Michael Bennett McNulty

he/him

mcnu0074@umn.edu

Philosophy

805 Heller Hall

271 19th Ave S
Minneapolis, MN 55455

Curriculum Vitae

Collegiate Affiliation

Philosophy

Philosophy of Science

Early Modern History

German, Nordic, Slavic & Dutch

Links

Homepage

Philpeople Profile

I'm broadly interested in the history of philosophy of science. Lately, I've been working on a history of the Minnesota Center for Philosophy of Science and the philosophy of contemporary conservation science. Most of my published work concerns Immanuel Kant's views on the "improperly so-called" natural sciences: chemistry, biology, psychology, anthropology, and natural history.

Educational Background & Specialties

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Educational Background

Ph.D.: Philosophy, University of California, Irvine, 2014
B.A.: Philosophy and Mathematics, Macalester College, 2008

Specialties

Immanuel Kant
History and Philosophy of Science
History and Philosophy of Mathematics and Logic
Early Modern Philosophy
Philosophy of Sport

Publications

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Publications

McNulty, Michael Bennett. "Kant’s Aethereal Hammer: When Everything Looks Like a Nail." Kant and the Systematicity of the Sciences (2024).
McNulty, Michael Bennett. "What Mathematics and Metaphysics of Corporeal Nature Offer to Each Other: Kant on the Foundations of Natural Science." Kantian Review 28 (2023): 397–412.
McNulty, Michael Bennett. "Kant on the Mathematical Deficiency of Psychology." HOPOS: Journal of the International Society for the History of Philosophy of Science 12 (2022): 485–509.
McNulty, Michael Bennett. "A Science for Gods, A Science for Human Beings: Kant on Teleological Speculations in Natural History." Studies in History of Philosophy of Science 94 (2022): 47–55.
McNulty, Michael Bennett. "Beyond the Metaphysical Foundations of Natural Science: Kant’s Empirical Physics and the General Remark to the Dynamics." Kant's Metaphysical Foundations of Natural Science: A Critical Guide (2022).
McNulty, Michael Bennett. Kant's Metaphysical Foundations of Natural Science: A Critical Guide. Cambridge University Press, 2022.
McNulty, Michael Bennett. "Review of Watkins, Eric. Kant on Laws." The Philosophical Review 130 (2021): 591–6.
McNulty, Michael Bennett. "The Science of the Soul and the Unyielding Architectonic: Kant Versus Wolff on the Foundations of Psychology." The Force of an Idea: New Essays on Christian Wolff's Psychology (2021): 251–69.
McNulty, Michael Bennett. "Continuity of Change in Kant's Dynamics." Synthese 196 (2019): 1595–1622.
McNulty, Michael Bennett. "Chemical Dissolution and Kant’s Critical Theory of Nature." Kant-Studien 109 (2018): 537–55.
McNulty, Michael Bennett. "Kant on Empirical Psychology and Experimentation." Natur und Freiheit: Akten des XII. Internationalen Kant-Kongresses (2018): 2707-2714.
McNulty, Michael Bennett. "Margaret Cavendish on the Order and Infinitude of Nature." History of Philosophy Quarterly 35 (2018): 219-239.
McNulty, Michael Bennett. "Review of Massimi, Michela and Angela Breitenbach (eds.). Kant and the Laws of Nature." Kantian Review 23 (2018): 338–43.
McNulty, Michael Bennett. "Review of Thorndike, Oliver. Kant’s Transition Project and Late Philosophy: Connecting the Opus postumum and Metaphysics of Morals." Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews (2018).
McNulty, Michael Bennett, Marius Stan. "From General to Special Metaphysics of Nature." The Palgrave Kant Handbook (2017): 493–511.
McNulty, Michael Bennett. "What is Chemistry, for Kant?." Kant Yearbook 9 (2017): 85–112.
McNulty, Michael Bennett. "Chemistry in Kant's Opus Postumum." HOPOS: The Journal of the International Society for the History of Philosophy of Science 6 (2016): 64-95.
McNulty, Michael Bennett, Michael Ernst, Jeremy Heis, Penelope Maddy, James Owen Weatherall. Mathematical Depth. Oxford University Press, 2015.
McNulty, Michael Bennett. "Rehabilitating the Regulative Use of Reason: Kant on Empirical and Chemical Laws." Studies in History and Philosophy of Science 54 (2015): 1-10.
McNulty, Michael Bennett. "Kant on Chemistry and the Application of Mathematics in Natural Science." Kantian Review 19 (2014): 393-418.

Activities

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Activities

Professional

Director of Undergraduate Studies, Department of Philosophy 2024–
Executive Committee, Minnesota Center for Philosophy of Science 2024–
Chair, Program Committee, Midwest Study Group of the North American Kant Society 2023–
Program Committee, Midwest Study Group of the North American Kant Society 2018–
Program Committee, Central Division Meeting of the American Philosophical Association 2025 2023–2025
Steering Committee, International Society for History of Philosophy of Science 2023–2024
Program Committee, 'Kant and Before' Subcommittee, 14th Biennial Meeting of the International Society for History of Philosophy of Science 2020–2022
Co-Founder, Minnesota Center for Canon Expansion and Change 2021
Organizer and Local Host, 2017 Meeting of the Midwest Study Group of the North American Kant Society October 2017
Panel Organizer, 11th Biennial Meeting of the International Society for History of Philosophy of Science June 2016

Outreach

Philosophy and American Football, Presentation at Edina High School November 2018
"Boycott Football for Good — It’s the Ethical Thing to Do," Op-Ed in the Star Tribune December 2017
Philosophical Thought Experiments, Presentation at Southwest High School May 2017

Awards

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Awards

Imagine Fund Annual Faculty Research Grant, “Making Philosophy of Science: The Minnesota Center for Philosophy of Science, 1953–1980”, 2024–2026
Inclusive, Accessible, and Responsive Courses Grant, To redesign PHIL3601W: Scientific Thought, Summer 2024
Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Social Justice in Liberal Arts Pedagogies Grant, For “Turning the Predominantly White Discipline of Philosophy: Towards Justice, Equity, & Inclusion in a Predominantly White Institution.” From Office for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion and Center for Educational Innovation. With co-PIs Dwight K. Lewis, Jr. and Jessica Gordon-Roth., Spring 2023
McKnight Land-Grant Professor, 2022–2024
Interdisciplinary Collaborative Workshop Award, For "Center for Canon Expansion and Change Summer Program." With Jessica Gordon-Roth (PI) and Dwight K. Lewis, Jr., 2022–2023
Research Fellow, Alexander von Humboldt-Stiftung, 2019–2020
Faculty Development Leave, College of Liberal Arts, 2019–2020
Journal of the History of Philosophy Master Class Award, Summer 2017

Courses

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Courses

PHIL 1001: Introduction to Logic
PHIL 1201: Critical Reasoning
PHIL 1912: Sports, Reason, and Society
PHIL 3005: General History of Western Philosophy, Modern Period
PHIL 3601: Scientific Thought
PHIL 4055: Kant
PHIL 4320: Kant's Practical Philosophy
PHIL 4888: Philosophy Senior Capstone Seminar
PHIL 5601: History of Philosophy of Science
PHIL 8090: Seminar in History of Modern Philosophy: Kant's Anthropology
PHIL 8090: Seminar in History of Modern Philosophy: Kant's Philosophy of Science
PHIL 8980: Philosophy Proseminar