19-20 November 2026

LITHUANIAN CULTURE RESEARCH INSTITUTE

DEPARTMENT OF THE HISTORY OF LITHUANIAN PHILOSOPHY

SCIENTIFIC CONFERENCE

TRAJECTORIES OF LITHUANIAN PHILOSOPHY 2026:

250 YEARS OF ANIOŁ DOWGIRD

On 19-20 November 2026, the Department of the History of Lithuanian Philosophy at the Lithuanian Culture Research Institute will host the national academic conference Trajectories of Lithuanian Philosophy 2026: 250 Years of Anioł Dowgird.

The conference will take place at the Lithuanian Culture Research Institute (Room 216, Saltoniškių St. 58, Vilnius). Participation will also be possible online.

This year marks the 250th anniversary of the birth of the Lithuanian philosopher Anioł Dowgird (Angelas Daugirdas, 1776-1835), a prominent representative of the Vilnius epistemological school. Drawing on the Scottish School of Common Sense, Dowgird developed ideas in logic, epistemology, and metaphysics, which he taught to generations of university students in the early nineteenth century. He was the first professor in Lithuania to offer a comprehensive course on the history of philosophy and the first Lithuanian thinker to formulate a local response to the philosophical challenge posed by David Hume – the same challenge that, according to Kant himself, awakened Immanuel Kant from his “dogmatic slumber.”

Unfortunately, unlike other leading figures of the Vilnius School, such as Jan and Andrzej Śniadecki, Dowgird gradually fell into obscurity and was rediscovered by historians of philosophy only in the 1960s. Since then, a number of monographs and dissertations devoted to his thought have appeared; extensive manuscript treatises have been uncovered in archives; and his writings have been republished in the original Polish, with some also translated into Lithuanian.

The 250th anniversary provides an excellent opportunity to share new discoveries concerning Dowgird’s intellectual legacy and to trace the fate of related ideas – psychologism, the critique of subjective idealism, and the principles of the Scottish School of Common Sense – through the twists and turns of Lithuania’s intellectual history. It also invites reflection on the mission of contemporary scholarship devoted to Lithuania’s philosophical past.

As in previous years, the conference also welcomes presentations on other important topics in Lithuanian philosophy, including the distinctive features of its development, historical periods, intellectual movements, schools of thought, and individual thinkers.

Applications including presentation titles and abstracts (up to 1,700 characters excluding spaces) should be submitted by 31 October 2026 to: lietuvos.filosofijos.istorija@gmail.com

Presentations should not exceed 20 minutes. An additional 10 minutes will be allotted for questions and discussion.

Most of the conference sessions will be held in Lithuanian; one session will be reserved for presentations in English.

Conference Organizing Committee

Chair: Dr. Alvydas Noreika; Members: Vygandas Aleksandravičius, Dr. Gintaras Kabelka, Dr. Rūta Marija Vabalaitė, Dr. Pillė Veljataga, and Dr. Dalius Viliūnas

For further information, please contact: Dr. Alvydas Noreika
alvydasn@gmail.com

YOU ARE CORDIALLY INVITED TO PARTICIPATE