Dr. J.C.A. (Johan) Olsthoorn
Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences
Programme group: Challenges to Democratic Representation
Visiting address
- Nieuwe Achtergracht 166
Postal address
Contact details
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About
I am associate professor of political theory in the Dept. of Political Science, Univ. of Amsterdam, and an affiliated researcher in the Justice and Migration project at KU Leuven. Between 2009-2014 and 2015-2021, I worked at KU Leuven, Institute of Philosophy - funded by PhD and postdoctoral fellowships of the Research Foundation (FWO)-Flanders. In between, I taught at the LSE, Dept. of Government. 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.
A trained political theorist, analytic philosopher, and intellectual historian, my research specialisms are in early modern moral, legal, and political philosophy; contemporary theories of justice, rights, and property; and international legal and political theory (incl. the ethics of migration, war, and human rights). I have lately been working on the place of slavery in early modern philosophy and on the ethics of compulsory prison labour. Much of my research has a conceptual focus. My first monograph, entitled Hobbes on Justice, was published 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 its first two biennial conferences (in 2016 and 2018).
My research has been supported by grants and fellowships from, among others, the NWO, FWO, NIAS, and Humboldt Stiftung. Over the years, I have presented 40 different research papers at over 80 academic events across 25 countries. I have been a visiting student/researcher at the Universities of Yale, Oxford, Boston, Berkeley, Paris-1-Sorbonne/Panthéon, British Columbia, Pompeu Fabra, Stellenbosch, and London (Queen Mary and KCL). In addition to several introductions to political theory and the history of political thought, I have taught courses on historical injustice; political legitimacy; migration; human rights; private property; norms of armed conflict; and self-determination in a postcolonial world.
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Publications
2024
- Olsthoorn, J. (2024). Hobbes on Justice. Oxford University Press.
Olsthoorn, J. (2024). Between Starvation and Spoilage: Conceptual Foundations of Locke's Theory of Original Appropriation. Archiv für Geschichte der Philosophie, 106(2), 236-266. https://doi.org/10.1515/agph-2021-0121 [details]- Olsthoorn, J. (2024). Justice for denizens: a conceptual map. Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1080/13698230.2024.2436258
- Olsthoorn, J. (2024). ‘Infinite Right’: Proportionality and Liability in Early Modern Ethics of War and Self- Defence. In P. Schröder (Ed.), Pufendorf ’s International Political and Legal Thought (pp. 119-136). (The history and theory of international law). Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780192883353.003.0007 [details]
- Olsthoorn, J. (in press). After Abolition: Cugoano on ‘Lawful Servitude’ and the Injustice of Slavery. Journal of Modern Philosophy.
2023
- Olsthoorn, J. (in press). Locke on natural law and natural rights. In P. Connolly (Ed.), The Oxford Handbook to Locke Oxford University Press.
- Olsthoorn, J. (in press). The problem of penal slavery in Quobna Ottobah Cugoano’s abolitionism. Philosophers' Imprint. https://doi.org/10.3998/phimp.4009
2022
- Olsthoorn, J., & 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 [details]
2021
- Olsthoorn, J. (2021). Hobbes on international ethics. In M. P. Adams (Ed.), A Companion to Hobbes (pp. 252-267). (Blackwell Companions to Philosophy; Vol. 76). Wiley Blackwell. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781119635079.ch15 [details]
- Olsthoorn, J. (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 [details]
- Olsthoorn, J. (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. https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780197519103.003.0011 [details]
- Olsthoorn, J., & Van Apeldoorn, L. (2021). 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 [details]
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 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 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 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 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 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 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 University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781316162576.010
2016
- Olsthoorn, J. (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. http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/imp/hpt/2015/00000036/00000003/art00004
- 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
2025
- Olsthoorn, J. (2025). Justice. In K. Hübner , & J. Steinberg (Eds.), The Cambridge Spinoza Lexicon (pp. 296-299). Cambridge University Press.
2024
- Gutnick Allen, S., & Olsthoorn, J. (2024). Teaching and learning resources. Thomas Hobbes: Leviathan. In E. Craig (Ed.), Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy Routledge. https://www.rep.routledge.com/dms/Hobbes.pdf
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. (2014). Forfeiting citizenship: Hobbes on traitors, rebels, and enemies. In P. M. Kitromilides (Ed.), Athenian Legacies: European Debates on Citizenship (pp. 237-252). 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
2022
- Olsthoorn, J., & Getty, L. (2022). Out of Step with the World. In J. Heter, & R. Greene (Eds.), Punk Rock and Philosophy (pp. 307-315 ). Open Universe.
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Ancillary activities
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Olsthoorn, J. (2024). Between Starvation and Spoilage: Conceptual Foundations of Locke's Theory of Original Appropriation. Archiv für Geschichte der Philosophie, 106(2), 236-266.