1. Justin E. H. Smith, Against the Algorithm: Human Freedom in a Data-Driven Age, Princeton University Press, forthcoming, 2021.
2. Justin E. H. Smith, Irrationality: A History of the Dark Side of Reason, Princeton University Press, 2019.
3. Justin E. H. Smith, The Philosopher: A History in Six Types, Princeton University Press, 2016.
Summary: What would the global history of philosophy look like if it were told not as a story of ideas but as a series of job descriptions—ones that might have been used to fill the position of philosopher at different times and places over the past 2,500 years? The Philosopher does just that, providing a new way of looking at the history of philosophy by bringing to life six kinds of figures who have occupied the role of philosopher in a wide range of societies around the world over the millennia—the Natural Philosopher, the Sage, the Gadfly, the Ascetic, the Mandarin, and the Courtier. The result is at once an unconventional introduction to the global history of philosophy and an original exploration of what philosophy has been—and perhaps could be again. By uncovering forgotten or neglected philosophical job descriptions, the book reveals that philosophy is a universal activity, much broader—and more gender inclusive—than we normally think today. In doing so, The Philosopher challenges us to reconsider our idea of what philosophers can do and what counts as philosophy.
Reviewed or profiled in The Times Literary Supplement, The Nation, Corriere della Sera, Il Manifesto, The Chronicle of Higher Education, Svenska Dagbladet, The Irish Times, The Key Reporter, The Philosophers' Magazine, The Hedgehog Review.
"Clear, engaging and enlightening."--Stephen Gaukroger, Times Literary Supplement
"The Philosopheris a fun book to read for anyone, professional philosophers included."--Siddharth Singh, Open Magazine
"The strength of Smith's approach is to demonstrate philosophical thought in action, and the book comes into its own when introducing readers to philosophers outside the recognized canon."--Joe Humphreys, Irish Times
"The array of thinkers cited is gender and culture inclusive, and the writing style is stylish and interspersed with touches of humor."--Choice
"A thoughtful, provocative, and quietly confident account of what it is to do philosophy."--Sarah Gustafson, Key Reporter
"Justin Smith's graceful and lucidly argued history of philosophy asks us to rethink our assumptions about both history and philosophy. More than a survey, full of surprising selections and juxtapositions, Smith's work holds delights for any curious reader and raises important challenges to the dominant categories of philosophy and philosophers in the contemporary university. A much-needed book, both inside and outside the academy."--Marco Roth, editor and cofounder of n+1magazine
"Justin Smith's The Philosopher is erudite, incisive, beautifully written, and often hilarious--a wild and exhilarating examination of the ambitions of philosophers to understand life from more perspectives than even Nietzsche would have dared. Smith is as comfortable and clever discussing Leibniz on Chinese theology as he is Laurence Sterne, T. S. Eliot, or J. M. Coetzee. If you like philosophy, you will be delighted with this book."--Clancy Martin, author of Love and Lies
Selected Reviews:
Nausea Renner, "The Gadfly and the Spider," a review of The Philosopher: A History in Six Types, and The Stone Reader, in The Nation, August 10, 2016.
Carl Rudbeck, "Vad gör egentligen en filosof hela dagarna?" A review of The Philosopher: A History in Six Types, in Svenska Dagbladet, August 3, 2016.
3.1. Italian Translation: Il filosofo. Una storia in sei tipi, Einaudi, 2016.
Selected Reviews:
Luca Illetterati, "La storia interviene sulla formazione dei concetti," in Il Manifesto, February 10, 2017.
Marco del Corona, "Curioso o asceta, che razza di filosofo sei?" in Corriere della Sera, December 11, 2016.
3.2 Chinese translation, forthcoming, Xinhua Publishing House, 2018.
4. Justin E. H. Smith, Nature, Human Nature, and Human Difference: Race in Early Modern Philosophy, Princeton University Press, 2015.
Summary: People have always been xenophobic, but an explicit philosophical and scientific view of human racial difference only began to emerge during the modern period. Why and how did this happen? Surveying a range of philosophical and natural-scientific texts, dating from the Spanish Renaissance to the German Enlightenment, Nature, Human Nature, and Human Difference charts the evolution of the modern concept of race and shows that natural philosophy, particularly efforts to taxonomize and to order nature, played a crucial role. I demonstratee how the denial of moral equality between Europeans and non-Europeans resulted from converging philosophical and scientific developments, including a declining belief in human nature's universality and the rise of biological classification. The racial typing of human beings grew from the need to understand humanity within an all-encompassing system of nature, alongside plants, minerals, primates, and other animals. While racial difference as seen through science did not arise in order to justify the enslavement of people, it became a rationalization and buttress for the practices of trans-Atlantic slavery. From the work of François Bernier to G. W. Leibniz, Immanuel Kant, and others, I delve into philosophy's part in the legacy and damages of modern racism.
