What is a Principle? Differing Perspectives in Early Modern Philosophy
Workshop organized by Clara Carus and Oliver Toth
17.–18.06.2026
Grimmsaal in der Bibliothek des Philosophischen Seminars, University of Heidelberg
Schulgasse 6, 69117 Heidelberg, Germany
Wednesday 17th of June
13:30 Welcome
Clara Carus, Oliver Toth
13:45 Dana Jalobeanu (UTN): Baconian induction and the construction of principles
14:45 Coffee break
15:00 Mogens Laerke (ENS Lyon/Oxford): Nathaniel Culverwell’s Natural Plerophory of First Principles: A Stoic Theory of Common Notions
16:00 Coffee break
16:15 Clara Carus (Heidelberg): Du Châtelet’s First Principles on Two Levels
17:15 Coffee break
17:30 Peter Anstey (ACU): Proof by experiment versus rational mechanics: discovering the laws of nature before 1750
19:00 Conference dinner
Thursday, 18th of June
9:30 Daniel Bella (Hamburg): Initium: Approaching the Temporal Aspect of principium through a Less Prominent Concept
10:30 Coffee break
10:45 Manuel Fasko (Basel): Mary Shepherd’s Principles
11:45 coffee break
12:00 Oliver Toth (Heidelberg): Spinoza’s Naturalist Principles of Mental Causation
13:00 Concluding remarks
The conference is free and open to everyone.
The conference is generously funded by the German Society for Philosophy and the Alexander von Humboldt Stiftung.
