Professor Beth Lord
Personal Chair
- About
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50-52 College Bounds, room CB505
Mailing address:
University of Aberdeen
School of Divinity, History, Philosophy, and Art History
50-52 College Bounds
Aberdeen
AB24 3UB
Biography
I obtained my PhD from the University of Warwick in 2004. From 2004 to 2012 I worked in the Philosophy Department at the University of Dundee. I joined the University of Aberdeen in January 2013.
I teach and research the history of philosophy (modern and early modern) and recent continental philosophy. At Aberdeen I have taught courses on Descartes, Hume, Kant, history of political philosophy, history of ethics, and aesthetics. My research interests are mainly in early modern and modern metaphysics and political philosophy, especially Spinoza, Kant, German Idealism, and Deleuze. I am currently working on a book on Spinoza and Equality.
I am the author of Kant and Spinozism: Transcendental Idealism and Immanence from Jacobi to Deleuze and Spinoza's Ethics: an Edinburgh Philosophical Guide.
I am the editor of Spinoza's Philosophy of Ratio and Spinoza Beyond Philosophy, and co-editor of the Bloomsbury Companion to Continental Philosophy.
Memberships and Affiliations
- Internal Memberships
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I am a member of the Centre for Knowledge and Society and the Centre for Early Modern Studies.
- External Memberships
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Philosophy sub-panel member and interdisciplinary adviser for REF 2021
Member of the executive board of the Society for European Philosophy
Member of the management committee of the British Society for the History of Philosophy
Member of the executive committee of the Royal Institute of Philosophy
Latest Publications
Spinoza's Religion: A New Reading of the Ethics, by Clare Carlisle
Philosophy, pp. 1-4Contributions to Journals: Reviews of Books, Films and Articles- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0031819122000171
Outside of human nature: Spinoza on affective difference
InCircolo: Rivista di filosofia e culture, vol. 10, pp. 421-432Contributions to Specialist Publications: ArticlesSpinoza's Political Psychology: The Taming of Fortune and Fear: Book Review
The Philosophical Quarterly, vol. 71, no. 1, pp. 211-214Contributions to Journals: Reviews of Books, Films and Articles- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/pq/pqaa038
We are nature: Spinoza helps diagnose the bad ideas and sad passions that preclude us from a finer relationship with the natural world
AeonContributions to Specialist Publications: ArticlesSpinoza and 'no platforming': Enlightenment thinker would have seen it as motivated by ambition rather than fear
The ConversationContributions to Specialist Publications: Articles- [ONLINE] https://theconversation.com/spinoza-and-no-platforming-enlightenment-thinker-would-have-seen-it-as-motivated-by-ambition-rather-than-fear-133379
- [ONLINE] https://theconversation.com/spinoza-and-no-platforming-enlightenment-thinker-would-have-seen-it-as-motivated-by-ambition-rather-than-fear-133379
- Research
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Research Overview
I work primarily on the history of philosophy, particularly Spinoza and Kant, and its relationship to recent continental philosophy.
I am currently working on a book on Spinoza and Equality. In the book I deny that Spinoza is an egalitarian in the standard sense of holding persons to be moral equals. I argue that Spinoza relies on a largely unacknowledged yet distinctive and historically grounded concept of equality: equality as a state of being. The book explores the significance of this concept for Spinoza's metaphysics and political philosophy, and suggests that it is only through this concept that we can understand the specific sense in which Spinoza is an egalitarian.
The book is partly based on research undertaken in the AHRC project Equalities of Wellbeing in Philosophy and Architecture for which I was Principal Investigator (2013-16). The project focused on the connection between Spinoza's concept of equality and architectural theory, drawing on a shared notion of proportion. Our aim was to investigate this distinctive way of thinking about equality, and to consider how it can affect the wellbeing of individuals and communities through the built environment. An edited book based on the project, Spinoza's Philosophy of Ratio, was published by Edinburgh University Press (2018).
I am director of the Spinoza Research Network, an interdisciplinary group of over 200 Spinoza researchers worldwide. I also do occasional interdisciplinary research on philosophy and museums.
Supervision
I currently supervise PhD students working on Spinoza, Kant, political philosophy, Enlightenment thought, contemporary continental philosophy, and Deleuze. I am happy to hear from prospective PhD and MLitt students who are interested in working on topics in my areas of expertise, including interdisciplinary projects.
Funding and Grants
2013-16: AHRC Standard Research Grant for Equalities of Wellbeing in Philosophy and Architecture
2012-13: Research Fellowship with the Centre for Arts and Humanities Research at the Natural History Museum, London
2008-10: AHRC Networks Grant for the Spinoza Research Network
- Teaching
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Courses
- Publications
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Page 1 of 6 Results 1 to 10 of 52
Spinoza's Religion: A New Reading of the Ethics, by Clare Carlisle
Philosophy, pp. 1-4Contributions to Journals: Reviews of Books, Films and Articles- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0031819122000171
Outside of human nature: Spinoza on affective difference
InCircolo: Rivista di filosofia e culture, vol. 10, pp. 421-432Contributions to Specialist Publications: ArticlesSpinoza's Political Psychology: The Taming of Fortune and Fear: Book Review
The Philosophical Quarterly, vol. 71, no. 1, pp. 211-214Contributions to Journals: Reviews of Books, Films and Articles- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/pq/pqaa038
We are nature: Spinoza helps diagnose the bad ideas and sad passions that preclude us from a finer relationship with the natural world
AeonContributions to Specialist Publications: ArticlesSpinoza and 'no platforming': Enlightenment thinker would have seen it as motivated by ambition rather than fear
The ConversationContributions to Specialist Publications: Articles- [ONLINE] https://theconversation.com/spinoza-and-no-platforming-enlightenment-thinker-would-have-seen-it-as-motivated-by-ambition-rather-than-fear-133379
- [ONLINE] https://theconversation.com/spinoza-and-no-platforming-enlightenment-thinker-would-have-seen-it-as-motivated-by-ambition-rather-than-fear-133379
Spinoza and architectural thinking
Intellectual History Review, vol. 30, no. 3, pp. 489-504Contributions to Journals: ArticlesEditorial
British Journal for the History of Philosophy, vol. 27, no. 3, pp. 445Contributions to Journals: Editorials- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/09608788.2019.1603345
Our feelings are not our own
The Philosopher, vol. 107, pp. 24-27Contributions to Specialist Publications: Articles- [ONLINE] Journal website
Spinoza's Philosophy of Ratio
Edinburgh University PressBooks and Reports: BooksRatio as the basis of Spinoza's concept of equality
Spinoza's Philosophy of Ratio. Lord, B. (ed.). Edinburgh University PressChapters in Books, Reports and Conference Proceedings: Chapters