Department of Philosophy

Instructor Department of Philosophy Bowling Green State University Bowling Green, OH 43403 Office:  322 Shatzel Hall Office Phone: (419) 372-7216 E-mail: rboeker@bgsu.edu

I joined the Philosophy Department at Bowling Green State University as visiting faculty member in the Fall 2012. Prior to coming to Bowling Green I was a PhD Student at the University of St Andrews. I received my PhD in December 2012.  My dissertation was on “John Locke on Persons and Personal Identity.”  During my PhD, I was a visiting scholar at Yale and Rutgers Universities.

Dissertation and Research Interests

I decided to write my dissertation on Locke, because questions of accountability are at the heart of Locke’s account of persons and personal identity. I argue that Locke offers a moral and legal account of personhood, and explain why he links it to an account of personal identity in terms of sameness of consciousness. According to my interpretation, his account of personal identity is not psychological per se, but rather it is psychological in virtue of his particular conception of a person and his particular understanding of the conditions of just accountability.

Besides my research in the history of modern philosophy, my research interests include topics in metaphysics, metaphysical and ethical questions concerning persons and personal identity. One aim of my future research is to provide a better understanding of the relation between morality and metaphysics in theories of persons and personal identity.

Teaching and Teaching Interests

This academic year I am teaching Introduction to Philosophy, Philosophy of Mind, and History of Modern Philosophy (at undergraduate and graduate level).

Additionally, I am interested in teaching courses in metaphysics, the history of ethics, and courses which integrate my research and teaching interests on topics such as personal identity. In my graduate course on the History of Modern Philosophy I include, for example, topics at the intersection of metaphysics and moral philosophy. This course offers an advanced study of theories by Descartes, Spinoza, Locke, Hume and Kant, with particular focus on topics such as the relation between mind and body, substance, personal identity, freedom, and moral responsibility.

Department of Philosophy
305 Shatzel Hall,
Bowling Green State University,
Bowling Green, OH 43403.

Phone: 419-372-2117
Fax: 419-372-8191
Email: mdeluca@bgsu.edu