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Aaron Garrett

Boston University, Philosophy, Faculty Member

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I mainly work in the history of ethics from Grotius to Bentham. I also have a long-standing interest in Spinoza. More info at http://aarongarrett.net

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James P Padilioni Jr

Swarthmore College

Abdulai Iddrisu

Ramesh Mallipeddi

SOAS University of London

Martha Frederiks

Victoria Barnett-Woods

Loyola University Maryland

George E Boulukos

Southern Illinois University at Carbondale

University of Massachusetts Amherst

STBA Pertiwi

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Papers by Aaron Garrett

Gew gaws, baubles, frivolous objects, and trinkets Adam Smith (and Cugoano) on slavery

Adam Smith sought to explain the persistence of slavery as an institution in Wealth of Nations an... more Adam Smith sought to explain the persistence of slavery as an institution in Wealth of Nations and Lectures on Jurispridence. In order to accomplish this he also drew on arguments he had developed in the Theory of Moral Sentiments. The result was a sophisticated explanation which bridged economic, psychological, and moral considerations. After presenting Smith’s explanation I consider a discussion of the moral wrong of slavery in Ottobah Cugoano, the author of the incisive criticism of the slave trade Thoughts and Sentiments on the Evil of Slavery (1787). I will suggest that Cugoano’s account of what is morally wrong in slavery shows in important lacuna in Smith‘s views.

Phillis Wheatley and the limits of the history of philosophy

Homo sum, humani nil a me alienum puto." Terence Phillis Wheatley was a strikingly original and g... more Homo sum, humani nil a me alienum puto." Terence Phillis Wheatley was a strikingly original and great American poet. She was an important historical agent at a crucial juncture in American and British history, a literary celebrity, an "Afric muse", a household slave stolen from Africa, a uniquely situated and insightful thinker, a deeply-believing Christian, and much more. Her changing appeal and the controversy over her work in the two hundred and fifty years since the publication of Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral is due in part to the ways that her poems and letters combine these and other identities in unprecedented ways. 1 All biographical and historical information about Wheatley is from Carretta (2011) and Wheatley (2001), unless noted. 2 Unless modified by a first name, "Wheatley" refers to Phillis Wheatley. 3 Jupiter Hammon, widely considered the first published African-American poet, was born into slavery on Long Island and educated in his master's family. It seems from his writings that his education was primarily religious. Today Hammon is perhaps best known for his poem praising Wheatley's piety "AN Address to Miss Phillis Wheatley".

ADAM SMITH ON MORAL LUCK

A discussion of Adam Smith on moral luck that has been only published in German. I am revising it... more

The Lives of the Philosophers

We often judge past moral philosophers in terms of our present normative theories and moral categ... more We often judge past moral philosophers in terms of our present normative theories and moral categories. This essay traces a different type of moral philosophy-common throughout the seventeenth century-that stressed philosophical sects, the importance of an exemplary life and practices for attaining such a life. The rise and fall of this framework is considered in the works of four philosophers:

Human nature in the eighteenth century. From Knud Haakonssen, ed. The Cambridge History of Eighte... more

David Hume on Race

by Aaron Garrett and Silvia Sebastiani

The History of the History of Ethics and Emblematic Passages

The first part of the paper discusses the importance of the history of the history of philosophy.... more

Self-Knowledge and Self-Deception in Modern Moral Philosophy

I outline what I refer to as the self-knowledge tradition, and then discuss an attack on the trad... more I outline what I refer to as the self-knowledge tradition, and then discuss an attack on the tradition centered on the psychological and moral phenomenon of self-deceit and stretching from Calvin through Hobbes and to Nicole, Esprit, and Rochefoucauld. I then briefly discuss the legacy of the French Moralists in Mandeville, Butler, Hume, Smith, and Rousseau.

A paper draft, which will probably eventually become two different papers, on the reasons for Hum... more

Women in the Science of Man

Mandeville is famous as one of the central figures in the rise of the eighteenth century science ... more

Hume's Own Life

Yoga, Fallen Fruit, and Early Modern Moral Philosophy

Hume's "Original Difference": Race, National Character and the Human Sciences

Eighteenth-Century Thought, 2004

This essay attempts to identify the context of David Hume's infamous footnote concerning race app... more This essay attempts to identify the context of David Hume's infamous footnote concerning race appended to his essay, "Of National Characters." It is difficult to make sense of idiosyncratic remarks by past thinkers under the best of conditions, but it becomes particularly difficult when issues that are very sensitive for twenty-first-century readers are broached. Over the course of this essay I attempt to provide a coherent explanation of what

