Leibniz Society of North America Newsletter (2016-2017)
APA Sessions
- EASTERN APA: Washington Marriott, Wardman Park, Washington, D.C. (4 January - 7 January 2017)
- Friday, 6 January 2016
- Leibniz Society of North America, 11:15 -13:15.
- Chair: Daniel Garber (Princeton University)
- Speaker: Samuel Levey (Dartmouth College)
- Title:"A Quibble over Words? Revisiting the Dispute between Leibniz and Arnauld Concerning Substance"
- Commentator: Julia Borcherding (Yale University)
LSNA Essay Contest
- 2016 Leibniz Society Essay Competition: The winner for 2016 is Professor Carla Rita Palerino (Center for the History of Philosophy and Science, Radboud Unviersity, Nijmegen, The Netherlands), "Geschichte des Kontinuumproblems or Notes on Fromundus's Labyrinthus? On the True Nature of LH XXXVII, IV, 57 ..."
- Thirty-fifth annual competition (2017): 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, 2017, 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
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 of the Board meeting of LSNA on July 21, 2016 in Hannover, in the Welfenschloss
Present: Richard Arthur, Ursula Goldenbaum, Paul Lodge, Brandon Look, Ohad Nachtomy, Stephen Puryear, Marleen Rozemond, Don Rutherford, John Whipple
1) We discussed issues related to the upcoming election of two members of the board and the election of a new secretary-treasurer. The positions of Ohad Nachtomy and Richard Arthur are up for election. Both can stand for a second term and agreed to do that. We need a candidate for the position of secretary-treasurer and Ursula Goldenbaum will inform the already appointed Nominating Committee (Martha Bolton, Don Rutherford) to prepare that for the meeting in November 2016 at the University at Houston. We also have to elect a new vice-president, because Brandon Look was appointed in 2014 when the position became vacant. This will also be prepared by the Nominating Committee.
2) We discussed the question of switching our election procedure toward electronic ballots. It had been discussed in the past and in particular at the last meeting of LSNA in Columbus, OH, when we decided to postpone the decision until the meeting in 2016. After some discussion, with Don Rutherford making a strong argument in favor of giving all members of LSNA a say independently of their place of residence, we agreed unanimously to prepare a proposal to be distributed to all members by email at least two weeks prior to the Houston meeting. The proposal should include a description of the various voting possibilities stated in the LSNA Constitution, as well as the changes proposed to the Constitution. After the vote at the meeting in Houston, we will, if necessary, appoint a committee to decide on the technical details of an electronic voting procedure.
3) Paul Lodge informed board members about a serious accident suffered by Gregory Brown. Besides our good wishes to him, we need to clarify whether he can still hold the conference and if so, if we can give him any special support for doing so.
Hannover, July 21, 2016 Ursula Goldenbaum
Minutes of the Joint Meeting of the Boards of SELLF/LSNA on July 20, 2016, in Hannover in the Herrenhäuser Gärten
Present: Richard Arthur, François Duchesneau, Ursula Goldenbaum, Paul Lodge, Brandon Look, Ohad Nachtomy, Paul Rateau, Anne-Lise Rey, Marleen Rozemond, Don Rutherford, John Whipple (Christian Leduc fell ill)
We discussed the conditions for the planned joint Leibniz Conference to be held in Montréal in October, 2018. We followed the suggestions of the Proposal provided by Christian Leduc (see below) and the following agreed decisions will be listed according to his order (although numbered).
Re: 1) We agreed on the date of October 13-15, 2018 for the planned joint conference, and suggest beginning each day in the early morning. The conference should end no later than 3pm on Sunday (preferably at noon if possible). This will facilitate travel-plans from Europe as well as from more distant parts of the US. Also, starting on Friday would only cost one teaching day for most participants.
Re: 2) We agreed to have 16 speakers (four of them invited), eight speakers from the SELLF and eight speakers from the LSNA. Thus each side will have two invited speakers out of eight.
Re: 3) Half of the papers will be in French, the other half in English.
Re: 4) The call for papers will be issued by both societies in the fall of 2017.
Re: 5) It would be good to use Power point presentations or printed manuscripts of all the presentations to facilitate the discussion (based on our recent experience at the Congress).
Re: 6) We agreed to suggest papers of 45 minutes and to allow 15 minutes of discussion, with breaks of 15 minutes.This should be valid for all 16 papers. Given the larger number of papers that need to fit in the schedule, we will not have comments and no keynotes. The final decision about the schedule is up to the organizers.
Re: 7) We appointed a Review Committee for the paper submissions with two members from SELLF and two of LSNA: François Duchesneau, Brandon Look, Anne-Lise Rey, and Marleen Rozemond.
Re: 8) We discussed the suggestion by SELLF for a theme, History, and there was some resistance against a theme in general, and especially against the suggested theme of History. We decided, however, to stick with our rule that this has to be decided by the organizer, that is by Christian Leduc and François Duchesneau as it is always done with the LSNA conferences.
Hannover, July 22, 2016 Ursula Goldenbaum and Paul Rateau
Minutes for LSNA Business Meeting,
University of Houston
5 November 2016
In attendance: Ursula Goldenbaum, Stephen Puryear, Don Rutherford, Jack Davidson, Brandon Look, Steve Daniel, Paul Lodge, Martha Bolton, Mark Kulstad, Greg Brown, Evelyn Vargas, Owen Pikkert, Julia Jorati, Sam Levey, Adam Harmer, Robert Mason, John Whipple.
President Ursula Goldenbaum opened meeting at 5:15p.
- Ursula summarizes agenda for meeting.
- Elections. Don Rutherford, who served with Martha Bolton on the Nomination Committee, appointed by the President, explains openings in the Society’s leadership, and introduces nominees (Larry Jorgenson [EC], Sam Levey [EC], Julia Jorati [S-T], Brandon [V-P]). There are no other nominees, so Don moves that we vote by voice to approve; Adam seconds; vote is unanimous.
- Ursula leads discussion of proposed amendment to constitution re: electronic elections, which had been sent to all members of LSNA two weeks in advance to this meeting. The question is raised who will be able to vote. Ursula responds that everybody who is listed as a member will be allowed to vote. No one raises any objections. Don moves that we accept this amendment. Puryear seconds. Discussion: Martha asks a clarificatory question about whether this pertains to voting or just nominating. Ursula answers that it pertains to both. Motion to amend constitution passes unanimously.
- Ursula previews upcoming conferences: Toronto (Marleen Rozemond), Montreal (joint meeting with Francophone Leibniz society)
- Brandon previews upcoming Eastern APA group session: Sam Levey to give talk, Julia Borcherding to comment.
Ursula concludes meeting at 5:30p.