Research

My main area of research is Early Modern Philosophy, especially 17th-C. Philosophy with a focus on Spinoza. I have additional research interests in Continental Philosophy.

With Charles Ramond, I am co-editor of Spinoza in Twenty-First Century American and French Philosophy (Bloomsbury Academic, 2019). With Ramond, I also co-founded Spinoza à Paris 8. Since 2014, the seminar has served as an international and interdisciplinary forum for Spinoza research.

With Stephen Howard, I am co-editor of The Edinburgh Critical History of Early Modern and Enlightenment Philosophy (Edinburgh University Press, 2025). The volume features over twenty contributors from around the world and brings neglected philosophical figures into dialogue with canonical ones.

My public-facing work is available in venues like France Culture and The Philosopher. For uncorrected proofs or drafts in progress, please see my PhilPeople and/or Academia.edu pages.

Research Topics and Selected Publications:

I. Spinoza's Political Philosophy

Research on the topic of Spinoza's political philosophy, with a current focus on Spinoza's understanding of war, in connection with work done at the IRH, UW-Madison: https://irh.wisc.edu/staff/stetter-jack/. See also: https://irh.wisc.edu/event/the-martial-virtue-of-states-in-spinozaspolitical-treatise/

Selected publications:

Spinoza and War. Cambridge Element (under contract).
“Spinoza and Kant on War and Peace.” The Edinburgh Critical History of Early Modern and Enlightenment Philosophy. Uncorrected proofs: https://philpapers.org/rec/STESAK
“Spinoza and War.” Spinoza after Politics. Dan Taylor and Gil Moréjon (eds.), in The Philosopher (1923) (2024). Available online: https://www.thephilosopher1923.org/post/spinoza-after-politics

II. Spinoza's Metaphysics

Research done in connection with my doctoral thesis on Spinoza's metaphysics of substance monism: https://theses.fr/2019PA080042. Also connected to my earlier MA thesis on Spinoza's theory of singular things: https://philpapers.org/rec/STEDLN-2. Ongoing research extends these concerns to understanding the metaphysical basis of Spinoza's moral and political philosophy.

Selected publications:

“Intuitive Science, Poetic Thought.” Australasian Philosophical Review. 7 (1): 71-76 (2024). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/24740500.2024.2364405
“Spinoza’s Argument for Substance Monism.” Revista Seiscentos 1 (1): 193- 215 (2021). Open access: https://revistas.ufrj.br/index.php/seiscentos/article/view/47936
“François Lamy’s Cartesian Refutation of Spinoza’s Ethics.” Journal of Modern Philosophy 1 (7): 1-18 (2019). Open access: https://jmphil.org/article/id/2133/
“L’État comme âme, le citoyen comme soumis et comme résistant.” Spinoza politique: Penser la puissance de la multitude. Hugues Poltier (ed.), in Revue de Théologie et de Philosophie, no. 147 (Lausanne): 185-205 (2015). Philpapers archive: https://philpapers.org/rec/STELCM-2

III. Spinoza's Reception in 19th- and 20th-C. European Philosophy

Research on topics and figures at the intersection of late modern philosophy and Spinozism.

Selected publications:

“The Lifelessness of Pantheism: Coleridge on Spinoza.” The Journal of the History of Ideas (forthcoming).
“Deleuze and Spinoza.” The Deleuzian Mind. Jeffrey Bell and Henry Somers-Hall (eds.) (London: Routledge), 81-94 (2025). Uncorrected proofs: https://philpapers.org/rec/STEDAS-7
“Spinoza and Popular Philosophy.” Blackwell Companion to Spinoza. Yitzhak Melamed (ed.) (Oxford: Wiley Blackwell), 568-577 (2021). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/9781119538349.ch53
“Un homme ivre d’immanence: Deleuze’s Spinoza and Immanence.” Crisis and Critique 8 (1): 388-418 (2021). Open access: https://www.crisiscritique.org/past
“Spinoza and Judaism in the French Context: The Case of Milner’s Le sage trompeur.” Modern Judaism 20 (2): 227-255 (2020). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/mj/kjaa004
“La modulation spinoziste: Pour se purifier de la pureté.” Modulation-Deleuze. Timea Gimsea (ed.) (Szeged: JATE Press), 49-58 (2017). Philpapers archive: https://philpapers.org/rec/STELMS

Edited Volumes

With Charles Ramond, I am editor of Spinoza in Twenty-First Century American and French Philosophy (Bloomsbury Academic, 2019). Brief video presentation: https://hpbin3.hypotheses.org/977

With Stephen Howard, I am editor of The Edinburgh Critical History of Early Modern and Enlightenment Philosophy (Edinburgh UP, 2025).

Conference Organization

With Charles Ramond, I organize the research seminar: Spinoza à Paris 8 - a forum for international and interdisciplinary discussion of Spinoza since 2014. Recordings of talks are available online.

In 2016 with Paris 1 (Ch. Jaquet), ENS Lyon (P.-F. Moreau), and Paris Est Créteil (P. Sévérac), we hosted the conference: Spinoza France États-Unis.

With Deborah Goldgaber and Hannah Bacon, I organized the 2024 international bilingual conference at LSU: French and Francophone Philosophy Today.

Page updated

Google Sites

Report abuse