The BSHP Antognazza Lecture (formally the Annual Lecture), features an accessible paper from a distinguished speaker in the history of philosophy. It is normally held in the autumn at a UK university. Attendance is free, and everyone is welcome.
The Antognazza Lecture is named in memory of Prof. Maria Rosa Antognazza (1964-2023)
Ethics for Humans: Spinoza and Moral Philosophy
Spinoza’s Ethics has inspired generations of readers, yet it remains on the periphery of histories of ethics. One explanation is that while the language of the book suggests a view with close ties to classical theories, Spinoza’s naturalism undercuts assumptions about the ground of value and rational agency on which such theories rely. I argue that the main project of the Ethics is theoretical: Spinoza conceptualizes the mind’s affects and reason as causal powers; he reinterprets ethical propositions as truths about nature; and he restricts normative demands to a practical perspective afforded by the mind’s inadequate knowledge of itself. Although the Ethics invites us to consider the attractions of a “rational life,” it precludes the existence of authoritative reasons why any human being should pursue such a life. The greatest achievement of the book is its elaboration of a framework for understanding the basis of normative thought in a world in which every trace of providence, teleology, and value is eliminated from nature.
2025: Professor Sandrine Bergès, Bilkent University, 'Who is a slave andd who should be freed? Astell, Marriage andd Chattel Slavery'. Click here to watch a recording
2024: Professor Pauline Kleingeld, University of Groningen, "Republican Themes in Kant's Moral Theory". Click here to watch a recording
2023: Professor Peter Adamson, Kings College London / LMU, "Thinking With Rosa: Assent in the Islamic World" Click here to watch a recording
2022: Professor Clare Carlisle, King's College London, “Thought and Feeling: George Eliot and the Expansion of Philosophy” Click here to listen to recording
2021: Professor James A. Harris, “How to write a history of philosophy? The case of 18th-century Britain”, Newnham College, Cambridge.
2020: Prof. Jan Westerhoff, "For your eyes only: the Problem on Solipsism in Ancient Indian Philosophy", delivered online Click here to watch a recording.
2019: Prof. MM McCabe, "Taking time to talk: Plato's Euthydemus on the metaphysics of conversation", University of Aberdeen
2018: Prof. Sarah Hutton, "Women, Philosophy, and the History of Philosophy", Maison Francaise d'Oxford
2017: Prof. John Cottingham, "Why the History of Philosophy Matters", King’s College London
