John Locke Lectures
{{short description|Series of annual lectures}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
The John Locke Lectures are a series of annual lectures in philosophy given at the University of Oxford. Named for British philosopher John Locke, the Locke Lectures are the world's most prestigious lectures in philosophy, and are among the world's most prestigious academic lectures. They were established in 1950 by the bequest of Henry Wilde. Another comparable lecture series is the Gifford Lectures, which are delivered annually at several universities in Scotland.
The first lecture series was offered to Ludwig Wittgenstein, who eventually declined. He felt uncomfortable giving formal lectures where the audience would not be asking or answering questions.{{cite book |last1=Monk |first1=Ray |title=Ludwig Wittgenstein : the duty of genius |date=1991 |publisher=Vintage |location=London |isbn=9780099883708 |pages=564–565}}
Lecturers
The lectures began as an uncertain biennial series, with the first lecturer from 1950 to 1951, and missing the second slot from 1952 to 1953. Between 1969 and 2001, the lectures became gradually more frequent. Since 2001, the lecture notes have been made available electronically.
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| {| style="font-size:95%;" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" |style="width:6em;"| Year |style="width:10em;"| Lecturer |style="width:16em; font-size:90%;"| Lectures published as | ||
| 1950–1951 | Oets Kolk Bouwsma | |
| 1952–1953 | colspan="2"| no lectures | |
| 1954–1955 | Hao Wang | |
| 1955–1956 | Arthur Prior | style="font-size:90%;"| Time and Modality (1957) |
| 1957–1958 | A.C. Jackson | |
| 1959–1960 | Gregory Vlastos | |
| 1961–1962 | Nelson Goodman | style="font-size:90%;"| Languages of Art (1968) |
| 1963–1964 | Jaakko Hintikka | |
| 1965–1966 | Wilfrid Sellars | style="font-size:90%;"| Science and Metaphysics (1968) |
| 1967–1968 | Paul Lorenzen | |
| 1968–1969 | Noam Chomsky | |
| 1969–1970 | Donald Davidson | style="font-size:90%;"| The Structure of Truth (2020) |
| 1971–1972 | Sydney Shoemaker | |
| 1973–1974 | Saul Kripke | style="font-size:90%;"| Reference and Existence (2018) |
| 1974–1975 | Richard Brandt | |
| 1975–1976 | Hilary Putnam | |
| 1976–1977 | colspan="2"| no lectures | |
| 1977–1978 | colspan="2"| no lectures | |
| 1978–1979 | Paul Grice | style="font-size:90%;"| Aspects of Reason (2005) |
| 1979–1980 | David Kaplan{{efn|Postponed.}} | |
| 1980–1981 | colspan="2"| no lectures | |
| 1981–1982 | colspan="2"| no lectures | |
| 1982–1983 | Daniel Dennett | style="font-size:90%;"| Elbow Room: The Varieties of Free Will Worth Wanting (1984) |
| 1983–1984 | David Lewis | style="font-size:90%;"| On the Plurality of Worlds (1986) |
| 1984–1985 | colspan="2"| no lectures | |
| 1985–1986 | colspan="2"| no lectures | |
| 1986–1987 | Barry Stroud | style="font-size:90%;"| The Quest for Reality (2000) |
| 1987–1988 | colspan="2"| no lectures | |
| 1988–1989 | colspan="2"| no lectures{{efn|Ernst Tugendhat was due to deliver the lectures, but withdrew due to illness.}} | |
| 1989–1990 | Thomas Nagel | style="font-size:90%;"| Equality and Partiality (1991) |
| 1990–1991 | John McDowell | style="font-size:90%;"| Mind and World (1994) |
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|style="width:6em;"| Year |style="width:10em;"| Lecturer |style="width:16em; font-size:90%;"| Lectures published as | ||
| 1991–1992 | Jonathan Bennett | |
| 1992–1993 | Tyler Burge | |
| 1993–1994 | colspan="2"| no lectures | |
| 1994–1995 | Frank Jackson | style="font-size:90%;"| From Metaphysics to Ethics (1998) |
| 1995–1996 | colspan="2"| no lectures | |
| 1996–1997 | Jerry Fodor{{efn|name=fn1|Two sets of Locke Lectures were delivered during the 1996–1997 academic year: One by Jerry Fodor in Michaelmas term 1996, and another by Robert Nozick in Trinity term 1997. Since then, all Locke Lectures have been held in Trinity term.}} | style="font-size:90%;"| Concepts: Where Cognitive Science Went Wrong (1998) |
| 1996–1997 | Robert Nozick{{efn|name=fn1}} | style="font-size:90%;"| Invariances (2001) |
| 1998 | Lawrence Sklar | style="font-size:90%;"| Theory and Truth: Philosophical Critique Within Foundational Science (2000) |
| 1999 | colspan="2"| no lectures | |
| 2000 | colspan="2"| no lectures | |
| 2001 | Bas van Fraassen | |
| 2002 | Christine Korsgaard | style="font-size:90%;"| Self-Constitution: Agency, Identity, Integrity (2009) |
| 2003 | Kit Fine | style="font-size:90%;"| Semantic Relationism (2007) |
| 2004 | Jonathan Barnes | style="font-size:90%;"| Truth, etc. (2007) |
| 2005 | Ernest Sosa | style="font-size:90%;"| A Virtue Epistemology: Apt Belief and Reflective Knowledge, Volume 1 (2007) |
| 2006 | Robert Brandom | style="font-size:90%;"| Between Saying and Doing (2008) |
| 2007 | Robert Stalnaker | style="font-size:90%;"| Our Knowledge of the Internal World (2008) |
| 2008 | Hartry Field | |
| 2009 | Thomas M. Scanlon | style="font-size:90%;"| Being Realistic about Reasons (2013) |
| 2010 | David Chalmers | style="font-size:90%;"| Constructing the World (2012) |
| 2011 | John Cooper | style="font-size:90%;"| Pursuits of Wisdom: Six Ways of Life in Ancient Philosophy from Socrates to Plotinus (2012) |
| 2012 | Stephen Yablo | style="font-size:90%;"| Aboutness (2014) |
| 2013 | Ned Block | |
| 2014 | Martha Nussbaum | style="font-size:90%;"| Anger and Forgiveness (2016) |
| 2015 | Rae Langton | |
| 2016 | Ted Sider | style="font-size:90%;"| The Tools of Metaphysics and the Metaphysics of Science (2020) |
| 2017 | Michael Smith | |
| 2018 | Peter Railton | |
| 2019 | Philip Pettit | style="font-size:90%;"| When Minds Converse: A Social Genealogy of the Human Soul (2025) |
| 2020 | Susan Wolf{{efn|Postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.}} | |
| 2022 | Angelika Kratzer | |
| 2023 | Jennifer Nagel | |
| 2024 | ||
| 2025
|Richard Pettigrew |
|}
Notes
{{notelist}}
References
{{reflist}}
External links
- [https://www.philosophy.ox.ac.uk/john-locke-lectures John Locke Lectures], complete list with some available online
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20081021081503/http://www.philosophy.ox.ac.uk/lectures/john_locke_lectures Archived list] up to 2008