My primary areas of interest are early modern philosophy and the history of the philosophy of science. More specifically, I have worked on mechanist conceptions of body and their justification, debates surrounding gravity/attraction, and changing views of scientific explanation in the early modern period. My publications include “The Status of Mechanism in Locke’s Essay” (Philosophical Review, 1998) and “Berkeley’s Natural Philosophy and Philosophy of Science” in the Cambridge Companion to Berkeley (2006). I have taught at the University of Illinois at Chicago, the University of Pennsylvania, Yale University, and have been a fellow of the Dibner Institute for the History of Science.
Courses: Fall 2009
(More information for enrolled students will be available on Carmen.)
Philosophy 603: Studies in 17th-Century Philosophy
(Locke’s Essay, Context and Influence)
Locke’s Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1689) is a central text in the history of philosophy, and, more broadly, a radical text in the history of modern thought. In this course, we will first take an overview of the epistemology and metaphysics of the Essay, then look at several issues and debates of philosophical, historical, and cultural importance that arose from the Essay. Those debates/issues may include:
- Locke’s debate with Edward Stillingfleet, Bishop of Worcester: Here we find a philosophically rich example of the way in which core doctrines of the Essay concerning, e.g., the nature of our idea of substance and the relation between mind and body, conflicted with traditional Anglican views.
- Locke and the freethinking tradition: We will examine connections between the Essay and Locke’s Reasonableness of Christianity, and the influence of both of these on “notorious” freethinkers such as John Toland and Anthony Collins.
- Locke and religious toleration: We will look at connections between the Essay and Locke’s influential Letter on Toleration.
Emphasis will be placed on using library resources (both physical and online) to read a variety of late-seventeenth century English texts.