John Wright

Professor of Philosophy

Central Michigan University

Department of Philosophy & Religion

Campus Address: Anspach 301N
Email: John.P.Wright@cmich.edu
Homepage: http://www.chsbs.cmich.edu/john_wright
Telephone: (989) 774-2652

Spring 2008 Office Hours:

Wednesdays: 1-4 PM

Degree:

Ph.D., York University (Toronto), 1975

Teaching:

PHL 100 Introduction to Philosophy, PHL 230 Philosophy of Religion, PHL 302 History of Philosophy: Modern Period, PHL 490 Senior Seminar

Research Interests:

Early Modern Philosophy, especially Hume, Locke, Descartes, Malebranche, Reid, and Hutcheson; Philosophy of the Scottish Enlightenment; History of the Mind Body Problem

Current Research Projects:

I am completing a book called David Hume’s Treatise of Human Nature: An Introduction as well as working on articles on Locke’s theory of association of ideas, “The Understanding” in Eighteenth Century British Philosophy, a comparison of the moral philosophies of Francis Hutcheson and David Hume

Select Publications:

Books:
David Hume’s Treatise of Human Nature, co-edited with R. Stecker and G. Fuller (London, 2003); Psyche and Soma: Physicians and Metaphysicians on the Mind Body Problem, co-edited with Paul Potter (Oxford, 2000; 2002); John Locke, An Essay Concerning Human Understanding in Focus, co-edited with G. Fuller and R. Stecker (Routledge, 2000); The Sceptical Realism of David Hume (Minnesota, 1983)

Articles:
“Kemp Smith and the Two Kinds of Naturalism in Hume’s Philosophy” (in Ronchetti and Mazza, eds., New Essays on David Hume [Milan, 2007]); "The Treatise: Composition, Reception and Response" (in Traiger, ed., The Blackwell Guide to Hume's Treatise of Human Nature, [Oxford, 2006]); "The Scientific Reception of Hume's Theory of Causality: Establishing the Positivist Interpretation in Early Nineteenth Century Scotland" (in Jones, ed., The Reception of David Hume in Europe [Bristol, 2005]); “Dr. George Cheyne, Chevalier Ramsay, and Hume’s Letter to a Physician,” (Hume Studies, 2003); "Hume's Causal Realism: Recovering a Traditional Interpretation" (in R. Read and K. Richman eds., The New Hume, revised edition [Routledge, 2007]); "Hume's Academic Scepticism: A Reappraisal of his Philosophy of Human Understanding"(Canadian Journal of Philosophy, 1986), "Hysteria and Mechanical Man" (Journal of the History of Ideas, 1980)

Awards:

President's Award for Outstanding Research and Creative Activity, 2004; CMU Research Professor, 2002