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The Department of Philosophy at Texas A&M has a wide variety of resources for students of the history of philosophy. Faculty have research interests in Ancient Greek Philosophy, The Early Modern Period, German Idealism, 19th Century European Philosophy, American Pragmatism, 20th Century Continental Philosophy, and the History of Analytic Philosophy. This breadth of interest reflects itself in our course offerings and research supervision, which offer students opportunities both to develop a broad understanding of the history of philosophy and also to inquire deeply into their subjects of choice. Beyond the classroom, Texas A&M regularly hosts conferences in the history of philosophy and supports graduate student and faculty travel to other conferences. Faculty and students have organized a number of reading and translation groups in their areas of research, and several faculty maintain research resources on websites.
Faculty doing research in the History of Philosophy include:
Scott Austin works on the text of Parmenides, the Eleatic and Platonic dialectical tradition, and the contemporary reaction against that tradition. He is the author of numerous articles and two books: Parmenides: Being, Bounds, and Logic (Yale, 1986) and Parmenides and the History of Dialectic (Parmenides, 2007).
Robert Burch has a broad interest in the history of philosophy and has published articles on figures such as Leibniz, Hume, Kant, Wittgenstein, and Heidegger. His work has focused, however, on the history of logic and American philosophy. Recently, he has written a number of articles on topics in Peirce's logic: beta graphs, existential graphs, and the reduction thesis.
Daniel Conway specializes in 19th-Century Philosophy in Europe and North America. His current research is devoted primarily to Marx, Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, and their respective confrontations with the signature projects of modernity. He has directed dissertation research on Hobbes, Spinoza, Marx, Kierkegaard, and Nietzsche.
Tommy Curry : Professor Curry’s work is largely concerned with tracing the genealogy of specific concepts throughout Western thought, specifically our modern day categories of race and sex. These explorations largely fall under the post-colonial critiques of modern philosophy, mainly involving Herder’s Philosophy of History, Kant’s anthropology, and its extension into Hegel’s Philosophy of History, but also includes a relatively unexplored area in American philosophy that looks into the development of race in the thought of pragmatists and idealists that were at the cusp of the shift from biological determinism to environmentalism. At a more general level, Curry is interested in how the construction of philosophy throughout the ages and its specific historical debates have determined and continue to maintain the Eurocentric disciplinarity of philosophy. Curry also maintains an active research interest in the history of Africana thought from the Convention Movement to present—this intellectual history is the basis of his recent attempts to republish the works of various scholars in the American Negro Academy and the Negro Society of Historical Research.
Stephen Daniel works primarily on 17th and 18th century philosophy. He has written four books, authored fifty articles, and edited three volumes on modern philosophy and contemporary continental thought. His recent publications include articles on George Berkeley, G. W. Leibniz, John Toland, and Jonathan Edwards, and two edited collections of essays on Berkeley. He is president of the International Berkeley Society, editor of Berkeley Studies, Texas A&M University Presidential Professor for Teaching Excellence, and Fasken Chair in Distinguished Teaching.
Theodore George focuses on post-Kantian continental philosophy, with emphasis on current receptions of German Idealism and Romanticism. He is author of Tragedies of Spirit: Tracing Finitude in Hegel's Phenomenology (SUNY, 2006) and several articles. His current projects include the English translation of Günter Figal's Gegenständlichkeit (Mohr Siebeck, 2006) for SUNY Press. His research has been supported by Fulbright and the DAAD.
Claire Katz specializes in 20th Century Continental Philosophy, Feminist Philosophy, Jewish Philosophy, and the Philosophy of Education. She is the author of Levinas, Judaism and Feminine: The Silent Footsteps of Rebecca (Indiana, 2003) and the editor of Routledge's four volume Emmanuel Levinas: Critical Assessments.
Michael LeBuffe has interests in Early Modern Philosophy, Moral Psychology, and the History of Ethics. His published articles focus on Spinoza and Hobbes, and he is currently completing a book, From Bondage to Freedom: Spinoza on Human Excellence (Oxford, forthcoming). LeBuffe also has research interests in Descartes, Leibniz, Hume, and the ethical traditions of perfectionism and utilitarianism.
