Description: Schmitter.png Amy Schmitter's Homepage 

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Professor, Department of Philosophy, University of Alberta

2-70 Assiniboia Hall

Edmonton, Alberta

CANADA T6G 2E7


Ph.D. (Philosophy), University of Pittsburgh. 

 

Personal Email: amyDOTschmitterATualbertaDOTca

Office: Assiniboia Hall 2-70

Phone: (780) 492-3307

 

my calendar          my c.v.


On Sabbatical 2015-16

(Visiting Scholar at New York University)

 

Upcoming Teaching:
Fall 2016: Phil 270: “Political Philosophy” and Phil 442 & 546: “Seminar on Descartes”

 

Some past seminars:

“Passions and Sentiments among the British Moralists”

“Passions in the 17th Century”

“Spinoza and Leibniz”

“Topics in Philosophy of Mind: Perception & Intentionality”

“Seminar on Hume”

“Women and Early Modern Philosophy”

“Hume’s Ethics & Aesthetics”

Fourth Year Honours Seminar: “The Parting of the Ways: the origins of the split between analytic and continental philosophy”

Fourth Year Honours Seminar: “Philosophy as a Way of Life & the Art of Living”

Fourth Year Honours Seminar: “The Rationality of Emotions”

“Marx”

 

Professional:

Besides my position as Professor of Philosophy, I am currently an Executive Editor and Board Secretary for the Canadian Journal of Philosophy. I am also involved in the project “New Narratives in the History of Philosophy,” supported by a Partnership Development Grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. In April 2016, I will be a Visiting Professor in the Facultad de Filosofía, Pontificia Universidad Javeriana in Bogotá, where I will lecture and hold several seminar sessions. Before coming to the University of Alberta, I taught at the University of Pittsburgh, Hamilton College in New York state, and the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque. I have also been a Visiting Scholar at the University of California at Berkeley and at New York University, and during 2002-03, held a Fellowship at the Stanford Humanities Center, Stanford University. I have received several awards for Summer Institutes and Seminars from the National Endowment for the Humanities (U.S.A.) and two Standard Research Grants from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. I also serve on various committees, including the Religious Studies Advisory Council for the U of A, the Program Committee for the Pacific Northwest-Western Canada Seminar in Early Modern Philosophy, and review committees for several grant organizations. Recently, I was also a member of the local and program organizing committee for the Hume Society's Annual Conference in 2012 and of the program committee for the Central Division Meetings of the American Philosophical Association in 2012 in Chicago. (I have my fill of committees . . .)

My main areas of research and writing are the history of early modern philosophy and philosophy of art. But those are broad and eclectic areas that (necessarily) take me into many different topics, historical periods and approaches to philosophy. My teaching interests and educational history cover yet further fields. The result is that I know (or "know") a little bit about many different things. A summary of my current interests and recent work is below. Some of my work can be found on-line: The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. There are also links in my profiles on philpapers.org and academia.edu. A recent book review is here: Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews. There is also an interview where I express various half-baked opinions about the philosophy of art here (p. 20): http://www.visualartsalberta.com/docs/vaaa_springnewsletter07.pdf The second half is here (p.26): http://www.visualartsalberta.com/docs/vaaaVoice_1_2008.pdf
(Thanks to the interviewer, Al Henderson, who did an excellent job, and deserves a much better interview subject.)

Areas of Specialization:
History of Early Modern Philosophy, Philosophy of Art, History of Metaphysics & Philosophy of Mind, History of the Emotions, Feminist Approaches to the History of Philosophy

Areas of Competence:
Feminist Philosophy, Philosophy of Mind, Metaphysics, Political Philosophy, 19th Century German Philosophy (Marx, Nietzsche), Ancient Philosophy (Aristotle), Medieval Philosophy (Scholasticism), Post-structuralist French Thought (Derrida, Foucault), 20th Century Continental Philosophy (“Existentialism,” parts of Heidegger, Gadamer)

Some Other Areas of Interest:
Renaissance and 17th Century Art History, Methods and Historiography in the History of Philosophy, Methodology of Art History, Literary Criticism and Methodology, 17th & 18th Century Studies, Non-Technical History of Mathematics and Logic

Some Recent and Forthcoming Publications:
Edited Volume

Hume in Alberta: Selected Papers from the 39th Annual Hume Conference, with A. Levey, W. Robison, J. Welchman, Supplementary Volume of the Canadian Journal of Philosophy, Vol. 42, No. S1 2012 (Routledge: 2012, in print 2015). Editor’s Introduction available on-line.

