T I M O T H Y   Y E N T E R


Associate Professor of Philosophy
Director of the Interdisciplinary Minor in Cinema

The University of Mississippi

My CV usually has the most accurate information.


RESEARCH

Overview

My research is primarily in early modern metaphysics and methodology. My dissertation was on Hume and his British context, but I also have interests in the continental rationalists and especially the interplay between metaphysics and philosophical methodology, such as the various forms of the principle of sufficient reason in Leibniz, Spinoza, and Clarke. My research and my teaching reflect a commitment to uncovering and encouraging the diversity of early modern philosophical work, including currently under-discussed figures. Much of my recent work examines the metaphysical accounts given for ethical, political, and theological views.

I regularly teach courses that deal with issues in metaphysics, ethics, philosophy of religion, and philosophy of film. Some of my work falls at the intersection of cinema studies and philosophy, including essays on a potentially paradoxical portrayal of love in Buster Keaton's films and a new approach to teaching philosophy through film that connects philosophical questions of the good life to cinephillia. A video discussing some of the latter essay, recording a talk given to a broad audience, is here.

Published

  1. Harmony in Spinoza and His CriticsSpinoza’s Philosophy of Ratio, ed. Beth Lord (2018).
  2. Cinephilia and Philosophia: Or Why I Don't Show The Matrix in Philosophy 101, For the Love of Cinema: Teaching Our Passion in and outside the Classroom, ed. Rashna Richards and David T. Johnson (2017).
  3. Buster Keaton and the Puzzle of Love, Faith and Spirituality in Masters of World Cinema, Volume 3, eds. Kenneth R. Morefield and Nicholas Olson (2015).
  4. Clarke Against Spinoza on the Manifest Diversity of the World, British Journal of the History of Philosophy 22.2 (2014).

In Progress and Forthcoming

  1. Hume, Christian Theology and the Modern Philosophers, ed. Greg Ganssle and Ben Arbour (at press).
  2. The Metaphysical Implications of Newtonianism [committed to edited volume; with editors]
  3. Historical Understanding as Self-Understanding in the Films of Whit Stillman [committed to edited volume; with editors]
  4. Audiobooks as Artworks [under review]
  5. What Hume Didn’t Notice about Divine Causation [committed to edited volume] 
  6. Why Think the Arc of the Universe Bends Toward Justice?
  7. Mary Astell on the Metaphysics of Love
  8. Self-Motion and Attraction in Émilie du Châtelet and Andrew Baxter
  9. When Did Philosophy Begin? The British Debate
  10. Individuation in Anne Conway
  11. Three Reasons We Know Nothing (According to Hume)
  12. ‘Beca the Badass’: Crafting a Star Image by Posing Community on Anna Kendrick’s Instagram (co-authored with Elizabeth Picciuto)
  13. Hume's Adequate Idea Criterion and Precise Standard Criterion
  14. A Problem for Locke on Adequate Ideas
  15. Is Team Loyalty a Virtue?

Encyclopedia Articles

  1. Samuel Clarke, The Encyclopedia of Philosophy and Religion, eds. Stewart Goetz and Charles Taliaffero, Wiley-Blackwell, (forthcoming in 2019).
  2. Anne Conway, The Encyclopedia of Philosophy and Religion, eds. Stewart Goetz and Charles Taliaffero, Wiley-Blackwell, (forthcoming in 2019).
  3. Samuel Clarke, Encyclopedia of Early Modern Philosophy and the Sciences, eds. Dana Jalobeanu and Charles T. Wolfe. Springer (forthcoming in 2019). Springer. ISBN: 9783319310671
  4. Samuel ClarkeThe Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, ed. Uri Nodelman (2018). (Co-authored with Ezio Vailati.) [Substantial revisions: 2009, 2014, 2018.]

Book Reviews

  1. Review: D. N. Rodowick, Philosophy's Artful Conversation, Teaching Philosophy 39.4 (2016).
  2. Review: Jamie C. Kassler, Seeking Truth: Roger North’s Notes on Newton and Correspondence with Samuel Clarke c.1704-1713, Isis 106.4 (2015).
  3. Review: Peter R. Anstey (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of British Philosophy in the Seventeenth Century, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews (2014).


TEACHING

My courses typically combine close readings of texts, engaging discussions, and even lecture when necessary. I am committed to (and have written about) teaching that crosses disciplinary boundaries and engages the whole individual.

I was a fellow at the Yale Teaching Center (now the Yale Center for Teaching and Learning), which was dedicated to promoting excellent teaching by graduate students. I provided individual observations and consultations, and I led workshops on Teaching Texts in the Humanities, Course Design, Diversity in the Classroom, and more.

I have taught courses in

I have served (or am serving) as the adviser on multiple master's theses and undergraduate honors theses, including ones on Spinoza’s metaphysics, Kant's aesthetics, Berkeley's notion of spirit, NeoPlatonism in Cockburn's philosophy, and 17th-century French Jesuit responses to Cartesian metaphysics. I have also served on thesis committees or advised independent studies in metaphysics, ethics, philosophy of religion, philosophy of film, and philosophy of humor.


WHERE TO FIND ME

PhilPeople [academic network]

The Mod Squad [a group blog in early modern philosophy]

Khan Academy: Wi-Phi [videos introducing a general audience to philosophy]

Letterboxd [capsule-length film reviews]