Lisa Shapiro
Professor
PhD in Philosophy
BA with Honors in Physics and Philosophy
Professor Shapiro joined McGill as Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Professor of Philosophy on October 1st, 2022.
Professor Shapiro earned her Ph.D. in Philosophy from the University of Pittsburgh and her B.A. in Physics and Philosophy from Wesleyan University. She has also studied at the Université de Paris IV (Sorbonne) and X (Nanterre).
Professor Shapiro specializes in 17th and 18th century philosophy. Her research is focused on questions about the nature of a human being, the nature of thinking, and the place of emotions in human understanding. In exploring these questions, she is committed to the recovery and rehabilitation of the work of women in the history of philosophy. To this end, she is the Principal Investigator of the SSHRC Partnership project, “Extending New Narratives in the History of Philosophy,” an international collaboration engaged in retrieving philosophical works by women and individuals from other marginalized groups, with the goal of making the practice of philosophy more inclusive and diverse.
Prior to joining McGill, she was Professor of Philosophy at Simon Fraser University. During her career there, Professor Shapiro served as Acting Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, Associate Dean (Graduate Studies and Research/Research and International) in the Faculty, and Chair of the Department of Philosophy.
Epistemology, Philosophy of Mind, Philosophy of Emotions, Philosophy of Education
Books
Early Modern Philosophy: An Anthology, edited with Marcy Lascano, a primary source anthology for teaching. Broadview Press. 2022.
Pleasure: A History, edited volume for Oxford Philosophical Concepts series. Oxford University Press. June 2018.
Emotion and Cognitive Life in Medieval and Early Modern Philosophy, edited with Martin Pickavé. Oxford University Press. October 2012.
The Correspondence between Princess Elisabeth and Descartes, translated into English and annotated with introduction, Other Voice in Early Modern Europe series, University of Chicago Press. May 2007.
Recent Articles
“Sor Juana’s Let us pretend I am happy,” in Ten More Neglected Classics of Philosophy. Eric Schliesser (ed.). Oxford UP, 2022.
“Canon, Gender, Historiography” in Routledge Handbook of Women and Early Modern European Philosophy (forthcoming). Translated into French as “Canon, Genre et Historiographie,” XVIIe siècle, (2022), 3, 296, 417-433.
“Princess Elisabeth of Bohemia and the Challenges of Philosophizing,” in Elisabeth of Bohemia (1618-1680): A Philosopher in Historical Context. S. Hutton and S. Ebbersmeyer, (eds.), Springer, 2021.
“Learning to Live a Human Life,” in Life and Death in Early Modern Philosophy. Susan James (ed.). Oxford UP, 2021.
"Descartes and Spinoza on the Primitive Passions: Why So Different?" in Freedom, Action, and Motivation in Spinoza's Ethics. Noa Naaman Zauderer and Thomas Vinci (eds.). Routledge, 2019, pp. 62-81.
“L’amour, l’ambition, and l’amitié: Marie Thiroux D’Arconville on Passion ,Agency and Virtue” for Essays on Early Modern Women Philosophers, Eileen O’Neill and Marcy Lascano (eds.), Kluwer, 2019.
"Princess Elisabeth of Bohemia as a Cartesian," in Oxford Handbook of Descartes and Cartesianism, Tad Schmaltz and Steven Nadler (eds.). Oxford University Press, 2019, pp. 287-302.
“Self-Consciousness and Consciousness of Self: Spinoza on Desire and Pride,” in Mind, Body, and Morality, Martina Reuter and Frans Svensson (eds.), Routledge, 2019, pp. 143-156.
“Assuming Epistemic Authority, or Becoming a Thinking Thing,” Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, 118, 3, (2018), 1-20.