A two-day conference followed by one further day of what is envisaged as a festival of history and philosophy, this will be hosted by the Earl and Countess of Shaftesbury, Nicholas and Dinah Ashley-Cooper, at the family’s ancestral seat St Giles’s House, Wimborne St Giles, Dorset.
Confirmed speakers (as of September 2013)
Daniel Carey (Galway)
Justin Champion (London)
Mark Goldie (Cambridge)
Jonathan Israel (Princeton)
Christine Jackson-Holzberg (Munich)
Margaret C. Jacob (Los Angeles)
Laurent Jaffro (Paris)
Lawrence E. Klein (Cambridge)
J. R. Milton (London)
Patrick Müller (Erlangen-Nürnberg)
Nigel Smith (Princeton)
John Spurr (Swansea)
One key element in the concept behind this conference is the wish to open it to a wider audience on the last of the three days. Current planning for that part of the event includes round tables, public discussions, and guided tours around the house and gardens. All speakers must be prepared to participate in one of the several activities on that day.
Call for Papers
While the first Earl has always generally been regarded as the “founder” of the Whig party and the extent of his influence on
the post-Restoration era therefore never disputed, the political career of his
grandson has attracted less attention. As the upcoming first edition of his
complete correspondence will show, the third Earl’s activities both on the
political stage and, perhaps even more so, behind the scenes were in fact much
more significant than has hitherto been noted, going as they did far beyond the
obvious propagandistic concerns visible in his great philosophical work, Characteristicks.
The potency of both Earls in matters political can be attributed not only to the strength of their convictions and force of
their personalities, but also to their ability to act as confidants and patrons
of thinkers, writers, and parliamentarians, all of whom helped them to
disseminate and fight for the idea(l)s each thought crucial to the maintenance
of a staunchly Protestant England: in the first Earl’s case John Locke and
George Villiers (to name but two), and in his grandson’s John Toland, William
Stephens, and John Cropley.
In addition to papers on either of the two Earls
(or both), we would, then, invite contributions which illuminate their dealings
with the above-named figures, as well as with other eminent political figures
such as Edward Hyde, John Somers, or Robert Harley. Similarly, the relationship
of each to the tradition of the radical enlightenment and of republican thought
– e.g. to the ideas of James Harrington, Algernon Sidney, Henry Neville, or
Robert Molesworth – would be of particular interest. Two further important
topics we would hope to hear about, each almost virgin territory, are the
extent of the third Earl’s ‘political networking’ in Holland and the
Shaftesbury family’s role in the history of the Carolinas.
Applications from different academic fields, i.e.
not only from historians and philosophers, will be more than welcome, as we
hope to offer a broad spectrum of approaches, the watchwords for the conference
being interdisciplinary discussion and constructive argument.
The programme committee looks forward to receiving abstracts (no more than 400 words please) with accompanying and brief CV (150 words or less) by 31 January 2014.
Please submit your proposal to
Patrick.Mueller@angl.phil.uni-erlangen.de
Although we hope to be able to offer contributions towards our speakers’ travel expenses and accommodation costs, this is not something we can guarantee. We would therefore encourage prospective participants to apply for funding from their home institutions.
Programme Committee
Dinah Ashley-Cooper (Wimborne St
Giles)
Nicholas Ashley-Cooper (Wimborne St Giles)
Daniel Carey (Galway)
Christine Jackson-Holzberg (Munich)
Laurent Jaffro (Paris)
Lawrence E. Klein (Cambridge)
Patrick Müller (Erlangen-Nürnberg)
Friedrich A. Uehlein (Freiburg)
See http://www.dozenten.anglistik.phil.uni-erlangen.de/shaftesbury/conf_2015.html
See also http://www.shaftesburyestates.com