Brandon Smith
Fonds de recherche du Québec (FRQSC) Fellow (2024-2026)
Instructor, Department of Philosophy, McGill University
Early Modern Eudaimonism: An Ethics of Flourishing
This book examines the presence and development of eudaimonism amongst key moral philosophers in the early modern period (namely, the 17th and 18th centuries). Eudaimonism, as an ethical tradition originating in ancient Greece, conceives of happiness or flourishing (eudaimonia) foundationally as a good which is (a) exclusively intrinsically valuable, (b) partly grounded in facts about nature, (c) partly grounded in the beliefs and feelings of a subject, and (d) structurally stable. Through the lens of these four formal features of eudaimonism, I outline the distinctive ways in which Thomas Hobbes, Pierre Gassendi, René Descartes, Mary Astell, Gabrielle Suchon, Benedict de Spinoza, G.W. Leibniz, and Émilie du Châtelet operate within and meaningfully contribute to this ethical tradition. In particular, this book will discuss each early modern eudaimonist’s views on the nature and relationship between God, the universe, mind and body, pleasure, virtue, sex, and gender in living a happy, fulfilling life.
Brandon Smith has a B.A. Honours in English and Philosophy and an M.A in Philosophy from Carleton University. He has a Ph.D. in Philosophy (with a concentration in teaching philosophy) from McGill University. Brandon’s first book, The Search for Mind-Body Flourishing in Spinoza’s Eudaimonism, is forthcoming in Brill’s New Research in the History of Western Philosophy series. He is also in the process of co-writing with Carlos Fraenkel a book on Spinoza’s account of the good life for Cambridge’s Elements series. Brandon has published articles on Spinoza’s eudaimonistic moral philosophy in Dialogue, Ergo, Journal of Modern Philosophy, and Journal of Spinoza Studies. He has plans to produce future monographs on the history, development, and applicability of eudaimonism as an ethical approach to happiness.
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