David Cunning
Associate Professor of Philosophy
The University of Iowa

272 English-Philosophy Bldg.
Voice: (319) 335-0027
Fax: (319) 353-2322

e-mail
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Hi.  I am a philosophy professor at the University of Iowa.  My main research and teaching interests are in History of Modern Philosophy -- esp. in the great system builders.  I am also interested in a number of philosophical issues in Epistemology, Philosophy of Mind, and Ethics: how and when we know that our concepts are of the things that we would identify as their objects, and the implications for the relevance of the results of conceptual analysis; issues of concept-formation and belief-revision, and the way in which belief systems are resilient in the face of evidence that might otherwise bring them down; the relationship between body and mind, and the influence of historical conceptions of body and mind on current conceptions of body and mind; and issues surrounding self, agency, and accountability.  I received my Ph.D. in Philosophy from the University of California, Irvine, in 2000; I received my B.A. from UC Berkeley.  For 2004-2005 I was a fellow of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

My current project is (very generally) on the problem of how to interpret rationalist philosophers given their views on what our minds are like before we do philosophy.  Rationalists hold that our standard conceptions and commitments are way off, but at the same time they realize that they need to communicate with us if they are going to convince us that they are right.  In effect, rationalists who are also teachers speak to us in terms that we understand, otherwise we would not understand them. As would be suspected, the interpretive problems that arise (if all of this is right) are legion.

I have a handful of publications, including:

  • “Margaret Lucas Cavendish,” commissioned for The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, ed. Edward Zalta
  • "Malebranche and Occasional Causes," Philosophy Compass 3 (2008), 1-20
  • “Fifth Meditation TINs Revisited: A Reply to Criticisms of the Epistemic Interpretation,” British Journal for the History of Philosophy 16:1 (2008), 215-227
  • "Nicolas Malebranche," The Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers, ed. Thomas Hockey, Springer Academic Publishers (2007)
  • "Semel in Vita: Descartes' Stoic View on the Place of Philosophy in Human Life," Faith and Philosophy 24:2 (2007), 164-183
  • "Descartes on the Dubitability of the Existence of Self," Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 74:1 (2007), 111-131
  • "Descartes on Sensations and Ideas of Sensations," An Anthology of Philosophical Studies, Athens: Atiner Publishing (2006), 17-32
  • "Cavendish on the Intelligibility of the Prospect of Thinking Matter," History of Philosophy Quarterly 23:2 (2006), 117-136
  • Review of David Skrbina, Panpsychism in the West, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews (2005)
  • "Rationalism and Education," A Companion to Rationalism, ed. Alan Nelson, Blackwell Publishing (2005), 61-81
  • Editor and translator, “Principii Cartesia” by Robert Percy Smith, The Philological Museum (2004), ed. Dana Sutton
  • "Systematic Divergences in Malebranche and Cudworth," Journal of the History of Philosophy 41:3 (2003), 343-363
  • "True and Immutable Natures and Epistemic Progress in Descartes' Meditations," British Journal for the History of Philosophy 11:2 (2003), 235-248
  • "Descartes on the Immutability of the Divine Will," Religious Studies 39:1 (2003), 79-92
  • "Descartes' Modal Metaphysics," The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (2002), ed. Edward Zalta
  • "Agency and Consciousness," Synthese 120:2 (1999), 271-294
  • "Modality and Cognition in Descartes" (co-authored), Acta Philosophica Fennica 64 (1999), 137-153

Below are some links to materials that might be useful.


Student Resources

ICON course site

 

Professor Cunning's Office Hours

 

The Writing Center

 

The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

 

 

Hazel

Page updated April 22, 2008.