John Locke Lectures

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.^[1]

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.

Year Lecturer Lectures published as 1950–1951 Oets Kolk Bouwsma 1952–1953 no lectures 1954–1955 Hao Wang 1955–1956 Arthur Prior Time and Modality (1957) 1957–1958 A.C. Jackson 1959–1960 Gregory Vlastos 1961–1962 Nelson Goodman Languages of Art (1968) 1963–1964 Jaakko Hintikka 1965–1966 Wilfrid Sellars Science and Metaphysics (1968) 1967–1968 Paul Lorenzen 1968–1969 Noam Chomsky 1969–1970 Donald Davidson The Structure of Truth (2020) 1971–1972 Sydney Shoemaker 1973–1974 Saul Kripke Reference and Existence (2018) 1974–1975 Richard Brandt 1975–1976 Hilary Putnam 1976–1977 no lectures 1977–1978 no lectures 1978–1979 Paul Grice Aspects of Reason (2005) 1979–1980 David Kaplan[a] 1980–1981 no lectures 1981–1982 no lectures 1982–1983 Daniel Dennett Elbow Room: The Varieties of Free Will Worth Wanting (1984) 1983–1984 David Lewis On the Plurality of Worlds (1986) 1984–1985 no lectures 1985–1986 no lectures 1986–1987 Barry Stroud The Quest for Reality (2000) 1987–1988 no lectures 1988–1989 no lectures[b] 1989–1990 Thomas Nagel Equality and Partiality (1991) 1990–1991 John McDowell Mind and World (1994)

Year Lecturer Lectures published as 1991–1992 Jonathan Bennett 1992–1993 Tyler Burge 1993–1994 no lectures 1994–1995 Frank Jackson From Metaphysics to Ethics (1998) 1995–1996 no lectures 1996–1997 Jerry Fodor[c] Concepts: Where Cognitive Science Went Wrong (1998) 1996–1997 Robert Nozick[c] Invariances (2001) 1998 Lawrence Sklar Theory and Truth: Philosophical Critique Within Foundational Science (2000) 1999 no lectures 2000 no lectures 2001 Bas van Fraassen 2002 Christine Korsgaard Self-Constitution: Agency, Identity, Integrity (2009) 2003 Kit Fine Semantic Relationism (2007) 2004 Jonathan Barnes Truth, etc. (2007) 2005 Ernest Sosa A Virtue Epistemology: Apt Belief and Reflective Knowledge, Volume 1 (2007) 2006 Robert Brandom Between Saying and Doing (2008) 2007 Robert Stalnaker Our Knowledge of the Internal World (2008) 2008 Hartry Field 2009 Thomas M. Scanlon Being Realistic about Reasons (2013) 2010 David Chalmers Constructing the World (2012) 2011 John Cooper Pursuits of Wisdom: Six Ways of Life in Ancient Philosophy from Socrates to Plotinus (2012) 2012 Stephen Yablo Aboutness (2014) 2013 Ned Block 2014 Martha Nussbaum Anger and Forgiveness (2016) 2015 Rae Langton 2016 Ted Sider The Tools of Metaphysics and the Metaphysics of Science (2020) 2017 Michael Smith 2018 Peter Railton 2019 Philip Pettit When Minds Converse: A Social Genealogy of the Human Soul (2025) 2020 Susan Wolf[d] 2022 Angelika Kratzer 2023 Jennifer Nagel 2024 Jonardon Ganeri 2025 Richard Pettigrew

Notes

1. Postponed.
2. Ernst Tugendhat was due to deliver the lectures, but withdrew due to illness.
3. 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.
4. Postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.