Seventeenth-Century Moral Philosophy: Self-Help, Self-Knowledge, and the Devil's Mountain

VIRTUES OF GEOMETRY

The full title of Spinoza's Ethics is "Ethics demonstrated in a geometrical manner". The Ethics w... more The full title of Spinoza's Ethics is "Ethics demonstrated in a geometrical manner". The Ethics was one of three geometrical works written by Spinoza. The unfinished Tractatus Politicus (TP)[1] appeared in Spinoza's Opera Posthuma (OP) along with the Ethics in 1677. The Principles of Descartes' Philosophy demonstrated in a geometrical manner (PDP) had appeared fourteen years before. One of Spinoza's very earliest works the Short Treatise (KV) also included geometrical demonstrations. In Spinoza's very earliest letters (1661) Henry Oldenburg approved of Spinoza's "geometrical style of proof" on the basis of a manuscript the contents of which corresponded to at least Ethics IP5, IP6, and IP18 (Letter 3, IV/10-12). Since the TP was the last work which Spinoza wrote, the KV one of the very first if not the first work by Spinoza we possess, and the PDP was the only work published under Spinoza's name in his lifetime, it is uncontroversial that the use of geometrical demonstrations in presenting his ideas was a constant over the course of Spinoza's philosophical career. Indeed his consistent association with a single form of argument separated him from most of his peers who were far more methodologically and stylistically eclectic --Descartes, Hobbes, Leibniz, Malebranche, Gassendi, and Pufendorf to name a few.

Spinoza on Knowing the Essence of the State

This paper argues that Spinoza's main political writings are concerned, in part, with knowledge o... more This paper argues that Spinoza's main political writings are concerned, in part, with knowledge of essences as detailed in the Ethics. It is further argued that knowledge of the essences of states, and essential properties that belong to states, may be an example of the elusive scientia intuitiva or third kind of knowledge. The paper concludes by considering Spinoza's goals in his political writings and the importance of metaphysics and the theory of knowledge more broadly for early modern political philosophers.

MIND AND MATTER IN 18TH CENTURY BRITISH PHILOSOPHY

Courage, Political Resistance, and Self-Deceit

Modern History of Animals

Bishop Butler on Bullshit

Gew gaws, baubles, frivolous objects, and trinkets Adam Smith (and Cugoano) on slavery

Adam Smith sought to explain the persistence of slavery as an institution in Wealth of Nations an... more Adam Smith sought to explain the persistence of slavery as an institution in Wealth of Nations and Lectures on Jurispridence. In order to accomplish this he also drew on arguments he had developed in the Theory of Moral Sentiments. The result was a sophisticated explanation which bridged economic, psychological, and moral considerations. After presenting Smith’s explanation I consider a discussion of the moral wrong of slavery in Ottobah Cugoano, the author of the incisive criticism of the slave trade Thoughts and Sentiments on the Evil of Slavery (1787). I will suggest that Cugoano’s account of what is morally wrong in slavery shows in important lacuna in Smith‘s views.

Phillis Wheatley and the limits of the history of philosophy

Homo sum, humani nil a me alienum puto." Terence Phillis Wheatley was a strikingly original and g... more Homo sum, humani nil a me alienum puto." Terence Phillis Wheatley was a strikingly original and great American poet. She was an important historical agent at a crucial juncture in American and British history, a literary celebrity, an "Afric muse", a household slave stolen from Africa, a uniquely situated and insightful thinker, a deeply-believing Christian, and much more. Her changing appeal and the controversy over her work in the two hundred and fifty years since the publication of Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral is due in part to the ways that her poems and letters combine these and other identities in unprecedented ways. 1 All biographical and historical information about Wheatley is from Carretta (2011) and Wheatley (2001), unless noted. 2 Unless modified by a first name, "Wheatley" refers to Phillis Wheatley. 3 Jupiter Hammon, widely considered the first published African-American poet, was born into slavery on Long Island and educated in his master's family. It seems from his writings that his education was primarily religious. Today Hammon is perhaps best known for his poem praising Wheatley's piety "AN Address to Miss Phillis Wheatley".

