Dominic Smith

Personal profile

Biography

Dominic has taught philosophy at undergraduate and postgraduate levels at the Universities of Dundee and Edinburgh. He wrote his PhD on tensions between the approaches of Gilles Deleuze and Alain Badiou, and his current research focuses on philosophy of technology and media. Specifically, Dominic is interested in bringing the continental tradition in philosophy (e.g. phenomenology, critical theory, poststructuralism, new forms of realism and materialism) to bear on philosophy of technology and media.

Dominic’s latest book is Exceptional Technologies: A Continental Philosophy of Technology (https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/exceptional-technologies-9781350015616/) His next project involves thinking about how the scope of philosophy of technology can be broadened to speak to issues in philosophy of education, design, and creativity (from philosophy of technology to philosophy through technology).

Dominic would welcome PhD proposals in three areas in particular: 1.) philosophy of technology and media, 2.) the work and legacy of Gilles Deleuze, 3.) the work and legacy of Walter Benjamin.

Dominic currently teaches on modules dedicated to history of philosophy, philosophy of mind, existentialism, aesthetics, philosophy of technology, Wittgenstein, and phenomenology. He teaches on both the Art and Philosophy (AP) BA and the Master of Fine Arts with Arts and Humanities (MFA-AH) run between Humanities and Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design. He is a member of the Scottish Centre for Continental Philosophy: http://scot-cont-phil.org/, and plays in a band called Kaddish.

Top tip for students:

Before studying Philosophy, Dominic recommends that you read as many of the classics of Philosophy as possible, for example, Plato's Republic, and that you think about how philosophy can be found in even the most minor everyday experiences. Think big and small at once, and allow your imaginations to be set ablaze!

Research

Dominic’s current major research interests are:

Philosophy of Technology
The work and legacy of Gilles Deleuze
The work and legacy of Walter Benjamin

He would welcome PhD proposals in these areas in particular.

Dominic has research and teaching competencies in the following areas:

History of Philosophy (Descartes, Political Philosophy, German Idealism, Phenomenology – especially Husserl, Heidegger and Sartre)
Aesthetics (especially Kant, Nietzsche and Schopenhauer)
Modern Continental Philosophy (Deleuze, Badiou)
The essayist tradition in Philosophy (as found in the works of thinkers like Emerson, Valéry, James and Thoreau)
Crossovers between the putative analytic/continental divide in Philosophy (e.g. Wittgenstein, Sellars, Chalmers, Clark, 4e cognitive science).

He is a member of the Scottish Centre for Continental Philosophy: http://scot-cont-phil.org/

AHRC funded studentships are available in these research areas - more details

Teaching

Undergraduate Modules

Descartes, Thought and Reality (Descartes, Philosophy of Mind, Introduction to Phenomenology) - PI11007

Introduction to Aesthetics (History of Aesthetics – Plato, Aristotle, Kant, Hume, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche) - PI11005

Thinking About Life: Existentialism, Lifeworld and Dasein (Existentialism – Kierkegaard, Ortega Y Gasset, Sartre, Merleau-Ponty) - PI21004

Understanding Media: The Philosophical and Cultural Impacts of Technology (Philosophy of Technology) - PI31019

Phenomenology: Lifeworld Philosophy (Phenomenology – both classical and modern, from Husserl to the implications of phenomenology for neuroscience and AI) – PI32023

Wittgenstein (Wittgenstein – both early and late) - PI41014

Postgraduate Modules

Philosophies of Imagination (examining themes and thinkers related to creativity and imagination – Kant, Bachelard, Bergson, Thoreau) – PI51026

New Realisms and Materialisms (looking at developments in recent Continental Philosophy: from Deleuze to thinkers including Jane Bennett, Quentin Meillassoux, Ray Brassier, and Elizabeth Grosz) – PI51027