Kant’s Concept of Freedom: Transcendental, Moral, Political
5th International Doctoral Colloquium of the Kant-Gesellschaft
Fakultätssaal, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz, 28–29 September 2026
The 5th International Doctoral Colloquium of the Kant-Gesellschaft will take place at the Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz on 28 and 29 September 2026. It is organised in collaboration with the Kant-Forschungsstelle Mainz.
The colloquium aims to examine Kant’s multifaceted concept of freedom across his works, investigating its transcendental, moral, and political dimensions.
The talks will engage with important debates in Kant scholarship, such as free causality versus empirical temporality, the Canon Problem in the Critique of Pure Reason, the recognition of others’ freedom, autonomy and practical agency, as well as external freedom and its obligations.
Keynote speakers:
Pauline Kleingeld (Rijksuniversiteit Groningen)
Joe Saunders (University of Durham)
Speakers:
Lara Biehl (Universität Bern)
Jing Gao (Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg)
Henning Kirschbaum (Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz)
Martin Obreque (Diego Portales University)
William Patterson (King’s College London)
Bennet Salzmann (Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg)
Carlina Schreiber (Universität zu Köln)
Haorui Wu (Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn)
The colloquium is open to all interested colleagues and students; the conference languages are English and German. It begins at 9:00 on 28 September and ends at 13:00 on 29 September. To register, please write to kant@uni-mainz.de„>kant@uni-mainz.de by 25 September 2026.
Further information and the poster: https://www.philosophie.fb05.uni-mainz.de/files/2026/08/Poster-Freiheit-9.pdf.
Organisers: Lucia Volonté, Henning Kirschbaum and Konstantin Pollok (Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz). For further information, please contact henning.kirschbaum@uni-mainz.de„>enning.kirschbaum@uni-mainz.de or lvolont@uni-mainz.de„>lvolont@uni-mainz.de.
The colloquium is generously supported by the Kant-Gesellschaft, the
