Ruth Boeker

I am Professor in the UCD School of Philosophy and Principal Investigator of the ERC BMoral project. Prior to moving to Dublin, I held academic positions in Australia and the USA and was a student in the UK and Germany. Most of my research focuses on early modern philosophy and lies at the intersection of ethics, metaphysics, and philosophy of mind. My research so far has advanced philosophical debates in the following areas:
 
I have worked extensively on early modern debates about selfhood, persons, personal identity, and agency. My work engages in detail with Locke’s views on persons and personal identity and also examines how Locke’s early critics and defenders responded to his views. This work led to the publication of my monograph Locke on Persons and Personal Identity (Oxford University Press, 2021). My research on persons and personal identity has shifted the focus of existing scholarship by taking seriously the moral and religious dimensions of these debates in addition to metaphysical and epistemic issues. Moreover, my work has drawn attention to developmental approaches to selfhood. As part of my research on Shaftesbury, I have argued that he offers a developmental approach to selfhood, which differs from more traditional approaches to personal identity insofar as his approach is not merely metaphysical but also normative. Thereby my research takes seriously his view that philosophy is meant to be practical.
 
My more recent work has focused on women philosophers of the early modern period. I have worked in detail on Catharine Trotter Cockburn’s philosophy. This work led to the publication of a short book in the Cambridge Elements series on Women in the History of Philosophy on Catharine Trotter Cockburn (Cambridge University Press, 2023). It offers the first detailed study of Cockburn’s philosophy and covers her epistemology, metaphysics, moral philosophy, and philosophy of religion. I have also published on Mary Astell and Anne Hepburn Arbuthnot and continue to expand my research on early modern women philosophers. Thereby I aim to contribute to the recovery of so far understudied and neglected female philosophers.
 
Additionally, I have ongoing research interests in eighteenth-century British moral philosophy. I have published journal articles and book chapters on a range of topics that were debated by British moralists. These publications examine moral views by John Locke, Mary Astell, Anthony Ashley Cooper, the Third Earl of Shaftesbury, Francis Hutcheson, Catharine Trotter Cockburn, David Hume, Thomas Reid, and others. Despite the growing interest in early modern women philosophers, histories of eighteenth-century British moral philosophy remain particularly focused on male authors. My current ERC BMoral project addresses this issue and aims to rethink the existing narratives about British moral philosophy.