6th-9th September, 2012
http://www.scottish-common-sense-2012.com/
From 1750 to 1850, ethics and education in North America was powerfully influenced by the Scottish philosophical tradition. A major channel of this influence was John Witherspoon, President of the College of New Jersey and signatory of the Declaration of Independence, whose Lectures on Moral Philosophy to the students at Princeton provided a model for the colleges across the emerging United States to emulate. Drawing on Francis Hutcheson and the Protestant natural law tradition, Witherspoon and his successor Samuel Stanhope Smith established Scottish philosophy, and especially Thomas Reid’s philosophy of Common Sense, as a major influence on the development of American intellectual life. Princeton Theological Seminary celebrates the 200th anniversary of its foundation in 2012. By the inclusion of this conference in the bicentenary program the Seminary aims to sponsor an intellectual event that will investigate, and at the same time celebrate a key element of the academic and religious context in which Princeton Seminary was founded. Its further purpose is to explore the continuing relevance and future role of a philosophical tradition grounded in Protestant natural law. There will be keynote lectures by leading scholars in the field, as well as space for submitted paper proposals. A further feature of the program (on Saturday 8th Sept) will be a combination of lectures and panel discussion open to members of the public, on the contemporary relevance of the conference theme. Paper proposals are invited for subsidiary concurrent sessions. These may be on any aspect of the conference theme, and should take the form of an abstract of approximately 500 words, submitted by email attachment to csspconference2012@ptsem.edu, with contact details on the accompanying email only. The deadline for submission is 1st February 2012. Decisions will be communicated by 1st March 2012. Financial support including travel and lodging is available for up to six graduate paper presentations.
