Profile for Daniel Schneider
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Daniel Schneider
Assistant Professor
Philosophy
University of Wisconsin-La Crosse
Daniel Schneider
Assistant Professor
Philosophy
Specialty area(s)
AOS: History of Philosophy (Early Modern/Ancient), Epistemology, Metaphysics
AOC: Ethics, Philosophy of Science
Brief biography
My research is oriented in the history of philosophy, but I consider myself a philosopher first and second. As a philosopher I am oriented towards the philosophical work of the early modern and ancient periods for roughly the same reason that as music listener I am oriented towards the musical works of the late 70's and early eighties: I am drawn toward the works that speak most directly to me.
My research focuses upon the metaphysics and epistemology of the Early-Modern period. I am particularly drawn to the ethical system developed by Spinoza. I am a sympathetic reader of his thought, and I am fascinated by his life.
Current courses at UWL
PHL 101: Intro to Logic
PHL 205: Ancient Philosophy
Education
Ph.D. 2014 Philosophy University of Wisconsin-Madison
M.A. 2010 Philosophy University of Wisconsin-Madison
M.A. 2006 Philosophy Tulane University
B.A. 2003 Philosophy University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Career
Teaching history
University of Haifa:
Trial and Death of Socrates, Spinoza’s Ethics, Spinoza’s Tractatus Theologico-Politicus, Descartes: Birth of Modernity, Early Modern Philosophy of Space and Extension, Empiricism and Rationalism.
University of Cambridge: Descartes’s Meditations, The Nature of Knowledge, Sources of Knowledge,Particulars and Properties, Epistemology of the Mind, Wittgenstein’s On Certainty
University of Ghent: Early Modern Naturalism: The Ethics of Spinoza’s Ethics
University of Wisconsin-Madison: Introduction to Philosophy
Tulane University: Introduction to Ethics
Professional history
I completed a BA in philosophy at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, a MA in philosophy at Tulane University, and then a PhD in philosophy at the University of Wisconsin–Madison under the supervision of Steven Nadler. In the fall of 2014, I moved to Belgium to work as a post-doc at the University of Gent on "The Metaphysics and Mathematics of Collision" research project. In the fall of 2015, I took a lectureship position at the University of Cambridge. In the fall of 2016 I joined the faculty at the University of Haifa in a tenure track position, but the USA beckoned, and I have returned in the fall of 2019 to Wisconsin as a lecturer at UW-Lacrosse.
Research and publishing
“Spinoza on the Conditions that Nominally Define the Human Condition, ”International Journal of Philosophical Studies (Forthcoming)
“Spinoza’s Epistemological Methodism,” Journal of the History of PhilosophyVol. 54.4, October 2016, pp. 573-599.
“Spinoza’s PSR as a Principle of Clear and Distinct Representation,” Pacific Philosophical Quarterly, Vol. 95, Issue 1, March 2014, pp. 109-129.
“‘A Spiritual Automaton’: Spinoza, Reason, and the Letters to Blyenbergh,” Society and Politics, Vol. 7, No. 2 (14) November 2013, pp. 160-177.
Kudos
presented
published