"In this innovative, thought-provoking book, Smith (history and philosophy of science, Université Paris Diderot, Paris 7) looks at the construction and evolution, in natural science and anthropology, of 17th- and 18th-century modern views of racial difference--views that led to racial typing, racial profiling, prejudice, and implicit bias. . . . This is a valuable book for those interested in philosophy, sociology, cultural studies and multiculturalism, the history of race, and the history of natural science and anthropology."--Choice
"Combining philosophical and historical analysis and a mine of research, this book documents the evolution of the race construct in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. At a time when the philosophy of race is vigorously reinventing itself, Justin Smith provides readers with an insightful foray into the modern European mindset constructing non-European otherness."--Koffi N. Maglo, University of Cincinnati
"Charting the discourse on human race in early modern philosophy, this book makes important contributions to the history and philosophy of race--a subject that continues to haunt contemporary debates. Smith covers an exceedingly complex terrain of disparate ideas and arguments, stretching across centuries and a wide range of national contexts. This is a valuable, thought-provoking, and innovative addition to the literature."--Staffan Müller-Wille, University of Exeter
5. Justin E. H. Smith, Divine Machines: Leibniz and the Sciences of Life, Princeton University Press, 2011.
Summary: Though it did not yet exist as a discrete field of scientific inquiry, biology was at the heart of many of the most important debates in seventeenth-century philosophy. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the work of G. W. Leibniz. In Divine Machines, I offer the first in-depth examination of Leibniz's deep and complex engagement with the empirical life sciences of his day, in areas as diverse as medicine, physiology, taxonomy, generation theory, and paleontology. I show how these wide-ranging pursuits were not only central to Leibniz's philosophical interests, but often provided the insights that led to some of his best-known philosophical doctrines. Presenting the clearest picture yet of the scope of Leibniz's theoretical interest in the life sciences, Divine Machines takes seriously the philosopher's own repeated claims that the world must be understood in fundamentally biological terms. Here I attempt to reveal a thinker who was immersed in the sciences of life, and looked to the living world for answers to vexing metaphysical problems.
Reviewed in Isis, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews, HoPoS, British Journal for the History of Philosophy, The Leibniz Review, Modern Intellectual History.
"Smith... offers a broader historical context than the title suggests. But with Divine Machines, Leibniz himself emerges as a fascinating example of the early modern obsession with the grand questions about life, and is for this reason certainly of interest to historians of science and medicine."--Stephanie Eichberg, British Journal for the History of Science
"Smith's . . . book affords quite a number of innovative analyses and is due to become a landmark of Leibniz studies."--François Duchesneau, HOPOS: Journal of the International Society for the History of Philosophy of Science
"Even in the instances where the reader's doubts linger, Smith's scholarship makes a convincing case and one is required to look anew at Leibniz's most well known commitments. For the contributions it makes in our understandings of Leibniz and for the way in which Leibniz is integrated in the emergence of the life sciences, Divine Machines is highly recommended reading."--Lea F. Schweitz, Aestimatio
"With this book, Justin Smith turns the world of Leibniz scholarship upside down. Others have argued for the centrality of Leibniz's views on language and logic, or on physics and mathematics, or on theology, but Smith shows us how to read this key figure in the history of modern thought through his biology. This learned, original, and exciting book is obligatory reading for anyone interested in the origins of modern philosophy."--Daniel Garber, Princeton University
"I can not overstate how important Divine Machines is to Leibniz studies and the history of early modern philosophy and science. There is so much material here, so many sources, so many arguments, so many connections made, that even as I write this I am distracted by thoughts of the many avenues of research Smith has opened up to the rest of us. Divine Machines is a watershed moment."--Gideon Manning, California Institute of Technology
Critical Editions
Stephen Menn and Justin E. H. Smith (eds. and trans.), Anton Wilhelm Amo's Philosophical Dissertations on Mind and Body, Oxford University Press, 2020.
François Duchesneau and Justin E. H. Smith (eds. and trans.), The Leibniz-Stahl Controversy, Yale Leibniz Series, Yale University Press, 2016.
Edited volumes:
1. Justin E. H. Smith (ed.), Embodiment, Oxford Philosophical Concepts Series, Oxford University Press, 2017.
2. Ohad Nachtomy and Justin E. H. Smith (eds.), The Life Sciences in Early Modern Philosophy, Oxford University Press, 2014.
3. Mogens Laerke, Eric Schliesser, and Justin E. H. Smith (eds.), Philosophy and Its History: Aims and Methods in the Study of Early Modern Philosophy, Oxford University Press, 2013.
4. Ohad Nachtomy and Justin E. H. Smith (eds.), Machines of Nature and Corporeal Substances in Leibniz, Springer, 2011.
5. Carlos Fraenkel, Dario Perinetti, and Justin E. H. Smith (eds.), The Rationalists: Between Tradition and Innovation, Springer, 2009.
6. Justin E. H. Smith (ed.), The Problem of Animal Generation in Early Modern Philosophy, Cambridge University Press, 2006.