 

Linked Series of Articles

“Theories of the Emotions in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries,” for The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy,  (“Main Document,” “Historical Background,” “Descartes,” “Hobbes,” “Spinoza,” “Malebranche,” “Shaftesbury,” “Hutcheson,” “Hume”), ms. ~150 pp.  [May 2006; substantial revision 2010; substantial revision in progress for 2016]

 

Individual Papers

In Press and Forthcoming (selected)

 

“Thomas Hobbes,” in Sourcebook in the History of Philosophy of Language, eds. B. Hill, H. Lagerlund & R.J. Stainton (Springer, 2016?)

 

Negotiating Pluralism in Taste and Character: Reading the Second Enquiry with “of the Standard of Taste,’” Reading Hume on the Principles of Morals: Essays on the Second Enquiry, ed. J. Taylor (Oxford U. Press, 2016?)

 

“‘I’ve Got a Little List:’ Classification, Explanation and the Focal Passions in Descartes and Hobbes,Thinking about the Emotions: A Philosophical History, ed. R. Stern & A. Cohen (Oxford U. Press, 2016?)

 

“Where is my Mind: Locating the Mind Metaphysically in Hobbes,? Philosophy of Mind in the Early Modern Age and in the Enlightenment, ed., R. Copenhaver (Volume IV of the series History of the Philosophy of Mind) (Routledge, 2016 or 2017?)

2014

The Third Meditation on Objective Being: Representation and Intentional Content,” The Cambridge Companion to Descartes’s Meditations, ed. D. Cunning (Cambridge U. Press, 2014), pp. 149-67

 

2013

Passions, Affections and Sentiments: Taxonomy and Terminology,” The Oxford Handbook of British Philosophy in the Eighteenth Century, ed. J. Harris (Oxford U. Press, 2013), pp. 197-225

 

“Passions and Affections,” The Oxford Handbook of British Philosophy in the Seventeenth Century, ed. P. Anstley (Oxford U. Press, 2013), pp. 442-471

 

2012

Responses to Vulnerability: Medicine, Politics and the Body in Descartes and Spinoza,” for Rhetoric and Medicine in Early Modern Europe, ed. S. Pender & N. Struever (Ashgate, 2012), pp. 147-71

 

“Family Trees: Sympathy, Comparison and the Proliferation of the Passions in Hume & his Predecessors,” in Emotion and Cognitive Life in Medieval and Early Modern Philosophy, ed. L. Shapiro and M. Pickavé (Oxford U. Press, 2012), p. 255-278

 

2011

“Natural Passions, Reason and Religious Emotion in Hobbes & Spinoza,” Passions and Passivity: Claremont Studies in Religion 2009, ed. I. Dalferth & M. Rodgers, Mohr Siebeck, 2011, pp. 49-68

 

Review of P. Machamer & G. Wolters, Interpretation: Ways of Thinking about the Sciences and the Arts for Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews (July 2011)

 

2010
“Descartes’s Peepshow: Critical Review of Deborah Brown, Descartes and the Passionate Mind,” Canadian Journal of Philosophy 40, September 2010, pp. 485-508

2009
Review of P. Hoffman, Essays on Descartes, for Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews, September 2009.

 

“Making an Object of Yourself: Hume on the Intentionality of the Passions”, Topics in Early Modern Philosophy of Mind, ed. J. Miller, Springer, pp. 223-40

 . . .

