Presentations

I regularly present my work at national and international conferences and workshop. My recent and upcoming presentations include the following: 

Refereed Presentations

“Catharine Trotter Cockburn’s Role in the Intellectual Networks of Early Modern Britain,” with Evie Filea, Methodology in the History of Philosophy Summer School, University of Groningen, 5–9 July 2021.

“Catharine Trotter Cockburn on Human Nature and the Lockean Distinction between Persons and Men,” Travelling Early Modern Philosophy Organization Online Conference, 18–19 June 2021; John Locke Conference, Naples, 9–11 June 2021; Women in the History of Philosophy, British Society for the History of Philosophy Conference, Durham, 21–23 April 2021.

“Thomas Reid on Promises, Social Operations, and Liberty,” Institute for the Study of Scottish Philosophy Conference, Lausanne, 8–10 March 2018; British Society for the History of Philosophy Conference, King’s College London, 24–26 April 2019.

“Hume and Reid on Promises and Sociability,” APA Pacific Division Meeting, Vancouver, 17–20 April 2019.

“Francis Hutcheson on Liberty and Self-Mastery,” Irish Philosophy in the Age of Berkeley Conference, Trinity College Dublin, 5–6 April 2019.

“Hume and Reid on Promises, Social Operations, and Liberty,” Berlin-Hamburg Workshop in Early Modern Philosophy, Humboldt University Berlin, 14–15 June 2018.

“Catharine Trotter Cockburn and Mary Astell on the Possibility of Thinking Matter,” Women in Philosophy: Past Present and Future, SWIP-Ireland Conference, University College Dublin, 17–19 May 2018.

“Hume and Reid on Sociability,” Socialising Minds: Language, Culture, and Human Nature from the Renaissance to the Enlightenment Workshop, Royal Netherlands Institute in Rome, 15–16 February 2018.

“Locke on Personal Identity, Transitivity, and Divine Justice,” Budapest Seminar in Early Modern Philosophy, Eötvös Loránd University Budapest, 26–27 October 2017. 

“David Hume and Thomas Reid on Fidelity to Promises and Trust,” Trust, Expertise and Policy Conference, University College Dublin 31 August–2 September 2017.

"Shaftesbury on Persons, Personal Identity and Character Development," British Society for the History of Philosophy Conference, University of Sheffield, April 2017; Dutch Seminar in Early Modern Philosophy, University of Groningen, February 2017.

"The Active Powers of the Human Mind," Science in the Scottish Enlightenment Conference, Center for the Study of Scottish Philosophy, Princeton, March 2017.

"Shaftesbury and Hume on the Self, Character, and Humanity," Personal Identity in the History of Philosophy Conference, University of Melbourne, August 2016; International Hume Society Conference, University of Sydney, July 2016; Oxford Seminar in Early Modern Philosophy, Mansfield College, University of Oxford, March 2016.

"Catherine Trotter Cockburn on Personal Identity, Consciousness and Sleep," Symposium of the International Association of Women Philosophers, Monash University, July 2016. 

"Shaftesbury's Criticism of Locke's Account of Personal Identity," Australasian Association of Philosophy Conference, Monash University, July 2016.

"Conceptions of Agency in Scottish Enlightenment Philosophy," Rethinking the Enlightenment Conference, Deakin University, December 2015.

"From the Religious Self to the Social Self," Rethinking Intellectual History Conference, Sydney Intellectual History Network, University of Sydney, April 2015.

"Locke and Hume on Personal Identity: Moral and Religious Differences," Dutch Seminar in Early Modern Philosophy, Radboud University, Nijmegen, February 2015.

"Accountability and Personal Identity: Locke's Response to the Problems of his Predecessors," New England Colloquium in Early Modern Philosophy, Brown University, May 2014; New York City Workshop in Early Modern Philosophy, Fordham University, March 2014.

“Locke and Hume on Persons and Personal Identity,” Joint Session of the Aristotelian Society and the Mind Association, University of Exeter, July 2013.

