

  • The Ninth Annual Conference of the Leibniz Society of North America was held at the Ohio State University in Columbus on October 23–25, 2015, in celebration of the 25th anniversary of the Leibniz Review and Glenn Hartz's editorship. The progam is posted here: http://u.osu.edu/lsna2015/program/.

Tenth Annual Conference of the Leibniz Socity of North America

  • The Tenth Annual Conference of the Leibniz Society of North America will be held at the University of Houston in Houston, TX from 4-6 November 2016. The conference is intended to focus on the theme of the Leibniz-Clarke correspondence, which occupied Leibniz during the last year of his life, from November 1715 to November 1716.

Minutes for LSNA Business Meeting (2015)
Ohio State University, Columbus OH
10/24/2015
Members in attendance: Ursula Goldenbaum, Donald Rutherford, Julia Jorati, Brandon Look, Stephen Puryear, Jeff McDonough, Sukjae Lee, Tad Schmaltz, John Whipple, Glenn Hartz, Adam Harmer, Thomas Feeney, Sam Newlands, Anja Jauernig, Martha Bolton, Marleen Rozemond, Kristen Irwin
Others in attendance: Ingrid Look, Douglas Marshall, Chloe Armstrong, Owen Pikkert
President Ursula Goldenbaum opened meeting at 6:00p.

  1. Ursula briefs members on six sessions arranged for Leibniz Kongress (led by Brandon, John, Martha (2), Greg, and Julia), reminds members about registering for Kongress, supplying full drafts of papers by deadline by 31 March 2016.
  2. Upcoming LSNA conferences. Next up: Houston, Greg Brown, late fall 2016; 2017: Toronto, Marleen Rozemond.
  3. Elections next year @ meeting in Houston. Three terms come to end (Stephen Puryear, Ric Arthur, Ohad Nachtomy). Ursula briefs members about proposal to amend constitution to allow electronic voting in future elections. Martha mentions that membership is large and widely dispersed. Most members never attend LSNA meetings. Glenn recommends moving to online voting. Don suggests possibly distinguishing between those who receive the journals and those who are active members of the society. Jeff suggests policy of asking only those who have attended a recent meeting to vote. Anja mentions that list of candidates is usually as long as list of openings, thus making that policy unnecessary. Don mentions that it is a North American society and should not be thought to overlap with other regional societies around the world. Ursula asks members to think about this issue and prepare for further discussion at future meeting.
  4. Glenn updates on finances. Society has about $13k in savings. This is being wrapped into an endowment. Society is in good financial shape.
  5. Sukjae mentions Japan Leibniz Society (100 members), plans to visit them soon, will tell them about our activities. Don suggests a joint conference, possibly on West Coast, Hawaii, or Japan.

Ursula concludes meeting at 6:24 (to round of applause).