Jeffrey K. McDonough
Assistant Professor
Department of Philosophy
314 Emerson Hall
Harvard University
Cambridge , MA 02138
jkmcdon@fas.harvard.edu
Employment:
Assistant Professor of Philosophy, Harvard University, fall 2005-present
Education:
University of California, Irvine: Ph.D. in Philosophy, summer 2004
Syracuse University : M.A. in Philosophy, 2001
Santa Clara University : B.A. magna cum laude with honors in Philosophy, 1995
Areas of Specialization:
Early Modern Philosophy, Philosophy of Science
Areas of Competence:
Contemporary Metaphysics and Epistemology, Medieval Philosophy, Philosophy of Religion
Publications:
Research:
"Leibniz's Philosophy of Physics," entry for the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (approximately 17, 000 words).
“Berkeley, Human Agency, and Divine Concurrence,” (Winner of the 2007 Colin and Ailsa Turbanye International Berkeley Essay Prize Competition), Journal of the History of Philosophy, forthcoming.
“Leibniz: Creation and Conservation and Concurrence,” (Winner of the 2007 Leibniz Society Essay Competition) Leibniz Review (17) 2007: 31-60.
“Leibniz’s Two Realms Revisited,” Nôus, forthcoming.
“Leibniz on Natural Teleology and the Laws of Optics,” Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, forthcoming.
“A Rosa multiflora by Any Other Name: Taxonomic Incommensurability and Scientific Kinds,” Synthese (136) 2003: 337-358.
“Hume’s Account of Memory,” British Journal for the History of Philosophy (10:1) 2002: 71-87.
“Defending the Refutation of Idealism,” (Winner of the 2000 Southwestern Philosophical Society Essay Prize) Southwestern Philosophy Review (17:1) 2000: 35-44.
“Numbers, Minds, and Bodies: A Fresh Look at Mind-Body Dualism,” Philosophical Perspectives (supplement to Nôus), Language, Mind and Ontology (12) 1998: 349-371 (with John Hawthorne).
Pedagogical:
“Rough Drafts without Tears: A Guide to a Manageable Procedure for Improving Student Writing,” Teaching Philosophy (23:2) 2000: 127-137.
Translations
“A Unitary Principle of Optics, Catoptrics, and Dioptrics,” a translation with notes of G. W. Leibniz’s “Unicum Opticae, Catoptricae, et Dioptricae Principium,” G. W. Leibniz: Texts and Translations , Donald Rutherford, ed., URL = http://philosophy2.ucsd.edu/~rutherford/Leibniz/translat.htm.
“A Conjecture Why It Seems That Anaxagoras Could Have Said That Snow Is Black, for Jacob Thomasius in a Letter Sent 16 February 1666,” a translation of G. W. Leibniz’s “Conjectura cur Anaxagoras nivem nigram dicere potuisse videatur, petenti Jac. Thomasio in scheda missa d. 16 Febr. 1666,” G. W. Leibniz: Texts and Translations, Donald Rutherford, ed., URL = http://philosophy2.ucsd.edu/~rutherford/Leibniz/translat.htm.
Honors and Awards:
The Colin and Ailsa Turbayne International Berkeley Essay Prize 2007
Leibniz Society Essay Competition 2007
University of California Irvine, Humanities Graduate Essay Award 2002
Southwestern Philosophical Society Essay Prize 2000
Syracuse University Graduate School Outstanding Teaching Award 2000
Hume Society Graduate Student Essay Award/Travel Grant 1999
Santa Clara University, Department of Philosophy, SourisseauPrize for
Outstanding Graduating Senior Philosophy Major 1995
Alpha Sigma Nu 1995
Phi Beta Kappa 1995
Fellowships and Grants:
Journal of the History of Philosophy, Kristeller-Popkin Travel Fellowship 2007
Harvard University Provostial Funds for Humanities Award 2007
School of Humanities Summer Dissertation Fellowship 2004
School of Humanities Graduate Student Travel Grant Spring 2004
University of California Regents Dissertation Fellowship Winter 2004
UCSD Travel Grant to present at Graduate Philosophy of Science Conference 2003
NYU-Columbia Travel Grant to present at Graduate Philosophy Conference 2003
University of California Irvine Graduate Student Research Grant 2002
MEPHISTOS Travel Award to present at the 20 th Anniversary Meeting 2002
University of California Regents Fellowship in the Humanities 2001-2
Syracuse University Graduate Fellowship 2000
Syracuse University Summer Research Fellowship 2000
Syracuse University Graduate School Travel Grant 1999, 2000
Syracuse University , Department of Philosophy, Travel Grant 1998, 1999, 2000
Presentations:
“Leibniz and the Puzzle of Incompossibility: The Packing Solution,” The Fourth Biennial Margaret Dauler Wilson Philosophy Conference, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, June 2008.