 

Under Preparation (see also recent presentations)

Malebranche on the Passions” (title TBD), The Oxford Handbook of Malebranche, ed. S. Greenberg (Oxford U. Press, 2017 or 2018)

Passionate Attention: Embodiment and Epistemic Affect in Descartes” (working title), The Cartesian Mind, ed. C. Lim & J. Secada (Routledge Press, 2017)

 

Power, edited anthology in the series Oxford Philosophical Concepts, Oxford University Press (series editor, Christia Mercer; proposal in preparation)
Mind, Sign and Representation: a Study of Descartes (working title for book)
Passions, Affects and Sentiments: a Genealogy of Early Modern Theories of the Emotions (working title for book)

Conatus in Early Modern Philosophy: Striving, Tendency, Power (working title for an anthology)

 

“The Truth in Formalism; Aesthetic Formalism as Tool and as End”

“Uniformity and Universalizability in Hume’s Standard of Taste”

“Direct Realism and Representationalism: Can This Distinction Be Saved?”

“Descartes, Representation and the Intelligibility of Sense-Perception”

“The View from Where We Are: Descartes on the Eternal Truths, My Nature and its Sources”

“Neither Sex Nor Gender: on Concept-Metaphors of 'Male' and 'Female'”

“Constitutive Conditions and Having a Reason: Leibniz's Distinction Between Necessary and Contingent Truths”

Some Recent and Upcoming Presentations:

Upcoming

“’Fiat, or . . . let us make man:’ Hobbes on artifice, persons and powers,” University of Delaware Department Colloquium, May 2016

 

“What do Women (and Others) Want in a Feminist History of Philosophy?” Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, Bogotá, Colombia, April 2016

 

“Cartesian Prejudice and the Critique of Gender in Poulain de la Barre,” Pacific Division Meetings of the American Philosophical Association, San Francisco, April 2016

 

Commentator on Steven Wagner, “Reviving Gueroult's Descartes',” Central Division Meetings of the American Philosophical Association, Chicago, March 2016

 

2015

“Hobbes’s Mind,” NY/NJ Research Group in Early Modern Philosophy,  John Jay College,  New York,  NY,  November 2015

 

Seminar Convener & Leader, “Affect and David Hume” Seminar, “Affect: Memory, Aesthetics and Ethics” (part of “The Affect Project”), Winnipeg, MB, September 2015

 

Commentator on Lorne Falkenstein, “Without Gallantry and Without Jealousy: The Development of Hume's account of Sexual Virtues and Vices.” Hume Society Conference, Stockholm, Sweden July 2015

 

“Cartesian Prejudice and the Critique of Gender in Poulain de la Barre,” Canadian Philosophical Association, Ottawa, ON, June 2015

 

“‘Fiat, or . . . let us make man:’ Hobbes on artifice, persons and powers" (revised and longer version of "Hobbes and the Really Big Stick: Representation, Incorporation and "Artifice" in the Construction of Social Power") for the panel “Fiction, the Body and Early Modern Political Philosophy,” Conference on the Roles of Fiction in Early Modern Philosophy, University of Washington, Seattle, April 2015 

 

“Stirring the Pot, or rather . . . Muddying the Waters,” for “‘Confusion Confounded?:’ Descartes on Material Falsity,” Panel for the Descartes Society, American Philosophical Association, Vancouver, BC, April 2015

 

“Hobbes,” Conceptions of Life in Medieval and Early Modern Philosophy Conference, Mont Tremblant, Quebec, January 2015

 

2014

“Cartesian Prejudice and the Critique of Gender in Poulain de la Barre,” Panel on Gender and Race in Early Modern Philosophy, Western Canadian Philosophical Association, Vancouver, BC, October 2014

 

“The Sentiments: Skeptical Cure or Skeptical Cause?,” Hume Society Meeting in conjunction with the Canadian Philosophical Association Annual Congress, St. Catharines, Ontario, May 2014

 