“Locke on Persons and Personal Identity,” Scottish Seminar in Early Modern Philosophy III, University of Aberdeen, May 2012.

“Consciousness and Rationality in Locke’s Account of Persons and Personal Identity,” Royal Institute of Philosophy Graduate Conference on “The Self,” University of the West of England, Bristol, February 2012.

“The Role of Appropriation in Locke’s Account of Persons and Personal Identity,” South Central Seminar in Early Modern Philosophy, Texas A&M University, November 2011.

“Locke’s sortal-dependent account of identity,” Session “Time and Identity in Enlightenment Thought,” 13th International Congress for Eighteenth-Century Studies, Graz, Austria, July 2011.

“Subjects of Responsibility and Theories of Personal Identity,” Conference on Moral Responsibility: Analytic Approaches, Substantive Accounts and Case Studies, Center for Ethics and Value Inquiry, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium, October 2010. 

“Reid’s theory of memory and the self: Does Reid offer a coherent alternative to Locke’s account of personal identity?,” Kant and Reid Reading Party, Burn House, Angus, July 2009.

“Why should the relation which Locke calls ‘identity’ be transitive?,” 13th BPPA Conference, King’s College London, July 2009; Joint Session of the Aristotelian Society and the Mind Association, University of East Anglia, July 2009.

Invited Presentations

“Isaac Watts and Catharine Trotter Cockburn on the Power to Think,” University of Bergen, Norway, 23 August 2023.

“Catharine Trotter Cockburn on Self-interest, Self-love, and Benevolence,” Bergen Network for Women in Philosophy, University of Bergen, Norway, 22 August 2023.

“Isaac Watts and Catharine Trotter Cockburn on the Power to Think,” Non-Cartesian Philosophies of Mind: Early Modern Alternatives Workshop, University of Oulu, Finland, 23–24 May 2023. 

“Catharine Trotter Cockburn on Self-interest, Self-love, and Benevolence” (keynote address), Berlin-Hamburg Workshop in Early Modern Philosophy, University of Hamburg, Germany, 11–12 May 2023.

“Shaftesbury on Nature, Unity, and Love of Humanity,” Shaftesbury in our Time, Workshop on Michael Gill’s A Philosophy of Beauty: Shaftesbury on Nature, Virtue, and Art, University of St Andrews, 17 April 2023.

“Isaac Watts and Catharine Trotter Cockburn on the Power to Think,” Powers and Abilities Conference, Humboldt University Berlin, 22–24 March 2023.

“Catharine Trotter Cockburn and Ann Hepburn Arbuthnot as Scottish Philosophers,” Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities, University of Edinburgh, 6 July 2022.

“Locke on Persons and Personal Identity,” Roundtable on recent books on Locke, John Locke Conference, American University in Bulgaria, Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria, 21–23 June 2022.

“Catharine Trotter Cockburn and John Locke on the Foundation of Morality,” University of Edinburgh, 17 June 2022.

“Catharine Trotter Cockburn on Self-interest, Self-love, and Benevolence,” Society and Human Nature in Early Modern Philosophy Workshop, University of St Andrews, 15 June 2022.

“Catharine Trotter Cockburn on Human Nature,” Workshop on Practical Reasoning in Medieval and Early Modern Philosophy, University of Würzburg, Germany, 20–21 May 2022.

“Book Presentation: Locke on Persons and Personal Identity,” Online Locke Workshop, University d’Annunzio, Italy, 14 December 2021.

“John Locke and Catharine Trotter Cockburn on Conscience and the Foundation of Moral Obligation,” Varieties of Voluntarism in Medieval and Early Modern Ethics Conference (online), Würzburg, Germany, 22–24 July 2021.

“Moral Sense or Instinct? Hutcheson and his Critics on the Moral Sense,” New Perspectives on Hutcheson’s Moral Philosophy Online Workshop, Interdisciplinary Centre for European Enlightenment Studies (IZEA), Martin-Luther-University, Halle (Saale), Germany, 3–4 June 2021.

