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Faculty of the Department

Professor Alison Simmons

Professor
Alison Simmons

Emerson 315
617-495-0516
asimmons@fas.harvard.edu

Alison Simmons received her Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania in 1994. The bulk of her teaching is in early modern (Descartes through Kant) metaphysics, natural philosophy, and theories of mind. She also has teaching interests, however, in medieval philosophy, contemporary philosophy of mind, and philosophy of psychology.

Her research interests lie primarily at the intersection of philosophy and psychology. She works on questions about the nature of mind in general, the nature of sense perception in particular, and conceptions of the relation between mind and world as they have developed historically from the ancient through the medieval and early modern periods, and also as it is discussed today. Her recent publications include:

  • "Spatial Perception from a Cartesian Point of View" Philosophical Topics 31, 395-423 (2003)
  • "Descartes on the Cognitive Structure of Sensory Experience,"  Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, 67(3), 549-579 (2003)
  • "Changing the Cartesian Mind: Leibniz on Sensation, Representation and Consciousness," The Philosophical Review 110 (2001)
  • "Sensible Ends" Latent Teleology in Descartes' Account of Sensation," Journal of the History of Philosophy 39 (2001)

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