Dr. J.C.A. (Johan) Olsthoorn
- Nieuwe Achtergracht 166
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About
I'm a tenured assistant professor in political theory (UD1) at the University of Amsterdam, Dept. of Political Science, and an affiliated researcher in the Justice and Migration project at RIPPLE. Between 2009 and 2021, I worked at KU Leuven, Institute of Philosophy, funded by PhD and postdoctoral fellowships of the Research Foundation (FWO)-Flanders. In 2014, KU Leuven awarded me a PhD in philosophy (summa cum laude); I also hold degrees in philosophy (BA, MA), history (BA, MA), and political science (BA) from Leiden University.
My research specialisms are in seventeenth-century moral, legal, and political philosophy; contemporary theories of rights and property; and international legal and political philosophy (incl. the ethics of war and philosophy of human rights). Much of my work focuses on changing conceptualizations of notions such as ‘justice’, ‘rights’, ‘obligations’, ‘property’, and ‘sovereignty’. I am particularly interested in uncovering the conceptual and theoretical constraints past and present philosophers face when attempting to reinterpret received notions.
I have spent some time scrutinizing the works of Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) – someone ‘very dexterous in Confuting others by putting a new Sense upon their words, rehearsed by himself, different from what the same Words signifie with other men’ (Wallace 1662: 154). A monograph entitled Hobbes on Justice is under contract with OUP. Together with Robin Douglass (KCL), I have edited the Cambridge Critical Guide to Hobbes’s On the Citizen. A founding member of the European Hobbes Society, I have convened the society’s first two biennial conferences (in 2016 and 2018).
I enjoy travelling and spending short spells abroad. Over the years, I have been a visiting student/researcher at the Universities of Yale, Oxford, Boston, Berkeley, Paris-1-Sorbonne/Panthéon, British Columbia, Pompeu Fabra, and London (Queen Mary and KCL).
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Publications
2022
- Olsthoorn, J. C. A. (2022). Between Starvation and Spoilage: Conceptual Foundations of Locke's Theory of Original Appropriation. Archiv für Geschichte der Philosophie. https://doi.org/10.1515/agph-2021-0121
- Olsthoorn, J. C. A., & van Apeldoorn, L. (2022). 'This Man is my Property’: Slavery and Political Absolutism in Locke and the Classical Social Contract Tradition. European Journal of Political Theory, 21(2), 253-275. https://doi.org/10.1177/1474885120911309
- Olsthoorn, J. C. A., & van Apeldoorn, L. C. J. (2022). The value of methodological pluralism in the study of Locke on slavery and absolutism: a rejoinder to Felix Waldmann. Locke Studies, 21, 88-104 . https://doi.org/10.5206/ls.2021.14618
2021
- Olsthoorn, J. C. A. (2021). Hobbes on international ethics. In M. P. Adams (Ed.), A Companion to Hobbes (pp. 252-267). (Blackwell Companions to Philosophy). Wiley-Blackwell.
- Olsthoorn, J. C. A. (2021). Leviathan Inc.: Hobbes on the nature and person of the state. History of European Ideas, 47(1), 17-32. https://doi.org/10.1080/01916599.2020.1779466
- Olsthoorn, J. C. A. (2021). The right to wage private wars of subsistence: its nature, grounds, and place in revisionist just war theories. In E. Herlin-Karnell , & E. Rossi (Eds.), The Public Uses of Coercion and Force: From Constitutionalism to War (pp. 133-150). Oxford University Press.
