Research

I study the history of modern philosophy, especially the rationalists.  My specialty is Spinoza.  I tend to focus on issues in moral psychology.

My recent work addressed Spinoza's views on adequate knowledge, innate ideas, the affects, and akrasia. In the future, I plan to look at how the thinkers of this period re-imagined the mind and being human in the face of the new mechanistic science.

I am currently finishing a book, titled, The Spiritual Automaton: Spinoza's Science of the Mind, to be published by Oxford University Press.

In addition to Spinoza, I also intend to examine Margaret Cavendish's philosophy.