Lex Newman — Associate Professor and Undergraduate Director

Professor Newman joined the faculty in 2000. He specializes in early modern philosophy, especially Descartes and Locke. He received his PhD from the University of California, Irvine. Previously, he taught at University of Nebraska, Lincoln, and at University of Pittsburgh.

E-mail:  lnewman@philosophy.utah.edu

Phone (voice-mail):  (801) 581-8749

Address:

Department of Philosophy
University of Utah
215 Central Campus Dr, #413
Salt Lake City, UT 84112

Curriculum Vitae

Note: The poet of the same name is not me (I'm no poet).

    Office Hours — Fall 2009:

Mon: 9:45-10:45 am

Wed: 9:45-10:45 am

Or at some other time, by appointment

    Research

Books

• Editor, The Cambridge Companion to Locke's Essay. Cambridge University Press, 2007.

Selected Papers

• "Did Locke have a Sophisticated Understanding of Scepticism?"  (In preparation)
• "Locke's Experiential Idea of Mechanism."  (In preparation)
• "Locke on Our Knowledge of the External World".  (In preparation)
• "The Theory of Ideas", in the Routledge Companion to Seventeenth-Century Philosophy, ed. D. Kaufman. (Forthcoming, 2009)
• "Ideas, Pictures, and the Directness of Perception in Descartes and Locke", Blackwell's Philosophy Compass 4 (2009)
• "Descartes on the Will", for the Blackwell Companion to Descartes, ed. J. Carriero and J. Broughton.  (Wiley-Blackwell, 2007)
• "Locke on Knowledge", for the Cambridge Companion to Locke's Essay.  (Cambridge University Press, 2007)
• "Descartes' Rationalist Epistemology", for the Blackwell Companion to Rationalism, ed. A. Nelson.  (Wiley-Blackwell, 2006)
• "Descartes' Epistemology", Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, ed. Edward N. Zalta (substantive update, April 2005; http://plato.stanford.edu).
• "Locke on Sensitive Knowledge and the Veil of Perception - Four Misconceptions", Pacific Philosophical Quarterly, vol. 85, no. 3 (Sept 2004), 273-300.
• "Rocking the Foundations of Cartesian Knowledge: Critical Notice of Janet Broughton, Descartes's Method of Doubt", Philosophical Review, vol. 113, no. 1 (January 2004), 101-125.
• Review of George Pappas' Berkeley's Thought (Cornell 2000).  Philosophical Review, vol. 111, no. 2 (April 2003).
• "Unmasking Descartes' Case for the Bête Machine Doctrine", Canadian Journal of Philosophy, vol. 31, no. 3 (September 2001), 389-426.
• Review of Thomas Vinci's Cartesian Truth (Oxford 1998), in Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, vol. 62, no. 3 (May 2001), 735-38.
• "Locke on the Idea of Substratum", Pacific Philosophical Quarterly, vol. 81, no. 3 (September 2000), 291-324.
• "The Fourth Meditation", Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, vol. 59, no. 3 (September 1999), 559-591.
• "Circumventing Cartesian Circles" (with Alan Nelson), Noûs, vol. 33, no. 3 (1999), 370-404.
• "Descartes' Epistemology", Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, ed. Edward N. Zalta (posted December 3, 1997; http://plato.stanford.edu).
• "Descartes on Unknown Faculties and Our Knowledge of the External World", Philosophical Review, vol. 103, no. 3 (July 1994), 489-531.

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    Teaching

Courses:

• Fall 2009:
  • Phil 3200 — Deductive Logic (course web) (textbook info)
  • Phil 4120 — Early Modern Philosophy (course web) (textbook info)
  
  
• Fall 2008 - Spring 2009:
  • {On leave}
  
  
• Spring 2008:
  • Phil 3200 — Deductive Logic (course web) (textbook info)
  
  
• Fall 2007:
  • Phil 1000 — Intro: Survey of Philosophy (course web) (textbook info)
  • Phil 7130 — Graduate Seminar on John Locke (course web) (textbook info)
  
  
• Spring 2007:
  • Phil 3300 — Theory of Knowledge (course web)
  
  
• Fall 2006:
  • Phil 1000 — Intro: Survey of Philosophy (course web) (textbook info)
  • Phil 7130 — Graduate Seminar on Berkeley (course web) (textbook info)
  
  
• Spring 2006:
  • Phil 3200 — Deductive Logic (course web) (textbook info)
  • Phil 5120/6120 — John Locke (Modern & Recent Phil) (course web) (textbook info)
  
  
• Fall 2005:
  • {On leave}
  
  
• Spring 2005:
  • Phil 3200 — Deductive Logic (course web) (textbook info)
  • Phil 4120 — Early Modern Philosophy (course web) (textbook info)
  
  
• Fall 2004:
  • Phil 3300 — Theory of Knowledge (course web)
  • Phil 7130 — Graduate Seminar on David Hume

Technology Projects:

• Reasoning Tutor (developed with James Sage):

Reasoning Tutor is a series of computer delivered reasoning exercises enabling students to learn, and be tested, on basic reasoning concepts outside of the classroom — either online, or using a CD-ROM.

 

 

215 South Central Campus Dr, 4th Floor, Salt Lake City, UT  84112
Phone (801) 581-8161     Fax (801) 585-5195