“Self-Understanding and Moral Development in Women’s Philosophical Writings of the Early Modern Period,” Seminar Series “From Moral Learning to Self-Understanding,” University of Warwick, 11 March 2021.

“Shaftesbury on Liberty and Self-Mastery,” Aspects of Early Modern British Philosophy, UK-Japan Special Conference, St Peter’s College, University of Oxford, 11–12 September 2019.

“Locke on Vital Union,” Vitalism in Early Modern Philosophy Workshop, Emmanuel College, University of Cambridge, 29–30 March 2019.

“Hume and Reid on Promises and Sociability,” Trinity College Dublin, 8 October 2018.

“Hume and Reid on Promises, Active Powers, and Liberty,” Themes from the History of Philosophy Workshop, Trinity College Dublin, 15–16 December 2017.

“Does the Soul Always Think? Locke and his Early Critics and Defenders on Consciousness and Sleep,” History and Philosophy of Science Research Group, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest, 31 October 2017.

"Shaftesbury on Persons, Personal Identity and Character Development," Keynote talk at the Victorian Postgraduate Philosophy Workshop, University of Melbourne, October 2016.

"Locke on Consciousness," NY/NJ Early Modern Philosophy Research Seminar, April 2016.

"Shaftesbury and Hume on the Self, Character and Humanity," Centre for the History of Emotions Seminar, University of Melbourne, December 2015.

"Locke, Shaftesbury and Hume on Personal Identity: Moral and Religious Differences," University of Otago, September 2015.

"Locke on Personal Identity: A Response to the Problems of his Predecessors," University of Graz, June 2015.

"Locke and the Thesis that Identity is Relative," Mentoring Workshop for Early Career Women in Philosophy, University of Massachusetts Amherst, June 2015.

"Locke and Hume on Personal Identity: Moral and Religious Differences," Deakin University, April 2015; University of Sydney, April 2015.

"Locke's Sortal-Dependent Account of Identity," Society for Early Modern Philosophy at Yale, Yale University, February 2015.

“Accountability and Personal Identity: Locke’s Response to the Problems of his Predecessors,” Monash University, October 2014; University of Melbourne, September 2014; Skidmore College, October 2013.

“Locke on Persons and Personal Identity,” Philosophy Department Colloquium, University at Albany, September 2013.

“Locke on Personal Identity: From the Forensic Term ‘Person’ to Consciousness,” Society for Early Modern Philosophy at Yale, Yale University, September 2010.

Comments

Comments on Jill Hernandez, “A Puzzle for Macaulay on Moral Improvement and the Philosophical Education of Women,” Early Moderns on the Power of Philosophy Workshop, University College Dublin, 14–15 October 2022. 

Comments on Jacqueline Broad, “Selfhood and Self-government in Women’s Devotional Writings of the Early Modern Period,” Agency in Early Modern Philosophy Workshop, University College Dublin, 27–28 September 2018.

Comments on Diego Lucci, “Consciousness, Personal Identity, and Repentance in John Locke’s View on Salvation,” Locke Workshop, Mansfield College, University of Oxford, 16–18 July 2018.

Comments on Allison Kuklok, "Locke, Real Essences and Two Forms of Realism about Kinds," Mentoring Workshop for Early Career Women in Philosophy, University of Massachusetts Amherst, June 2015.

Comments on Ingrid Albrecht, "The Heavy Burden of Friendship," Mentoring Workshop for Early Career Women in Philosophy, University of Massachusetts Amherst, June 2015.

Comments on Patricia Sheridan, "Locke's Latitudinarian Sympathies," Locke Workshop, CUNY Lehman College, March 2014.

Comments on Emily Crookston, “Seeking After Locke's Metaethics or Building a Castle in the Air," Locke Workshop, Washington & Lee University, October 2012.

Comments on Jessica Gordon-Roth, “A Reconsideration of Locke on Persons as Modes,” Locke Workshop, University of St Andrews, June 2012.

Response to Galen Strawson ““when I enter most intimately into what I call myself …”,” Hume Workshop, University of St Andrews, May 2009.