“Leibniz’s Optics and Contingency in Nature,” Seventh Congress of HOPOS the International Society for the History of Philosophy of Science, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada, June 2008.
“Leibniz and the Puzzle of Incompossibility: The Packing Solution,” New York/New Jersey Consortium in the History of Modern Philosophy, John Jay College, New York City, April 2008.
“Leibniz: Creation and Conservation and Concurrence,” First Annual Conference of the Leibniz Society of North America, Rice University, Houston, January 2008.
“Comments on ‘ Berkeley on the Activity of Spirits’ by Sukjae Lee,” Eastern Division Meeting of the American Philosophical Association, Baltimore, MD, December 2007.
“Berkeley, Human Agency, and Divine Concurrence,” Philosophy Department Colloquium, Brandeis University, Walthamm, MA 2007, October 2007.
“Leibniz: Creation and Conservation and Concurrence,” New England Colloquium in Early Modern Philosophy, Yale University, New Haven, June 2007.
“Leibniz: Creation and Conservation and Concurrence,” Midwest Seminar in Early Modern Philosophy, University of Chicago, Chicago, March 2007.
“Leibniz’s Two Realms Revisited,” presented to the Faculty of Philosophy, Oxford University, Oxford UK, January 2007.
“Berkeley, Human Agency, and Divine Concurrence,” ThomasRukavina History of Philosophy Lecture, Gonzaga University, Spokane, Washington, January 2007.
“Berkeley, Human Agency, and Divine Concurrence,” American Philosophical Association Eastern Division Meeting, Washington, D.C., December 2006.
“Berkeley, Human Agency, and Divine Concurrence,” OxfordSeminar in Early Modern Philosophy, Oxford University, October 2006.
“Leibniz’s Two Realms Revisited,” Sixth Congress of HOPOS the International Society for the History of Philosophy of Science, Paris, France, June 2006.
"Leibniz’s Two Realms Revisited” Annual Meeting of the Canadian Society for the History and Philosophy of Science, Toronto, Canada, May 2006.
“Leibniz on Internal Teleology and the Laws of Optics” (Job Talk), San Francisco State University, Western Ontario University, Harvard University, Washington University of St. Louis, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Florida State University at Gainesville, Syracuse University, January-February 2005
“Leibniz on Internal Teleology and the Laws of Optics,” Fifth Congress of HOPOS the International Society for the History of Philosophy of Science, San Francisco , CA , June 2004.
“Leibniz on Internal Teleology and the Laws of Optics,” The 2 nd Biennial Margaret Dauler Wilson Conference, Grafton, Vermont, June 2004.
“Teleology in Leibniz’s Natural Philosophy: The Connection between Divine Providence and Variational Principles in Leibniz’s Physics,” The Worlds of the Eighteenth Century – The Western Society for Eighteenth Century Studies Annual Conference, San Francisco, CA, February 2004.
“Newton ’s Scholium on Time, Space, Place and Motion,” UCSD Graduate Student Philosophy of Science Conference , San Diego, CA April 2003.
“Newton’s Scholium on Time, Space, Place and Motion,” NYU-Columbia Graduate Student Philosophy Conference , New York City, New York, March 2003.
“Comments on ‘Second-Order Predication and the Metaphysics of Properties,’ by Andy Egan,” Student Philosophy Conference, California State University Long Beach, Long Beach, California, February 2003.
“A Puzzle about Negation and at Least One Solution,” University of California, Irvine Graduate Student Colloquium, Irvine, California, September 2002.
“Aristotelian Teleology in Leibniz’s Physics,” Margaret Dauler Wilson Memorial Conference 2002 , Flagstaff, Arizona, June 2002.
“Newton’s Scholium on Time, Space, Place and Motion,” 20 th Anniversary MEPHISTOS Conference on the History, Philosophy and Sociology of Science, Technology and Medicine , Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Virginia, March 2002.
“Defending the Refutation of Idealism,” Southwestern Philosophical Society 2000 Conference , Austin Texas, November, 2000.
“A New Model for Scientific Kinds,” 2000 Mid-South Philosophy Conference, University of Memphis, Memphis, Tennessee, February, 2000.