2020
- Douglass, R., & Olsthoorn, J. (2020). Introduction. In R. Douglass, & J. Olsthoorn (Eds.), Hobbes’s On the Citizen: A Critical Guide (pp. 1-11). (Cambridge Critical Guides). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108379892.001 [details]
- Douglass, R., & Olsthoorn, J. (Eds.) (2020). Hobbes’s On the Citizen: A Critical Guide. (Cambridge Critical Guides). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108379892 [details]
- Olsthoorn, J. (2020). Francisco Suárez and Hugo Grotius on distributive justice and imperfect rights. History of Political Thought, 41(1), 96-119. https://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/imp/hpt/2020/00000041/00000001/art00004 [details]
Olsthoorn, J. (2020). On the absence of moral goodness in Hobbes’s ethics. The Journal of Ethics, 24(2), 241-266. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10892-020-09324-4 [details]
2019
- Olsthoorn, J. (2019). Grotius and Pufendorf. In T. Angier (Ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Natural Law Ethics (pp. 51-70). (Cambridge Companions). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108525077.004 [details]
- Olsthoorn, J. (2019). Grotius on natural law and supererogation. Journal of the History of Philosophy, 57(3), 443-469. https://doi.org/10.1353/hph.2019.0054 [details]
- Olsthoorn, J. (2019). Mondiale rechtvaardigheid afdwingen: Oorlog, noodzaak, en verzetsrechten van ’s werelds misdeelden. Algemeen Nederlands Tijdschrift voor Wijsbegeerte, 111(1), 45-62. https://doi.org/10.5117/ANTW2019.1.004.OLST [details]
- Olsthoorn, J. (2019). Self-ownership and Despotism: Locke on property in the person, divine dominium of human life, and rights-forfeiture. Social Philosophy and Policy, 36(2), 242-263. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0265052519000438 [details]
2018
- Olsthoorn, J. (2018). Grotius and the Early Modern Tradition. In L. May (Ed.), Cambridge Handbook of the Just War (pp. 33-56). (Cambridge Handbooks in Philosophy). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781316591307.004 [details]
- Olsthoorn, J. (2018). The Theocratic Leviathan: Hobbes’s Arguments for the Identity of Church and State. In L. van Apeldoorn, & R. Douglass (Eds.), Hobbes on Politics and Religion (pp. 10-28). Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198803409.003.0002 [details]
- Olsthoorn, J. (2018). Two Ways of Theorizing ‘Collective Ownership of the Earth’. In J. Penner, & M. Otsuka (Eds.), Property Theory: Legal and Political Perspectives (pp. 187-214). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108500043.010 [details]
2017
- Olsthoorn, J. (2017). Conceptual analysis. In A. Blau (Ed.), Methods in Analytical Political Theory (pp. 153-191). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781316162576.010
2016
- Olsthoorn, J. C. A. (2016). Spinoza on human and divine justice. History of Philosophy Quarterly, 33(1), 21-41. https://www.jstor.org/stable/44076605?seq=1
2015
- Olsthoorn, J. (2015). Hobbes on Justice, Property Rights and Self-Ownership. History of Political Thought, 36(3), 471-498.
- Olsthoorn, J. C. A. (2015). Why justice and injustice have no place outside the Hobbesian state. European Journal of Political Theory, 14(1), 19-36. https://doi.org/10.1177/1474885113514709
2014
- Olsthoorn, J. (2014). Worse than death: the non-preservationist foundations of Hobbes’s moral philosophy. Hobbes Studies, 27(2), 148-170. https://doi.org/10.1163/18750257-02702008
2013
- Olsthoorn, J. (2013). Hobbes’s account of distributive justice as equity. British Journal for the History of Philosophy, 21(1), 13-33. https://doi.org/10.1080/09608788.2012.689749
2019
- Olsthoorn, J. (2019). Grotius, Hugo. In D. Jalobeanu, & C. T. Wolfe (Eds.), Encyclopedia of Early Modern Philosophy and the Sciences (Living ed., pp. 787-788). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-20791-9_457-2
2018
- Olsthoorn, J. C. A. (2018). Jeremy Seth Geddert: Hugo Grotius and the Modern Theology of Freedom: Transcending Natural Rights. (New York: Routledge, 2017). The Review of Politics, 80(2), 372-375. https://doi.org/10.1017/S003467051700122X
2016
- van Apeldoorn, L., Maas, H., & Olsthoorn, J. (2016). Science, politics, and the economy: The unintended consequences of a diabolic paradox (editorial). Erasmus Journal for Philosophy and Economics, 9(1), iii-viii. https://doi.org/10.23941/ejpe.v9i1.208
2014
- Olsthoorn, J. C. A. (2014). Forfeiting citizenship: Hobbes on traitors, rebels, and enemies. In P. M. Kitromilides (Ed.), Athenian Legacies: European Debates on Citizenship (pp. 237-252). Firenze: Leo S. Olschki.
2013
- Olsthoorn, J. C. A. (2013). David Dyzenhaus and Thomas Poole (eds.), Hobbes and the Law, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012. Hobbes Studies, 26(2), 204-209. https://doi.org/10.1163/18750257-02602005
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Ancillary activities
- No ancillary activities
Olsthoorn, J. (2020). On the absence of moral goodness in Hobbes’s ethics. The Journal of Ethics, 24(2), 241-266.