Hume on the Sentiments: Skeptical Cure or Skeptical Cause?,NY/NJ Research Group in Early Modern Philosophy,  John Jay College,  New York, NY,  April 2014

 

2013

“Negotiating Diversity of Tastes in the Second Enquiry and ‘Of the Standard of Taste,’” Hume Society Group Meeting, American Philosophical Association, Baltimore, MD, December 2013

 

What Do Women Want in a Feminist History of Philosophy?,” Memorial Conference for Annette Baier, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, 12 October 2013

 

What Do Women Want in a Feminist History of Philosophy?,” University of South Carolina department colloquium, 27 September 2013

 

“The Sentiments: Skeptical Cure or Skeptical Cause?,” Early Modern Workshop, University of South Carolina, 27 September 2013

 

“The Sentiments: Skeptical Cure or Skeptical Cause?,” plenary panel for “Skepticism and Sentiments,” 40th International Hume Society Conference, Belo Horizonte, Brazil, July 2013

 

Evaluating Beauty and Character: Reading the Second Enquiry through ‘of the Standard of Taste,’” Boston University department colloquium, April 2013

 

How to Read the Third Meditation on Objective Being, Representation and non-Mental Content” (working version of  The Third Meditation on Objective Being: Representation and Intentional Content”), The Early Modern Circle, California Institute of Technology, March 2013

 

Order, Intentionality and Possibility: How To Understand Objective Reality in Descartes's Third Meditation” (working version of  The Third Meditation on Objective Being: Representation and Intentional Content”), University of Calgary department colloquium, March 2013

 

Order, Intentionality and Possibility: How To Understand Objective Reality in Descartes's Third Meditation (working version of The Third Meditation on Objective Being: Representation and Intentional Content”), Scientia Workshop, University of California-Irvine, February 2013

 

2012

 

“’I’ve Got a Little List:’ the Classification of the Passions and Forms of Explanation in 17th Century Philosophy,” Symposium on Early Modern Theories of the Passions, American Philosophical Association – Eastern Division, Atlanta, GA, December 2012

 

“’I've Got a Little List:’ the Classification of the Passions and Forms of Explanation in 17th Century Philosophy,” Philosophy in Assos, Assos (Behramkale), Turkey, July 2012

 

Responses to Vulneerability: Medicine, Politics and the Body in Descartes and Spinoza, (with a Dash of Hobbes),” Spinoza Symposium, University of Washington, Seattle, March 2-3, 2011

 

2011

“Evaluating Beauty and Character: Reading the Second Enquiry through 'of the Standard of Taste,'” for panel on "Aspects of Hume at 300,” Western Canadian Philosophical Association, Lethbridge, AB, October 2011

 

“Who’s Afraid of the Rare, Good Judge?,” Panel on “Feminist Interpretations of Hume’s Aesthetics: Problems and Projects,” American Society for Aesthetics Annual Meeting, Tampa, FL, October 2011

 

Commentator on Ryu Susato, “The Association of Ideas in Hume’s Social Philosophy,” Hume Society Conference, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK, July 2011

 

“Evaluating Character and Beauty,” Workshop on Reading Hume on the Principles of Morals, University of San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA, Spring 2011

 

2010

The Truth in Formalism: Interpretation and Expanding the Scope of Perception,” Western Canadian Philosophical Association, Calgary, AB, October 2010

 

Why Should Feminists Deal with the Man (Hume, that is)?,Hume and Feminist Philosophy (plenary panel), Hume Society Conference, Antwerp, Belgium, July 2010 

 

"Natural Passions, Reason & Religious Emotion in Hobbes and Spinoza," Mid-Atlantic Seminar in Early Modern Philosophy, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA, April 2010

 

"The Truth in Formalism: Interpretation and Expanding the Scope of Perception," Eastern Division Meetings of the American Society for Aesthetics, Philadelphia, PA, April 2010

 

Links:

Philpapers

 

Academia.edu

 

Department of Philosophy, University of Alberta

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