Professor of Philosophy, Warwick University, 1993-2021.Honorary President of the Friedrich Nietzsche Society, 2021-

Research Interests & Recent Research

I read widely in the history of thought and literature. I have a longstanding interest in the texts of Nietzsche. I am now carrying out research on the writings of the Spanish-American philosopher Santayana (1863-1952), one of the most knowing and well-read philosophers of the twentieth century.

In recent years I have contributed to research in several areas of philosophical inquiry, including the philosophy of the emotions & passions and philosophy as a way of life. I have also carried out quite extensive research on the reception of Hellenistic philosophy in modern European thought, especially Epicurean teaching. This research has resulted in a number of published articles and book chapters, as well as the edition of Jean-Marie Guyau's The Ethics of Epicurus (1878), translated and co-edited by Federico Testa and published by Bloomsbury Academic in 2021.

In 2018 a study of Nietzsche's middle writings entitled Nietzsche's Search for Philosophy was published by Bloomsbury Academic. I wrote the Afterword to a new translation and edition of Dawn published by Stanford University Press in 2011 and co-authored a close reading of this text with Rebecca Bamford, which was published by Wiley Blackwell in 2021. In 2022 a specially commissioned volume of essays, co-edited with Paul S. Loeb, on Nietzsche's text, Thus Spoke Zarathustra, was published by Cambridge University Press.

Bloomsbury also published a book on Bergson, Thinking Beyond the Human Condition in 2018. Recent published essays on Bergson include 'Bergson and Philosophy as a Way of Life' in Interpreting Bergson (Cambridge University Press), and 'Bergson on the Emotions' in The Bergsonian Mind (Routledge).

Current Research

I have recently completed a book entitled Nietzsche's New Wisdom: The Philosopher, the Sage, and the Poet. In the book I examine Nietzsche on the nature of wisdom, the figure of the sage, and the task of the poets as seers of future virtues. Through a close and exacting reading of the full range of Nietzsche's corpus, including illuminating his intellectual development, I clarify in what specific sense we are to construe Nietzsche as a 'poet-philosopher' and his philosophy as a philosophy of the future.

I am now researching a book on Santayana and the nature of philosophy and the philosophical life. I focus my attention on several important philosophical topics and probe Santayana's contribution to our understanding of each topic under investigation, typically by examining his engagements with a number of ancient and modern philosophical and literary figures, including: Lucretius and the poetry of naturalism; Plato and spiritual life; Plotinus and the nature of evil; Shakespeare and the tragedy and comedy of the passions; Spinoza and beatific rationalism; Hume and scepticism; Shelley and revolutionary poetry; Emerson and mysticism; Whitman and the prophet of the lost cause; Nietzsche and the egotism of German philosophy; Proust and the sentiment of time and doctrine of essences; Freud and Eros and Thanatos; and William James and the maze of philosophy. I also examine the importance for Santayana of the mythical figure of Hermes. The book carries the working title of Naturalism & the Sanity of Philosophy: Reading Santayana.

With my Warwick colleague David James I am editing a volume of commissioned essays on the empathetic emotions and to be published by Oxford University Press. My own contribution to the volume will be an essay on Emerson & Santayana focused on the the limits of sympathy and the value of integrity.

Recently published essays and forthcoming essays include:

• 'Philosophy as a Way of Life in Thus Spoke Zarathustra' (with Marta Faustino), in Ansell-Pearson & Paul S. Loeb, Thus Spoke Zarathustra: A Critical Guide (Cambridge University Press, 2022).
• 'How to make sense of Nietzsche as a Sceptic,' in Nietzsche on Making Sense of Nietzsche, ed. M. Béland, C. Denat, C. Piazzesi et P. Wotling (Editions et presses de l’université de Reims, 2021).
• 'Friedrich Nietzsche: Cheerful Thinker and Writer. A Contribution to the Debate on Nietzsche’s Cheerfulness' (with Lorenzo Serini), Nietzsche-Studien (2022).
• 'Nietzsche on the Task of the Poets in his Middle Writings,' in James I. Porter, Nietzsche between Philosophy and Literature (Cambridge University Press, forthcoming).
• 'Nietzsche on the Passions and Self-Cultivation,' Continental Philosophy Review, 2022: CPR article
• 'Nietzsche on Transforming the Passions into Joys: On the Middle Writings and Thus Spoke Zarathustra,' in

  Nietzsche, penseur de l'affirmation: Relecture d'« Ainsi parlait Zarathoustra », ed. CL. Bertot et. al (Presses Universitaires de Louvain, 2019), pp. 73-91.

• 'Schopenhauer on Stoicism as a Way of Life and on the Wisdom of Life,' in David Woods & Timothy Stoll, The Schopenhaurian Mind, Routledge (forthcoming).
• 'Bergson and Philosophy as a Way of Life,' in Alexandre Lefebvre and Nils Schott (eds.), Interpreting Bergson (Cambridge University Press, 2021).
• 'Bergson on the Emotions,' in Mark Sinclair (ed.), The Bergsonian Mind (Routledge, 2022).
• 'Jean-Marie Guyau on Epicurus and the Conduct of Life' (with Federico Testa), Introduction to Guyau, The Ethics of Epicurus (Bloomsbury Academic, 2021).
• 'Guyau on Life and Morality' (with Federico Testa), in Mark Sinclair & Daniel Whistler (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Modern French Philosophy (forthcoming).

Selected Book Publications

Authored

• Nietzsche contra Rousseau (Cambridge University Press, 1991).Read Review / Read Review
• Nietzsche's Search for Philosophy: On the Middle Writings (Bloomsbury Press, 2018). Read Review / Read Review / Read Review / Read Review / Read Review / Read Review
• Nietzsche's Dawn: Philosophy, Ethics, and the Passion of Knowledge (co-authored with Rebecca Bamford) (Wiley Blackwell, 2020). Read Review / Read Review
  
• Bergson and the Time of Life (Routledge, 2002). Read Review
• Bergson: Thinking Beyond the Human Condition (Bloomsbury Press, 2018). Read review / Read review / Read Review

Edited

• Nietzsche and Modern German Thought (Routledge, 1991).
• The Nietzsche Reader (Blackwell, 2006), with Duncan Large.
• Bergson: Key Writings (Bloomsbury Press, 2002, second edition 2014), with John O Maoilerca.
• The New Century: Bergsonism, Phenomenology, and Responses to Modern Science (Acumen/University of Chicago Press, 2010). Read review 
• Jean-Marie Guyau, The Ethics of Epicurus, ed. with Federico Testa, trans. F. Testa (Bloomsbury Academic, 2021).
• Thus Spoke Zarathustra: A Critical Guide, co-edited with Paul S. Loeb (Cambridge University Press, 2022).

Book Series

Co-editor of two book series: Critical Guides to Nietzsche (Edinburgh University Press) and Re-Inventing Philosophy as a Way of Life (Bloomsbury).

Critical Guides to NietzscheLink opens in a new window

Re-inventing Philosophy as a Way of LifeLink opens in a new window