Professor Morris received his M.A. and Ph.D. in Philosophy from the University of Toronto. His main interests are Phenomenology and Existentialism (especially Merleau-Ponty), Hegel and Bergson, with a focus on the philosophy of the body, mind and nature. His other interests include 19th century German Idealism, ancient and modern philosophy (esp. Aristotle, Descartes and Berkeley), and philosophy of biology. Some of his most recent publications are on: expression, perception, sense and reversibility in Merleau-Ponty; Hegel on the understanding; animals and humans, in relation to the problem of mind and body; method in Husserl, Bergson, and Peirce; and Hegel on the logic of measuring the body. His book The Sense of Space is published by SUNY Press.

Click to view my PhilPapers profile, which also gives abstracts for the items below, and here for my Academia.Edu page.

A number of the articles below are available as preprints/postprints through Concordia's Spectrum Research Repository; click here for a complete list of items by me in Spectrum.

Selected Publications

Books

The Sense of Space (SUNY Press, 2004). Search The Sense of Space at Google Books, or read the first chapter online at SUNY.

Articles

“The Enigma of Reversibility and the Genesis of Sense in Merleau-Ponty,” Continental Philosophy Review. (Forthcoming)

“The Place of Animal Being: Following Animal Embryogenesis and Navigation to the Hollow of Being in Merleau-Ponty,” Research in Phenomenology, special issue on “Nonhuman Animals.” (Forthcoming)

“Diabetes, Chronic Illness and the Bodily Institution of Ecstatic Temporality,” Human Studies 31 (2008): 399-421. Open Access via Concordia Spectrum.

“Reversibility and Ereignis: Being as Kantian Imagination in Merleau-Ponty and Heidegger,” Philosophy Today 52 (2008), Supplement 2008, Selected Studies in Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy: 135-143.

“The Time and Place of the Organism: Merleau-Ponty’s Philosophy in Embryo,” Alter: Revue de phénoménologie 16 (2008): 69-86.

“Faces and the Invisible of the Visible: Toward an Animal Ontology,” PhaenEx: Journal of Existential and Phenomenological Theory and Culture, special issue on “Recent Continental Perspectives on Animals,” guest editors Lisa Guenther and Chloe Taylor. (2007): 124-169. (Abstract and article available online.)

“Ecstatic Body, Ecstatic Nature: Perception as Breaking With the World,” Chiasmi International: Trilingual Studies Concerning Merleau-Ponty’s Thought 8 (2006): 201-217. Open Access via Concordia Spectrum.

“Hegel on the Life of the Understanding,” International Philosophical Quarterly 46 (2006): 403-419. Open Access via Concordia Spectrum.

“What is Living and What is Non-Living in Merleau-Ponty’s Philosophy of Movement and Expression,” Chiasmi International: Trilingual Studies Concerning Merleau-Ponty’s Thought 7 (2006). Open Access via Concordia Spectrum.

“Bergsonian Intuition, Husserlian Variation, Peirceian Abduction: Toward a Relation Between Method, Sense and Nature,” The Southern Journal of Philosophy 43 (2005): 267-298. Open Access via Concordia Spectrum.

“Animals and Humans, Thinking and Nature,” Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences 4 (2005): 49-72. Open Access via Concordia Spectrum.

"Thinking the Body, from Hegel’s Speculative Logic of Measure to Dynamic Systems Theory," The Journal of Speculative Philosophy 16 New series (2002): 182-197. Erratum: Omitted paragraph. Open Access via Concordia Spectrum.

"Touching Intelligence," Journal of Philosophy of Sport 29 (2002): 149-162, invited paper for a special issue on "Movement and Intelligence," guest editor Maxine Sheets-Johnstone.

"Lived Time and Absolute Knowing: Habit and Addiction from Infinite Jest to the Phenomenology of Spirit," Clio: A Journal of Literature, History and the Philosophy of History 30 (2001): 375-415. Open Access via Concordia Spectrum.

"The Logic of the Body in Bergson’s Motor Schemes and Merleau-Ponty’s Body Schema," Philosophy Today 44 (2000), Supplement 2000, Selected Studies in Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy: 60-69.

"The Fold and The Body Schema in Merleau-Ponty and Dynamic Systems Theory," Chiasmi International 1 (1999): 275-286. Open Access via Concordia Spectrum.

"Optical Idealism and the Languages of Depth in Descartes and Berkeley," The Southern Journal of Philosophy XXXV (1997): 363-392. Open Access via Concordia Spectrum.

Chapters in Books

“Empirical and Phenomenological Studies of Embodied Cognition,” in The Handbook of Phenomenology and Cognitive Science, eds. Shaun Gallagher and Daniel Schmicking, Springer Verlag. (Forthcoming)

“The Place of the Organism in Kant: Geography, Teleology and the Limits of Philosophy,” in Reading Kant’s Geography, eds. Stuart Elden and Eduardo Mendieta, SUNY Press. (Forthcoming)

“Body,” in Merleau-Ponty: Key Concepts, eds. Rosalyn Diprose and Jack Reynolds, Acumen Publishing (Stocksfield, UK: Acumen Publishing, 2008), 111-120.

