Patricia Sheridan
Associate Professor
pmsherid@uoguelph.ca
MCKN Rm:335
519-824-4120 x53219

Degrees
B.A., McGill University
M.A., Concordia University
Ph.D., University of Western Ontario

Areas of Teaching and Research
Early modern philosophy, Locke, early modern women philosophers, history of ethics, feminism

My area of expertise is British philosophy of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. I am currently interested in moral philosophy in the eighteenth century, and the influence of John Locke on moralists of that century. This work mainly involves exploring the debates between so-called rationalist and sentimentalist moralists and looking for ideas and concerns that cut across these, at times, artificial categorizations. A related area of interest is the philosophical work of early modern women. I have published on Anne Conway and Catherine Trotter Cockburn, and plan to continue working on these and other women (including Lady Mary Shepherd), who made significant contributions to philosophical debates of their time.

Books (in print and in progress)

Locke: A Guide for the Perplexed (under contract with Continuum Press; expected publication date Summer 2009)

Catharine Trotter Cockburn: Philosophical Writings. Broadview Press, 2006.

Journal Articles
"The Metaphysical Morality of Francis Hutcheson: A Consideration of Hutcheson's Critique of Moral Fitness Theory" in Sophia, (forthcoming, Fall 2007)

"Parental affection and self-interest: Mandeville, Hutcheson and the question of natural benevolence” in History of Philosophy Quarterly (forthcoming, Volume 24, no. 4 (October 2007))

"Reflection, Nature and Moral Law: The Extent of Cockburn's Lockeanism in her Defence of Mr. Locke's Essay" in Hypatia, Volume 23, no. 1 (Summer 2007)

"Pirates, Kings and Reasons to Act: Moral Motivation and the Role of Sanctions in Locke's Moral Theory" in Canadian Journal of Philosophy, Volume 37, no. 1 (March 2007)

Book Reviews and Encyclopedia Entries

"Catharine Trotter Cockburn" in Encyclopedia of Locke and his Times. Paul Schurman, Craig
Walmsley and Sami-Juhani Savonius-Wroth, eds. Forthcoming: Continuum Press, 2009.

Review of Feminist Interpretations of John Locke, Nancy J. Hirschmann and Kirstie McClure, eds. Forthcoming: Dialogue

Review of Anne Conway: A Woman Philosopher by Sarah Hutton. Forthcoming: Dialogue.

Review of Locke: his philosophical thought by Nicholas Jolley, Philosophy in Review , Volume XXI, No.1, February 2001: 48-50.

"Catharine Trotter Cockburn" in Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/cockburn/)

“Anne Conway,” in P. Dematteis and P. Fosl (eds), Dictionary of Literary Biography (The Gale Group, 2002): pp 138 – 143.