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amyDOTschmitterATualbertaDOTca
Assiniboia Hall 2-70
Phone: (780) 492-9030
Associate Professor and Associate Chair (Graduate Studies)
Ph.D. (Philosophy), University of Pittsburgh.

On leave 2009-2010 (in residence in NYC starting August 2009)
Acting Graduate Chair, starting August 2009: Bernie Linsky

Professional:
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.). For 2006-10, I hold a standard research grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, for “Representation in 17th Century Philosophy.”

I am currently Graduate Chair for the Philosophy Department (on leave 2009-10). I also serve on many other committees, including the Religious Studies Advisory Council for the U of A, the editorial board of the Canadian Journal of Philosophy, the Program Committee for the Pacific Northwest-Western Canada Seminar in Early Modern Philosophy, and review committees for several grant organizations. (Please don't ask me to serve on any further 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. 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.)

My complete curriculum vitae can be found here in pdf file.

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

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

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

Recent and Forthcoming Publications:
Forthcoming
“The Passions: Taxonomy and Terminology,” The Oxford Handbook of British Philosophy in the Eighteenth Century, ed. J. Harris, Oxford U. Press, [forthcoming 2010 or 2011]

“The Passions” The Oxford Handbook of British Philosophy in the Seventeenth Century, ed. P. Anstley, Oxford U. Press [forthcoming 2010?]

"Comparing Hume: on the Descent and Distribution of our Socially Transmitted Passions,"  for Emotion and Reason in Medieval and Early Modern Philosphy, ed. L. Shapiro and M. Pickavé, Oxford U. Press, [forthcoming 2010?]

“Natural Passions, Reason and Religious Emotion in Hobbes & Spinoza,” Claremont Studies in Religion (forthcoming 2009 or 2010)

“Responses to Vulnerability: Medicine, Politics and the Body in Descartes and Spinoza,” for a volume on early modern medicine and rhetoric, ed. S. Pender & N.Struever [forthcoming 2009 or 2010]

"Universalização e Uniformidade: sentimentos e padrões no juízo de gosto em Hume" (translation of "Universalizability and Uniformity: Sentiments and Standards in Hume's Judgment of Taste"), tr. Paulo Pimenta Marques, for a volume on Hume, ed. Livia Guimaraes, UFMG Press, Belo Horizonte, Brazil [forthcoming 2009]

“Descartes’s Peepshow (and other Cascading Metaphors): Critical Review of Deborah Brown, Descartes and the Passionate Mind,” Canadian Journal of Philosophy [forthcoming 2009 or 2010]

2009
“Making an Object of Yourself: Hume on the Intentionality of the Passions”, Topics in Early Modern Philosophy of Mind, ed. J. Miller, Kluwer (now Springer), pp. 223-40

2007
“How to Engineer a Human Being: Passions and Functional Explanation in Descartes,” A Companion to Descartes, ed. J. Broughton & J. Carriero, Blackwell Press, pp. 426-44.

2006
"OBRAZUJAC WLADZE: REPREZENTACJA I LAS MENINAS" (translation of "Picturing Power: Representation and Las Meninas" from Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, 1996), ed. Andrzej Witko,  in Tajemnica Las Meninas
(Wydawnictwo AA: Kraków, 2006), pp. 303-330

“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]

2005
Review of N. Lemos, Common Sense: a Contemporary Defense, in Philosophy in Review, December 2005.

"The Passionate Intellect: Reading the (Non-)Opposition of Intellect and Emotion in Descartes," in Persons and Passions: Essays in Honor of Annette Baier, ed. J. Jenkins, J. Whiting, and C. Williams (Notre Dame University Press, 2005), pp. 48-82

2004
“On the Eternal Truths: a Commentary on Papers by G. Walski, I. Agostini, and L. Devillairs” Descartes e i Suoi Avverari: incontri Cartesiani II, ed. G. Belgioiso (Le Monnier Università, Lecce 2004), pp. 61-70

2003
"The Verificationist in Spite of Himself," Review Essay of K. Moxey, The Practice of Persuasion: Paradox and Power in Art History, in History and Theory 42, October 2003, pp. 412-23

"Descartes" in "The Enlightenment Tradition," in A Companion to the Philosophy of Education, ed. R. Curren (Blackwell, 2003), pp.  74-80, 91-93

2002
"Representation and the Body of Power in French Academic Painting," in Journal of the History of Ideas 63, no. 3, July 2002, pp. 399-424
 
"Descartes and the Primacy of Practice: the Role of the Passions in the Search for Truth" in Philosophical Studies 46, nos. 1-2, March 2002, pp. 99-108

2001
D. Rutherford, Leibniz and the Rational Order of Nature, for Mind 110, April 2001, pp. 542-6
 
2000
"Mind and Sign: Method and the Interpretation of Mathematics in Descartes's Early Work," in Canadian Journal of Philosophy 30, September 2000, pp. 371-411

