16. Juli 2026

Foto: Google Gemini

Why is there something rather than nothing? And when something exists or happens, must there always be a reason – a ground – that explains it? These are among the most fundamental questions in metaphysics, and they have a rich and still underexplored history.

16–17 July 2026 at Jungiusstr. 11C in 20355 Hamburg
3rd Floor, Room C 319 or online (please register here to participate).

This conference brings together leading scholars to trace the arc of one of philosophy's most audacious demands: that reality and things happening in it are explicable. At its Ancient and medieval starting point stands the principle ex nihilo nihil fit (NIF): nothing comes from nothing. We will examine how medieval thinkers of both the Arabic and Latin tradition understood this principle, what they thought it could prove, and where they feared it might break down. We will also explore whether, and in what sense, medieval authors took causes to render their effects intelligible — as opposed to merely producing them.

At the early modern end of our story stands the Principle of Sufficient Reason (PSR), championed most famously by Leibniz and influentially developed by Du Châtelet: the idea that for each thing or fact there is a sufficient reason for why it exists or obtains rather than not. How did the PSR emerge from — or break with — the NIF of scholasticism? To what extent did early modern philosophers engage seriously with medieval debates, and how fair were their characterisations of the scholastics?

As many of these considerations go beyond history, we will also ask which versions of NIF and PSR remain philosophically compelling today, and why. These historical and systematic questions will run as a common thread throughout the conference.
We warmly invite you to attend in person or virtually.

Speakers: Fatema Amijee · Kübra Bahçi · Sebastian Bender · Julia Borcherding · Jon Bornholdt · Clara Carus · Michael Della Rocca · Samuel Levey · Jeffrey McDonough · Gonzalo Rodriguez-Pereyra · Sonja Schierbaum

Links:

• Poster
• Full Programme
• Mandatory Registration (by 14 July 2026, 23:59 CEST): 

The conference is organized by Stephan Schmid (Hamburg) and Clara Carus (Heidelberg) - and generously supported by the Fritz Thyssen Stiftung.