Matthew F. Stuart

Associate Professor of Philosophy

Spring 2012

  • Modern Philosophy (PHIL 112)
  • Philosophy in the Twentieth Century (PHIL 229)
  • Advanced Independent Study and Honors in Philosophy (PHIL 402)
Phone 725-3212
Title Associate Professor
Department Philosophy
Work Location 206 Edward Pols House
E-Mail mstuart@bowdoin.edu
Matthew Stuart: Bowdoin College: Philosophy

Education

B.A. University of Vermont
M.A. Cornell University
Ph.D. Cornell University

Research and Teaching Interests

My research is in early modern philosophy, and to date I’ve mostly focused on Locke’s metaphysics and epistemology in his Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1690). I teach classes about a range of early modern philosophers (including Descartes, Spinoza, Hume, and Kant). I also teach non-historical classes on a variety of topics, including death, applied ethics, 20th century analytic philosophy, and metaphysics.

Publications

“Having Locke’s Ideas,” Journal of the History of Philosophy 48, 2010, 35-59.

“Lockean Operations,” British Journal for the History of Philosophy, 18, 2008, 511-533.

“Locke’s Colors,” Philosophical Review 112, 2003, 57-96.

“Locke on Natural Kinds,” History of Philosophy Quarterly 16, 1999, 277-296.

“Descartes’s Extended Substances,” in New Essays on the Rationalists, Gennaro and Huenemann eds., Oxford University Press, 1999, 82-104.

“Locke on Superaddition and Mechanism,” British Journal for the History of Philosophy 6, 1998, 351-379.

“Locke’s Geometrical Analogy,” History of Philosophy Quarterly 13, 1996, 451-467.

Current Projects

I’m writing a book about John Locke’s metaphysics.  The book contains nine chapters: 1. Categories, 2. Qualities, 3. Secondary Qualities, 4. Essence, 5. Substratum, 6. Mind and Matter, 7. Identity, 8. Agency: The First Edition, 9. Agency: The Revised Account.

I am also editing Blackwell’s A Companion to Locke. This will be a collection of 31 essays by leading Locke scholars. It will cover the whole range of Locke’s work, with essays on the obvious topics (eg., Primary and Secondary Qualities, Natural Rights, Personal Identity), but also on some under-explored ones (eg., Locke and Scholasticism, the early drafts of the Essay, the Reasonableness of Christianity). My own contribution will be an essay on Locke’s exchange with Stillingfleet.



Looking for a good book to read? Here is a list I give to my students. (link will open a PDF - Portable Document Format PDF)