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9. Brian Conolly

Brian Conolly

Areas of Specialization

• Medieval philosophy

Interests

Research Interests: medieval theories of matter, motion, infinity, and continuity; medieval theories of intellect and cognition; Dietrich of Freiberg, Thomas Aquinas, Averroes, Aristotle’s physics and metaphysics

Teaching Interests: History of Philosophy, Ethics, Applied Ethics, Formal Logic

Other Interests: Music, birding, hiking

Favorite/Regular Courses Offered

• Ethics
• Environmental Ethics
• Islam and Philosophy
• Ancient Greek Philosophy
• Ad Infinitum: Controversy, Paradox, Perplexity, and the Idea of the Infinite
• Early Modern Philosophy
• Formal Logic
• Biomedical Ethics

Biography

PhD, Indiana University
BA and MA, Stanford University

Dr. Conolly teaches a range of courses in the history of philosophy and in contemporary philosophy, especially ethics, but he specializes in medieval philosophy. His dissertation investigated ancient and medieval theories of change in nature, specifically with respect to the intensification of forms. In addition to publishing and presenting papers on this subject, he has published or presented papers on medieval theories of the intellect and on medieval discussions of infinity and continuity. Dr. Conolly is currently studying early fourteenth-century theories of matter, especially with respect to the problem of the relation between matter and spatial location. He has been teaching at Simon’s Rock since 2006.

Highlights

Publications

• Book Review: Véronique Decaix. Constituer le Réel. Noétique et Métaphysique chez Dietrich de Freiberg. Paris: Librairie Philosophique J. Vrin, 2021. Journal of the History of Philosophy, vol. 61, no. 4 (2023), pp. 707–709.
• “Dietrich of Freiberg on the Succession of Forms in the Intensification of Qualities” Recherches de Theologie et Philosophie Medievale (2014)
• “The Form of Corporeity and Aptitudinal Being in Dietrich von Freiberg’s Defense of the Doctrine of the Unity of Substantial Form” in Charles Bolyard and Rondo Keele, editors, Essays in Later Mediaeval Metaphysics (Fordham University Press, 2012)
• “Averroes, Thomas Aquinas, and Giles of Rome on How This Man Understands.” Vivarium 45 (2007)

Presentations

• “Virtual Entities in Late Medieval Discussions of the Homeomerous Mixed Body”, Poster Presentation, “Virtual Entities in Science: A Virtual Workshop,” March 5, 12 and 19, 2021, online. Organized by the Project “Virtual Particles” of the Research Unit “The Epistemology of the Large Hadron Collider” of the German Research Foundation (DFG)
• “Thomas Aquinas, Siger of Brabant, and Dietrich of Freiberg on God’s Creative Power.” University of Ottawa Summer Conference in Medieval and Early Modern Philosophy, July 4, 2016
• “Early Fourteenth Century Theories of Motion: Thomas de Bailly and Hervaeus Natalis on Infinity and Continuity.” Canadian Society for the History and Philosophy of Science Meeting, CFHSS Congress, Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, ON, May 27-29, 2012
• “Intrinsic Increase and Actual Infinities: Dietrich von Freiberg on the Intensification of Qualities.” Boston College Patristic and Medieval Philosophy and Theology Lecture Series, Chestnut Hill, MA, April 23, 2012
• “Incommensurability and the Intensively Infinite Power of God in Ockham’s Quodlibets.” Canadian Society of Medievalists Congress University of New Brunswick, Fredericton, New Brunswick, May 29, 2011
• “The Interpenetration of the Elements in Dietrich von Freiberg's Theory of the Mixed Body.” 8^th International Medieval Congress, Leeds University, Leeds UK, July 9, 2008