ADAM SMITH ON MORAL LUCK

A discussion of Adam Smith on moral luck that has been only published in German. I am revising it... more

The Lives of the Philosophers

We often judge past moral philosophers in terms of our present normative theories and moral categ... more We often judge past moral philosophers in terms of our present normative theories and moral categories. This essay traces a different type of moral philosophy-common throughout the seventeenth century-that stressed philosophical sects, the importance of an exemplary life and practices for attaining such a life. The rise and fall of this framework is considered in the works of four philosophers:

Human nature in the eighteenth century. From Knud Haakonssen, ed. The Cambridge History of Eighte... more

David Hume on Race

by Aaron Garrett and Silvia Sebastiani

The History of the History of Ethics and Emblematic Passages

The first part of the paper discusses the importance of the history of the history of philosophy.... more

Self-Knowledge and Self-Deception in Modern Moral Philosophy

I outline what I refer to as the self-knowledge tradition, and then discuss an attack on the trad... more I outline what I refer to as the self-knowledge tradition, and then discuss an attack on the tradition centered on the psychological and moral phenomenon of self-deceit and stretching from Calvin through Hobbes and to Nicole, Esprit, and Rochefoucauld. I then briefly discuss the legacy of the French Moralists in Mandeville, Butler, Hume, Smith, and Rousseau.

A paper draft, which will probably eventually become two different papers, on the reasons for Hum... more

Women in the Science of Man

Mandeville is famous as one of the central figures in the rise of the eighteenth century science ... more

Hume's Own Life

Yoga, Fallen Fruit, and Early Modern Moral Philosophy

Hume's "Original Difference": Race, National Character and the Human Sciences

Eighteenth-Century Thought, 2004

This essay attempts to identify the context of David Hume's infamous footnote concerning race app... more This essay attempts to identify the context of David Hume's infamous footnote concerning race appended to his essay, "Of National Characters." It is difficult to make sense of idiosyncratic remarks by past thinkers under the best of conditions, but it becomes particularly difficult when issues that are very sensitive for twenty-first-century readers are broached. Over the course of this essay I attempt to provide a coherent explanation of what

Seventeenth-Century Moral Philosophy: Self-Help, Self-Knowledge, and the Devil's Mountain

VIRTUES OF GEOMETRY

The full title of Spinoza's Ethics is "Ethics demonstrated in a geometrical manner". The Ethics w... more The full title of Spinoza's Ethics is "Ethics demonstrated in a geometrical manner". The Ethics was one of three geometrical works written by Spinoza. The unfinished Tractatus Politicus (TP)[1] appeared in Spinoza's Opera Posthuma (OP) along with the Ethics in 1677. The Principles of Descartes' Philosophy demonstrated in a geometrical manner (PDP) had appeared fourteen years before. One of Spinoza's very earliest works the Short Treatise (KV) also included geometrical demonstrations. In Spinoza's very earliest letters (1661) Henry Oldenburg approved of Spinoza's "geometrical style of proof" on the basis of a manuscript the contents of which corresponded to at least Ethics IP5, IP6, and IP18 (Letter 3, IV/10-12). Since the TP was the last work which Spinoza wrote, the KV one of the very first if not the first work by Spinoza we possess, and the PDP was the only work published under Spinoza's name in his lifetime, it is uncontroversial that the use of geometrical demonstrations in presenting his ideas was a constant over the course of Spinoza's philosophical career. Indeed his consistent association with a single form of argument separated him from most of his peers who were far more methodologically and stylistically eclectic --Descartes, Hobbes, Leibniz, Malebranche, Gassendi, and Pufendorf to name a few.

Spinoza on Knowing the Essence of the State

This paper argues that Spinoza's main political writings are concerned, in part, with knowledge o... more This paper argues that Spinoza's main political writings are concerned, in part, with knowledge of essences as detailed in the Ethics. It is further argued that knowledge of the essences of states, and essential properties that belong to states, may be an example of the elusive scientia intuitiva or third kind of knowledge. The paper concludes by considering Spinoza's goals in his political writings and the importance of metaphysics and the theory of knowledge more broadly for early modern political philosophers.

MIND AND MATTER IN 18TH CENTURY BRITISH PHILOSOPHY

Courage, Political Resistance, and Self-Deceit

Modern History of Animals

Bishop Butler on Bullshit

Mandeville in Helsinki

by Mikko Tolonen, Aaron Garrett, Adriana Luna-Fabritius, Mauro Simonazzi, and Tim Stuart-Buttle

Utilitarian and Feminism before Bentham

A brief paper given at the 2023 International Society for Utilitarian Studies conference

HUME, CICERO, AND THE ANCIENTS

A paper for a collection on Hume's Enquiry Concerning Morals.

Law, Time, and the Origin of Conjectural History

A brief paper given at a conference organized by (and tacitly honoring) John Robertson at Cambrid... more

Hutcheson on the Unity of Virtue and Right

An attempt to make sense of how Hutcheson understands moral rights. At end of the paper I briefly... more

Spinoza on Knowledge

A brief (6,000 word) introduction to Spinoza's epistemology via what I take to be Spinoza's belie... more