John McDermott is a Distinguished Professor of Philosophy and Humanities at Texas A&M University. Pedagogically, his concentration is on the philosophy of culture, of literature, of medicine and classical American philosophy. In addition to books and essays on matters philosophical, educational and aesthetic, McDermott was the General Editor of the Critical Edition of The Correspondence of William James, published by the University of Virginia Press in 12 volumes, 1992-2004.
Robin Smith has research interests in ancient Greek philosophy, the history and philosophy of logic, and the philosophy of language. He is particularly interested in Aristotle's concept of science, Aristotle's logic, and modern formal interpretations of Aristotle's logic. His publications include translations with commentary of Aristotle's Topics, Book I and VIII (for the OUP Clarendon Aristotle Series); Aristotle's Prior Analytics (Hackett, 1989); and Aristotle's Posterior Analytics (Hackett, in progress), as well as various articles. Smith regularly organizes ancient Greek reading groups for interested graduate students. Recent texts have included Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics, Plato's Republic, Plato's Euthyphro, and Aristotle's Metaphysics.
Kristi Sweet specializes in the work of Immanuel Kant. Her primary interest in Kant is in his practical philosophy, but her work is also concerned with Kant’s critical system and the role of the third Critique in his thought. She is also interested in the history of ethical theory, and social and political philosophy. Her article, “Reflection: Its Structure and Meaning in Kant’s Judgments of Taste,” is forthcoming in the Kantian Review. Sweet is also at work on a book concerning the unity of Kant’s practical philosophy.
Within the Philosophy Department a number of faculty with other specializations also have interests in the history of philosophy. Michael Hand maintains an interest in the history of logic and mathematics. Hugh McCann specializes in Action Theory and the Philosophy of Religion and is interested in the history of these subjects. Christopher Menzel studies the history of 20th Century Anglo-American Philosophy and has recently done work with the history of modal logic and figures such as Arthur Prior. Roger Sansom is interested in the history of 20th Century Analytic Philosophy.
Outside the department, faculty at Texas A&M with interests in the history of philosophy include political theorists in the Department of Political Science, the interdisciplinary Early Modern Studies Working Group, and professors in the departments of English, History, and European and Classical Languages and Cultures.
Recent and Upcoming Conferences
9/2000 Current Continental Thought and Early Modern Philosophy
4/2003 International George Berkeley Conference
4/2008 The Ancient Philosophy Workshop
October 23-25, 2008 10th Annual South Central Seminar in Early Modern Philosophy. For more information, please contact Stephen Daniel.
The Texas A&M Departmental Colloquium series frequently includes specialists in the history of philosophy. Recent speakers with historical topics include David Levin, Tom Flynn, Cora Diamond, Robert Bernasconi, Michael Williams, Jorge Garcia, Robert Garmong, Alice Sowall, Mitchell Green, Don Garrett, Adriane Rini, John McCumber, Scott MacDonald, Stephen White, Robert Brandom, and Christia Mercer.
Recent Graduate Courses, Reading Courses, and Reading Groups in the History of Philosophy.
Texas A&M regularly offers a number of courses in the history of philosophy that have set topics and may be found in the course catalog. In addition, faculty design more focused courses or reading groups on particular authors or topics. Recent topics include:
Aristotle's Metaphysics
Aristotle's Metaphysics and Ethics
Berkeley
Descartes
Edwards
Hegel's Political Philosophy
Heidegger
Hobbes's Leviathan
Hume's Treatise
Kant's Practical Philosophy
Leibniz
Nietzsche
Sidgwick
Spinoza's Ethics
Recent Graduate Thesis Topics
Hegel and the Greek Tradition
Platonic and Aristotelian Theories of Friendship
Leibniz's Metaphysics
Kierkegaard's account Faith
Kant's Philosophy of Math
Heidegger on Art and Politics
Kant's Conception of Christianity
James and Possibility
Dewey's Public Philosophy
Plotinean and Kabalistic Metaphysics
Buber
Marcel
