Philosophy conference at DCU

The School of Theology, Philosophy, and Music recently hosted the first ever philosophy conference to be held at DCU. This event was the Second Irish Early Modern Philosophy Conference, and was held on 9th December 2016 on the DCU All Hallows Campus. Launched by Prof John Doyle, DCU’s Dean of Humanities and Social Sciences, the conference brought together scholars from across Ireland to discuss a wide variety of themes and issues. 

Jason Harris, from UCC, gave the keynote presentation, on renaissance theories of memory. Ian Campbell (Queen’s, Belfast) discussed the influence of Duns Scotus on early modern political thought; Sarah Otten (Carlow), focussed on Adam Smith’s writings on sociability; Trinity’s newly appointed Berkeley specialist, Kenny Pierce, gave a paper on Berkeley’s immaterialism; Darrell Jones, from the Moore Institute, NUI Galway, spoke on Locke; and Dan Carey, also from the Moore Institute, gave a paper on the impact of early modern science on the construction of Ireland as an ‘object of knowledge’.

Overall, the one-day event – organised jointly by DCU's Dr Ian Leask and UCC Philosophy Department’s Dr Barty Begley - was hailed as great success. Speaking after the event, which took place on DCU’s All Hallows campus, Dr Leask said the conference had been critical and collegial, and had helped enormously in forging a community of specialists in early modern philosophy and intellectual history.