Lisa Shapiro, Associate Professor of Philosophy

Areas of Interest

History of Modern Philosophy, Feminism and Philosophy
Also: Philosophy of Mind (especially perception and emotions), Moral Psychology, Philosophy of Personal Identity

Current Research Interests

My research interests focus on Early Modern Philosophy, and in particular on how early modern conceptions of human nature impact accounts of human understanding, both in our perceptions of the world and in our ability to have knowledge of it. Of particular interest is the role of the passions or emotions in our understanding (rather than in our motivations to action). To hone in on the problem I am interested in, I have focused on Descartes, but in future work I will be looking towards other figures, especially Spinoza and Hume, to see not only how others address these issues but also how the problem itself changes. Right now, I am completing a book manuscript:, tentatively titled: Descartes through The Passions of the Soul. In it I aim to show how the Passions lends insight into Descartes' ontology, his account of body-mind causation (and causation generally) and his philosophy of mind. I'm also working on a series of articles on the passions as perceptions in the 17th and 18th centuries for two Routledge Companions to Philosophy.

I'm also committed to current efforts to rehabilitate writings of the women philosophers of the early modern period. These women include (but are not limited to) Moderata Fonte, Marie de Gournay, Princess Elisabeth of Bohemia, Margaret Cavendish, Mary Astell, Madame de Sevigne, Catherine Cockburn Trotter, Olympe de Gouges, Emilie du Chatelet, Gabrielle Suchon, Marie Thiroux D'Arconville, to name a few.

Other interests include feminist philosophy. A long standing interest there concerns the central questions of essentialism and alternatives to understanding sex and gender. Right now, however, I am trying to think through the many philosophical issues around the proposal of the City of Vancouver to license co-op brothels (provided the city can get a criminal code exemption). Issues here range from the commodification of women's bodies and sexuality and the politics of legitimizing sex-trade as a line of work to the strategy of empowering sex-trade workers to control their own working conditions and the autonomy of a choice to enter sex-trade work.

I'm also interested in contemporary philosophy of perception and emotion (as cognitions).

Publications

• The correspondence between Elisabeth, Princess of Bohemia and Descartes (part of The Other Voice in Early Modern Europe Series) , University of Chicago Press, 2007.

• "'Turn My Will in Completely the Opposite Direction": Radical Doubt and Descartes' Account of Free Will' for Festschrift for Vere Chappell, ed. Paul Hoffman, David Owen, and Gideon Yaffe, Broadview. (2008)

• "Descartes's Ethics" in Blackwell Companion to Descartes, ed Janet Broughton and John Carriero, Blackwell, 2007.

• "The Passions in the Meditations," in Persons and Passions: Essays in Honor of Annette Baier, eds. Joyce Jenkins and Christopher Williams, Notre Dame, 2005."The Place of Women in the History of Early Modern Philosophy" in Feminist Reflections on the History of Philosophy, ed. Lilli Alanen and Charlotte Witt, Kluwer, (2004), pp. 219-250.

• "The Health of the Body-Machine? 17th Century Mechanism and the Concept of Health," Perspectives on Science,11,4 2003,pp.421-442.

• "What Do the Expressions of the Passions Tell us?" Oxford Studies in Early Modern Philosophy, 1, 2003, pp.45-66.

• "Descartes' Passions of the Soul and the Union of Soul and Body," Archiv fur Geschichte de Philosophie, 85, 2003, pp.211-248.

• "The Structure of the Passions of the Soul," invited paper, in Passion and Virtue in Descartes, ed. Byron Williston, Buffalo: Prometheus/Humanity Books, 2003, pp.31-79."Princess Elisabeth and Descartes: The Union of Mind and Body and the Practice of Philosophy" in British Journal for the History of Philosophy , Volume 7, no. 3, October, 1999. Reprinted in Feminism and the History of Philosophy , ed. G. Lloyd, Oxford.

• "Cartesian Generosity", in Acta Philosophica Fennica , vol. 64, 1999.