English & Comparative Literary Studies

Systems of Life: Politics, Economies, and the Biological Sciences, 1750-1850

A Conference Co-Sponsored by Occidental College and The Huntington Library, November 8-10

This conference will explore the intellectual history of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries through the lens of conceptual innovation in the fields of politics, economics, and biology. It will focus in particular on the significance of the concept of "the system"--as well as its counterpart in the form of the nonsystematic--in the context of a diverse range of topics that include philosophy, political economy, colonialism, slavery, poetry, and the aesthetics of science.

Supplementary readings are available as downloadable PDFs:

John Thelwall, An Essay towards a Definition of Animal Vitality (1793)

Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (1776)

Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Discourse on the Origins of Inequality (1754)

For more information about the conference, contact one of the conference co-organizers, Professor Warren Montag (montag@oxy.edu) and Professor Rick Barney (rbarney@albany.edu).

 

 

  • Professor Michael Near: mnear@oxy.edu