“Comments on ‘Levels and Scientific Explanations,’ by Bill Seeley,” 2000 Mid-South Philosophy Conference, University of Memphis, Memphis, Tennessee, February, 2000.
“Hume's Account of Memory,” 26th Hume Society Conference, University College, Cork, Ireland, July 1999.
“On Being Moved by Life and Fiction,” Brown University Graduate Student Conference, Brown University, Providence Rhode Island, February, 1998.
“Hume's Account of Memory,” Harvard/M.I.T. Sixth Annual Graduate Conference in Philosophy, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, March, 1998.
“Incommensurability and Rational Theory Choice,” Eastern Pennsylvania Philosophical Association Meeting, Bloomsburg University, Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania, October, 1997.
Teaching Experience :
As Assistant Professor:
Introduction to the Philosophy of Religion , Harvard University, spring 2007
Topics: A survey of some perennial philosophical works with special attention given to their implications for religious belief and understanding. Authors include Plato, Augustine, Anselm, Al-Ghazali, Aquinas, Pascal, Spinoza, Hume, and Nietzsche.
British Empiricism , Harvard University, fall 2006
Topics: Locke (innate knowledge, theory of ideas, body, language and classification, knowledge, substance, personal identity), Berkeley (abstract ideas, new theory of vision, materialism, sensible things, human agency), Hume (human nature, induction, causation, memory, personal identity)
Leibniz Seminar, Harvard University, fall 2006
Topics: contingency, substance, phenomena, early physics, dynamics, laws of motion, concurrentism, teleology
Medieval Philosophy , Harvard University, spring 2006
Topics: Augustine (skepticism, language, knowledge, freedom), Aquinas (metaphysics, epistemology, divine nature, human nature, human cognition), Ockham (logic of terms, mental language, critique of realism, conceptualism),
Tutorial on Locke’s Essay, Harvard University, spring 2006
Topics: Theory of ideas, Substance, Body, Language, Epistemology, Liberty, Personal Identity
Early Modern Rationalism , Harvard University, fall 2005
Topics: Descartes (method, epistemology, eternal truths, mind-body), Spinoza (metaphysics, monism, necessitarianism), Leibniz (substance, dynamics, matter, space and time, teleology)
Tutorial on Augustine and Anselm , Harvard University, fall 2005
Topics: Free will, Problem of Evil, Skepticism, Knowledge
As Teaching Associate (Responsible for entire course):
History of Medieval Philosophy , University of California, Irvine, spring 2004
Topics: Aquinas’s Metaphysics and Epistemology (Hylemorphism, Four Causes, Being and Essence, Proofs of God’s Existence, Divine Nature, Human Nature, Human Cognition) (60 undergraduate)
Formal Logic, Syracuse University, summer 2001
Topics: Truth Functional and Quantificational Logic (Truth Functional Representation, Truth Trees, Truth Tables, Inference Rules, Equivalence Rules, Models, Quantifiers, Identity) (20 undergraduate)
Theories of Knowledge and Reality, Syracuse University, 1997-2000
Topics: God’s Existence, Skepticism, Free Will, Mind (Dualism, Behaviorism, Identity-Theory, Functionalism) (50 undergraduate)
Ethics and Value Theory, Syracuse University, summer 1999
Topics: Relativism, Subjectivism, Egoism, Utilitarianism, Kantian ethics, Social Contract, Virtue Ethics, Ethics and Religion (15 undergraduate)
Departmental Service:
Organizer Harvard Workshop in Early Modern Philosophy , Harvard University, 2007
Bring distinguished scholars of early modern philosophy to campus to discuss work in progress and meet with faculty and students.
Organizer Later Latin Reading Group , Harvard University, 2005-7
Bring faculty and students together once a week to read medieval and early modern texts in their original Latin.
Junior Faculty Search Committee , Harvard University, 2006-7
Reviewed applications and participated in interviews for a junior faculty position in the Philosophy Department.
Faculty Advisor to Colloquium Committee , Harvard University, 2006-7
Helped to coordinate the Philosophy Department’s colloquium speaker series.
Organization Committee, New England Colloquium in Early Modern Philosophy, Sixth Annual Meeting, Harvard University, 2006
Served as head of the submissions committee, and helped to organize conference at home institution.
Junior Faculty Search Committee, Harvard University, 2005-6
Reviewed applications and participated in interviews for two junior faculty positions in the Philosophy Department.
Research Languages:
French, German, Latin
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