"The Wax and I: Perceptibility and Modality in the Second Meditation," in Archiv für Geschichte der Philosophie 82, no. 2, 2000, pp. 178-201
 
"About Representation: or How to Avoid being Caught between Animal Perception and Human Language," in Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 58, summer 2000, pp. 255-72

Some Recent and Upcoming Presentations:
2010
Workshop on Reading Hume on the Principles of Morals, University of San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA, Autumn 2010 [upcoming]

“Hume and Feminist Philosophy” (plenary panel), Hume Society Conference, Antwerp, Belgium, July 2010 [upcoming]

"Natural Passions, Reason and Religious Emotion in Hobbes and Spinoza," Claremont Philosophy of Religion Conference: Passions and Passivity, Claremont Graduate University, February 2009

2008
"Responses to Vulnerability: Medicine, Politics and the Body in Descartes & Spinoza," Philosophy Department Colloquium, Vanderbilt University, October 2008

“Universalizability and Uniformity: Sentiments and Standards in Hume’s Judgment of Taste" (short version), WCPA, Edmonton, October 2008. Website: http://www.ualberta.ca/~wcpa08/ [also presented at Eastern Division Meetings of the American Society for Aesthetics, Philadelphia, PA, USA, April 2008]

"Hume on the Emotions" (panel), Hume Society Conference, Iceland (Reykavik, Hólar, Akureyri), August 2008. Website: http://www.rit.edu/~692awww/Hume08/

Comments on Lilli Alanen (Uppsala University): “Spinoza on the passions and self-knowledge: The Case of Pride,” Workshop on Emotions & Cognition, Simon Fraser University Harbour Centre, Vancouver, BC, May 2008

"Responses to Vulnerability: Medicine, Politics and the Body in Descartes & Spinoza," Hale Ethics Series, Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, NY, April 2008

""Universalizability and Uniformity: Sentiments and Standards in Hume’s Judgment of Taste," Eastern Division Meetings of the American Society for Aesthetics, Philadelphia, PA, April 2008

2007
"Hobbes and the Really Big Stick: Representation, Incorporation and“Artifice” in the Construction of Social Power,” Symposium, Eastern Division Meetings of the American Philosophical Association, Baltimore, MD, December 2007
[shorter version presented at Western Canada Philosophical Association Meetings, Vancouver, BC, October 2006 (comments by Sam Black); also Canadian Philosophical Association Annual Congress, London, Ontario, May 2005 (read by Jennifer Welchman; comments by Dennis Klimchuk)]

"Universalizability and Uniformity: Sentiments and Standards in Hume’s Judgment of Taste," III Colóquio Hume,  Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, MG, Brazil, August 2007 (thanks to Livia, Anice & Bruno!). Schedule: http://grupohume.blog.terra.com.br/
For evidence of how flying down to Rio goes with deep philosophizing, click here
[previous version presented at Hume Society Conference, Boston, MA, August 2007 (comments by Peter Kivy). Website: http://www.humesociety.org/conferences/boston-cfp.html].

2006
"Seeing Double: What -- if Anything -- Do We Need to Know to Appreciate Artworks?" Philosopher's Café Series, Stanley A. Milnar Library, Edmonton, AB, December 2006

“Making an Object of Yourself: on the Intentionality of the Passions” (comments by Talia Bettcher), Topics in Early Modern Philosophy of Mind Conference, Queens University, November 2006; earlier version also presented at Hume Society Conference, Tokyo, Japan, August 2004

“Engineering Human Nature: Representation and Functional Explanation in Descartes’s Meditations” (comments by Jack MacIntosh), Canadian Philosophical Association Annual Congress, Toronto, Ontario, June 2006

 “Aesthetic Formalism as Tool and as End,” Symposium on Art versus the Aesthetic: Explorations in Philosophy and Sensuous Expression,” Carleton University, Ottowa, Ontario, March 2006

2005
“Decoding Dessein and Looking at Funny Faces in 17th Century French Art,” Edmonton Art Gallery Public Lecture, November 2005

2004
“The View from Where We Are: Descartes on the Eternal Truths, My Nature and its Sources," Pacific Northwest –Western Canada Seminar in Early Modern Philosophy Inaugural Meeting, Seattle, Washington, October 2004, also Philosophy Department Colloquium, University of Calgary, March 2004

“Representation and the Problem of ‘Meaning’ in Sense-Perception: What Descartes Saw and Reid Missed” (comments by Byron Williston),  Canadian Philosophical Association Annual Congress, Winnipeg, Manitoba, May 2004

"Direct Realism and Representationalism: Can This Distinction Be Saved?” (comments by Kirstie Laird), Canadian Philosophical Association Annual Congress, Winnipeg, Manitoba, May 2004

Some Additional Work in Progress: 

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

"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"

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)

Links

• Schmitter-CV.pdf
• Dinner in Rio de Janeiro with Schmitter, Owen, et al.
• Schmitter.C.V.2007