“Philosophy of Mind in the Continental Tradition,” in The Edinburgh Companion to Twentieth-Century Philosophies, ed. Constantin Boundas, (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press/Columbia University Press, 2007), 531-544.

Review Essays

“Heideggerian Truth and Deleuzian Genesis as Differential ‘Grounds’ of Philosophy,” review essay of Miguel de Beistegui’s Truth and Genesis: Philosophy as Differential Ontology, Pli: The Warwick Journal of Philosophy 17 (2006): 166-183, with response by de Beistegui, pp 184-193.

“The Open Figure of Experience and Mind,” review essay for a book symposium on John Russon's Human Experience: Philosophy, Neurosis, and the Elements of Everyday Life, Dialogue 45(2006): 315-326.

Critical Responses

“Phenomenological Realism and the Moving Image of Experience,” invited critical response to “Spatial Perception, Embodiment and Scientific Realism: Critical notice of David Morris, The Sense of Space (SUNY 2004).” Dialogue: Canadian Philosophical Review (Forthcoming).

Upcoming Conference Papers & Presentations

 

Selected Past Presentations

“Keeping Living Time in Mind: New Horizons in Philosophy of Mind,” invited paper for session on “Bringing Phenomenology into Contemporary Philosophy of Mind and Cognitive Psychology,” Meeting of the American Philosophical Association Central Division, with Donn Welton (SUNY Stony Brook) and Sean Kelly (Harvard) (replacing Alva Noë), February 2010.

“The Chirality of Being: Exploring a Merleau-Ponteian Ontology of Sense,” Annual Meeting of the Society for Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy, George Mason University, Arlington, Virginia, October 2009.

“Spatiality, Temporality and Architecture as the Place of Memory,” invited paper, International Conference of the Merleau-Ponty Circle: The Experience and Expression of Space, Mississipi State University, September 2009.

“Reconstructing Bergson’s Cone of Memory: On the Relation of Matter and Memory,” Annual Meeting of the Society for Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy, Dusquesne University, Pittsburgh, October 2008.

“The Time and Place of the Organism: Merleau-Ponty’s Philosophy in Embryo,” invited paper, Space and Time in the Work of Merleau-Ponty, a conference in celebration of the centenary of Maurice Merleau-Ponty’s birth, École Normale Supérieure, Paris (organized by the Husserl Archives), June 2008.

“The Enigma of Reversibility: On Being as Kantian Imagination, and the Genesis of Sense in Merleau-Ponty,” invited paper, Colloquium Series, Department of Philosophy, Northwestern University, May 2008.

“Embryos and the Virtual: Organisms as Living Concepts at the Turn of Experience,” invited paper, Bergson and Bergsonism, 1st Meeting of the European Network in Contemporary French Philosophy, Warwick University, April 2008.

“Reversibility and Ereignis: Being as Kantian Imagination in Merleau-Ponty and Heidegger,” American Philosophical Association, Eastern Division Meeting, Baltimore, Upcoming December 2007.

“Embryos, the Virtual, and the Invisible of the Visible: Radical Empiricism and Nature as Institution,” invited paper, Department of Philosophy, La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia, upcoming December 2007.

“The Body as Dialogue in Place: Inner Place as Intensive, and the Genesis of Sense,” invited keynote address, The Australasian Society for Continental Philosophy 2007: Dialogues in Place, University of Tasmania, Australia, Upcoming December 2007.

“Reversibility and Ereignis: Being as Kantian Imagination in Merleau-Ponty and Heidegger,” Annual Meeting of the Society for Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy, DePaul University and Northwestern University, Chicago, November 2007.

“The Body as Institution of Temporality and as the Temporality of Institution,” International Conference of the Merleau-Ponty Circle: Body and Institution, George Mason University, October 2006.

“ Toward A Radical Empiricism: The Embryo, the Virtual, and the Invisible of the Visible,” invited paper, Department of Philosophy, State University of New York at Stony Brook, October 2006.

“Thinking the Body Through Hegel’s Logic: How Syllogisms Surface in Faces,” invited paper, Hegel’s Science of Logic, McGill University, upcoming April 2006.
2005

“The Body In Action: The Rubber Hand Illusion, Alien Control and the Phenomenology of Bodily Experience,” Broken Minds/Broken Bodies: What Cognitive Science Can Learn From Neuro- Psycho-pathologies, University of Central Florida, February 2006.

“Entering Stranger’s Gate: Phenomenology as Naturology,” commentary on Edward S. Casey, “Reconsidering Phenomenology and the Environment,” Charles Scott, “Sensibility and the Force of Nature,” Symposium: Phenomenology and the Environment, One Hundred and Second Meeting of the American Philosophical Association, New York, December 2005.

“Facing the Invisible: Toward an Animal Ontology,” 30th International Conference of the Merleau-Ponty Circle: The Child and the Animal, University of Oregon, September 30, 2005.

“Truth and Genesis as Differential ‘Grounds’ of Philosophy,” invited paper for current research session on Miguel de Beistegui’s Truth and Genesis, 44th Annual Conference of the Society for Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy, Salt Lake City, October 20, 2005.

“The Sense of Orientation: Our Emotional Bearing Toward Others,” invited paper, R2K 2005: The Vestibular System, Sensory Integration and Actions in Space, Annual Research Conference of the Pediatric Therapy Network, March 2005