Understanding Agency

Lilli Alanen

lilli.jpgLilli Alanen  (PhD University of Helsinki 1982) is Professor of the History of Philosophy at the Department of Philosophy at the University of Uppsala 1997-2008 and was Senior Research Fellow of the Academy of Finland and Docent at the Department of Philosophy, University of Helsinki before coming to Uppsala. She teaches history of philosophy and specializes in Early Modern Philosophy: epistemology, metaphysics, philosophy of mind and moral psychology. She is co-director and board-member of the research programme “Understanding Agency: Conceptions of Nature, Human Action and the Good” 2008-2012, funded by the Swedish Bank Tercentenary Foundation. Her current research interests are conceptions of agency and practical reason in the Augustinian tradition, and theories of emotions from Descartes to Hume. She will be visiting Professor at the Department of Philosophy of the University of California Berkeley during the Spring  2009 and 2010 semesters.

Current projects

  • "Nature and Norm in Medieval and Early Modern Conceptions of Modality and Agency" Swedish Research Council 2006-2008
  • Descartes, Spinoza and Hume on Passions, Agency and Self

Recent Publications (Selection)

Books:

  • Descartes's Concept of Mind, Harvard University Press, 2003, 355 p.
  • & Charlotte Witt (eds.) Feminist Reflections on the History of Philosophy, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, Holland, 250 p., 2004.

Chapters in books and articles:

  • "Descartes' Mind-Body Composites, Psychology and Naturalism", Inquiry,  Vol. 51.5, August 2008, forthcoming.
  • "Omnipotence, Modality and Conceivability", in Janet Broughton and John Carriero (ed.), A Companion to Descartes, Blackwell Publishing Company, 2008, pp. 353-371.
  • (& Frans Svensson); "Descartes on Virtue", in Hommage à Wlodek. Philosophical Papers Dedicated to Wlodek Rabinowicz. Ed. T. Ronnow-Rasmussen, B. Petersson, J.Josefsson & D. Egonsson, 2007. www.fil.lu.se/hommageawlodek. ss. 1-10.
  • "The Powers and Mechanisms of Passions", in Saul Traiger (ed.) A Companion to Hume’s Treatise, Blackwell Publishing Company, 2006
  • "Spinoza and Hume on Passions and Self-Knowledge" in V. Hirvonen, T. J. Holopainen and M. Tuominen (eds.), Mind and Modality. Studies in the History of Philosophy in Honour of S. Knuuttila, Leiden, Boston: Brill, 2006.
  • "What Are Emotions About?" (26. pp.), Philosophy and Phenomenological Research,   September, 2003, Vol. LXVII No.2, pp. 311-334.
  • "The Intentionality of Cartesian Passions", Byron Williston and André Gombay (eds.) Passion and Virtue in Descartes, Prometheus, Humanities Books, 2003, pp. 107-127.
  • "Descartes on the Will and the Power to Do Otherwise" Henrik Lagerlund and Mikko Yrjönsuuri (eds.) Emotions and Choice From Boethius to Descartes, Kluwer, Dordrecht 2002, pp. 279-298.

Address

Lilli Alanen
Department of Philosophy
University of Uppsala
Box 627
751 26 Uppsala
Sweden

phone:     +46-(0)18-471 7354

fax:     +46-(0)18-471 7370   

Lilli.Alanen@filosofi.uu.se