Professor Susan James

Email: s.james@bbk.ac.uk

Susan James received her BA, MA and PhD degrees in Philosophy at the University of Cambridge. She taught for two years at the University of Connecticut before returning to Cambridge, where she held a Research Fellowship at Girton College, and then a Lectureship in the Faculty of Philosophy. She moved to Birkbeck in 2000 and has held research positions in Israel, Germany, Australia and America.

Research interests

Susan James's overlapping areas of philosophical research are the history of seventeenth and eighteenth century philosophy, political and social philosophy, and feminist philosophy.

Within the history of early modern philosophy her work has focused on the passions and their ethical and political implications. She has recently explored these themes in  a series of articles about Spinoza, and also in a book, Spinoza on Philosophy, Religion and Politics:  The Theologico-Political Treatise, now in press.

Areas of research supervision

Early modern philosophy; political philosophy; feminist philosophy.

Selected publications and podcasts

Books

• The Content of Social Explanation (Cambridge University Press, 1984)
• Beyond Equality and Difference, co-edited with Gisela Bock (Routledge, 1992)
• Passion and Action: The Emotions in Early Modern Philosophy (Oxford University Press, 1997)
• Visible Women: Essays in Legal Theory and Political Philosophy, co-edited with Stephanie Palmer (Hart, 2002)
• The Political Writings of Margaret Cavendish (Cambridge University Press, 2003).

Selected papers

• Early - Modern Philosophy:
• ‘Narrative as the Means to Freedom’ in Yitzhak Y. Melamed and Michael A. Rosenthal eds., Spinoza’s ‘Theological-Political Treatise’ (Cambridge University Press, 2010)
• ‘Politics and the Progress of Sentiments’ in Randall E. Auxier and Lewis Edwin Hahn eds., The Philosophy of Richard Rorty, The Library of Living Philosophers vol. XXXII (Open Court, 2010)
• ‘Freedom, Slavery and the Passions’ in Olli Koistinen ed., The Cambridge Companion to Spinoza’s‘Ethics’ (Cambridge University Press, 2009)
• ‘Law and Soveriegnty in Spinoza’s Politics’ in Moira Gatens ed., Feminist Interpretations of Spinoza (PennsylvaniaState University Press, 2009)
• ‘Shakespeare and the Politics of Superstition’ in David Armitage, Conal Condren and Andrew Fitzmaurice eds., Shakespeare and Early Modern Political Thought (Cambridge University Press, 2009)
• ‘Democracy and the Good Life in Spinoza’s Philosophy’ in Charlie Huenemann ed., Interpreting Spinoza (Cambridge University Press, 2008)
• ‘The Role of Amicitia in Political Life’ in Gabor Boros, Herman De Dijn and Martin Moors eds., The Concept of Love in 17^th and 18^th Century Philosophy (Leuven University Press, 2007)
• ‘Spinoza on Superstition. Coming to Terms with Fear’, Mededelingen Vanwege het Spinozahuis 88, 2006
• ‘The Passions and the Good Life’ in Donald Rutherford ed., The Cambridge Companion to Early Modern Philosophy, Cambridge University Press, 2006
• 'Sympathy and Comparison: Two Principles of Human Nature' in M. Frasca-Spada and P. J. E. Kail (eds), Impressions of Hume (Oxford University Press, 2005)
• 'The Emergence of the Cartesian Mind' in T. Crane and S. Patterson (eds), The History of the Mind-Body Problem (Routledge, 2000)
• 'Grandeur and the Mechanical Philosophy' in J. Kraye and M. Stone (eds), Humanism and Early Modern Philosophy (Routledge, 2000)
• 'The Philosophical Innovations of Margaret Cavendish', British Journal for the History of Philosophy, vol. 7 (1999)
• 'Desires, Passions and the Explanation of Action' in S. Gaukroger (ed.), The Soft Underbelly of Reason (Routledge, 1998)
• 'Reason, Passion and the Good Life' in D. Garber and M. Ayers (eds), The Cambridge History of Seventeenth-Century Philosophy(Cambridge University Press, 1998), vol. II
• 'The Passions in Metaphysics and the Philosophy of Action' in D. Garber and M. Ayers (eds), The Cambridge History of Seventeenth-Century Philosophy (Cambridge University Press, 1998, vol. I)
• 'Power and Difference: Spinoza's Conception of Freedom', The Journal of Political Philosophy, vol. 4 (1996)
• 'Spinoza the Stoic' in T. Sorell ed., The Rise of Modern Philosophy (Oxford University Press, 1993)
• Political Philosophy, Ethics and Feminist Philosophy:
• ‘The Politics of Emotion: Liberalism and Cognitivism’, in Anthony O’Hear ed., Political Philosophy,  Royal Institute of Philosophy Supplement, Cambridge University Press, 2006.
• ‘Realising Rights as Enforceable Claims’ in Global Responsibilities.  Who Must Deliver on Human Rights?  ed. Andrew Kuper, Routledge, 2005, pp. 79-93.
• ‘Complicity and Slavery in The Second Sex’ in Emily Grosholz ed., The Legacy of Simone de Beauvoir, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004, pp. 71-89. Earlier version in Claudia Card ed. The Cambridge Companion to Simone de Beauvoir, Cambridge University Press, 2002, pp. 149-67.
• ‘Rights as Enforceable Claims’ in Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, vol. CIII.2 (2003), pp. 133-47.
• ‘Feminisms’ in R. Bellamy and T. Ball eds., The Cambridge History of Twentieth-Century Political Thought, Cambridge University Press, 2003, ch. 23, pp. 493-516.
• ‘The Passions and Political Philosophy’ in Anthony Hatzimoysis ed. Philosophy and the Emotions, Cambridge University Press, 2003, pp. 221-34.
• ‘Feminisms’ in R. Bellamy and T. Ball eds., The Cambridge History of Twentieth-Century Political Thought, Cambridge University Press, 2003, ch. 23, pp. 493-516.
• ‘Freedom and the Imaginary’ in Susan James and Stephanie Palmer eds., Visible Women. Essays on Feminist Legal Theory and Political Philosophy, Hart  Publishing Ltd., 2002, pp. 175-95.
• ‘Feminism in Philosophy of Mind. The Question of Personal Identity’ in Miranda Fricker and Jennifer Hornsby eds., The Cambridge Companion to Feminism in Philosophy, Cambridge University Press, 2000, pp. 29-48.
• ‘Feminism’ in Routledge Encyclopaedia of Philosophy ed. Edward Craig, Routledge, 2000. Updated version reprinted in The Shorter Routledge Encyclopaedia of Philosophy, 2005.

Selected forthcoming work

• Spinoza on Philosophy, Religion and Politics (Oxford University Press, 2012).

• ‘Creating Rational Understanding: Spinoza as a Social Epistemologist’ Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society Supplementary Volume LXXXV.

• ‘When Does Truth Matter? Spinoza on the Relation between Theology and Philosophy’, accepted by the European Journal of Philosophy.

Podcasts

• BBC In Our Time, February 2008: Discussing the Social Contract - also on the programme: Melissa Lane and Karen O'Brien
• Philosophy Bites interview, December 2007: Spinoza on the Passions
• When does truth matter? The Politics of Spinoza's Philosophy (part of 'Thinking with Spinoza: Politics, Philosophy & Religion', Birkbeck Institute for the Humanities, 7-8 May 2009)