Matthew Stuart
Associate Professor of Philosophy, Chair
Fall 2008
- Personal Ethics (PHIL 016)
- Metaphysics of the Self (PHIL 375)
| Phone | (207) 725-3212 |
| Title | Associate Professor |
| Department | PHILOSOPHY |
| Work Location | 206 Edward Pols House |
| mstuart@bowdoin.edu |
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
“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
For too many years now, I have been working on a book about John Locke’s metaphysics. The book is to have nine chapters: 1. Substances, Modes and Relations. 2. Qualities. 3. Essence. 4. Identity. 5. Mind and Matter. 6. Substratum. 7. Persons. 8. Agency: the First Edition. 9. Agency: the Revised Account.
I have also been working on a series of related papers about Locke’s theory of ideas. In “Lockean Operations” (
PDF)(forthcoming at the British Journal for the History of Philosophy), I examine Locke’s accounts of compounding, abstracting and comparing. In “Identifying Locke’s Ideas” (in progress) I argue that we are not likely to improve our understanding of his theory of ideas so long as we continue to focus on the question of what his “ideas” are. The little that he says about this is not very helpful. Also, whether “ideas” are identified with mental images, appearances, or intentional objects, they are in each case identified with items whose own nature and ontological status is unclear and worrisome. In “Having Locke’s Ideas,” ( PDF) (forthcoming at the Journal of the History of Philosophy) I try to break through the deadlock by asking not what ideas are but what kinds of states or episodes Locke counts as someone’s having various kinds of ideas.
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. ( PDF)