Prof. Dr. Julia Jorati

Keynote Title: Du Châtelet’s theory of freedom and its origins

Abstract: This presentation carefully analyzes the theory of free will that Du Châtelet puts forward in her essay “On Freedom.” Against other interpreters, Jorati argues that it is a compatibilist theory, but one that differs considerably from John Locke’s account. While Du Châtelet’s theory builds on ideas from Locke, Clarke, Voltaire, and possibly Leibniz, it is an original and intriguing alternative to standard versions of compatibilism.

CV:

Julia Jorati is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Massachusetts Amherst (USA). She received her PhD from Yale University in 2013 and her MA from the University of Göttingen in 2008. In addition to numerous articles, she has authored the books Slavery and Race: Philosophical Debates in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries (Oxford 2024), Slavery and Race: Philosophical Debates in the Eighteenth Century (Oxford 2024), and Leibniz on Causation and Agency (Cambridge 2017). She has also edited the volume Powers: A History (Oxford 2021) and a forthcoming 2-volume anthology titled Slavery in Early Modern Philosophy.