"Hume and Montesquieu: Methods, Moeurs and Republican Monarchy" on December 6th, 2014

Co-sponsored with Conference for the Study of Political Thought (CSPT), this one-day conference brought together scholars of Hume and Montesquieu to discuss points of commonality and divergence across multiple dimensions: questions of method and intellectual approach; issues of marriage and sexual morality, in their relation to law and politics; and both thinkers’ distinctive, ambivalent approach to republican and monarchical traditions of thought, and to the particular question of English politics.

Schedule

Opening Remarks by Andrew Sabl (Yale University)

9:45AM: Method

Bryan Garsten (Yale University), Chair
Michael Mosher (University of Tulsa), Political Time in Hume and Montesquieu
Frederick Whelan (University of Pittsburgh), Thoughts on Hume’s Social Science (and Montesquieu’s)
Isaac Nakhimovsky (Yale University), Discussant

1:00PM: Moeurs
Jennifer Herdt (Yale University), Chair
Andrew Sabl (Yale University), Gallant Monarchies and Chaste Republics: Hume on Mores and Regime Types
Diana Schaub (Loyola University Maryland), Montesquieu’s Legislator: Reforming Mores by Reordering the Laws
Dennis Rasmussen (Tufts University), Discussant

3:15PM: Republican Monarchy
Steven Smith (Yale University), Chair
Annelien de Dijn (University of Amsterdam), Montesquieu as an Anti-Republican
Marc Hanvelt (Carleton University), Opinions on Monarchy: Hume on Machiavelli’s ‘Extremely Defective‘ Reasonings
Eric MacGilvray (Ohio State University), Discussant