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Department of Philosophy

Staff

Dr Matthew Daniel Eddy, BA, MA, PhD

Personal web page

Senior Lecturer in the Department of Philosophy

Contact Dr Matthew Daniel Eddy

Biography

Matthew D. Eddy is Durham University's Senior Lecturer in the history of science and culture. As an intellectual historian, his research focuses on seventeenth- to nineteenth-century forms of scientific representation and argumentation, including historical conceptions of mind, memory, matter, time, language, visuality, informatics, human origins and religion. His honours include research fellowships awarded by MIT, Harvard, the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science in Berlin, the British Arts and Humanities Research Council and UCLA’s Clark Library, as well as a Mellon Foundation visiting professorship awarded by California Institute of Technology.

For more information on Dr Eddy, please see his webpage: http://www.dur.ac.uk/m.d.eddy/

Supervision

Dr Eddy supervises thesis and dissertations on all aspects of Enlightenment thought and visual culture. 

Postgraduate Modules

  • Research Methods in the History and Philosophy of Science and Medicine
  • Research Methods in Philosophy
  • Science and the Enlightenment (offered as part of the HPSM MA, the Philosophy MA and the MA in Seventeenth Century Studies)

Undergraduate Modules

Administrative Duties

  • Departmental Education Committee Secretary 
  • HPSM MA Board of Examiners Secretary
  • Disability Officer
  • Natural Sciences Management Committee

Research Groups

  • History and Philosophy of Science and Medicine
  • Mind, Language and Metaphysics

Publications

Books: authored

Books: edited

  • Eddy, M. (2011). Prehistoric Minds: Human Origins as a Cultural Artefact, 1780-2010. Notes and Records of the Royal Society. London: Royal Society Publishing.
  • Eddy, M. & Knight, D. (2008). William Paley’s Natural Theology: or, Evidences of the Existence and Attributes of the Deity. Modern Classics Series. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  • Eddy, M. & Knight, D. (2005). Science and Beliefs: From Natural Philosophy to Natural Science, 1700-1900. Aldershot: Ashgate.

Books: sections

  • Eddy, M. (2010). The Sparkling Nectar of Spas; or, Mineral Water as a Medically Commodifiable Material in the Province, 1770–1805. In Materials and Expertise in Early Modern Europe: Between Market and Laboratory. Klein, U. & Spary, E. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. 283-292.
  • Eddy, M. (2007). The Aberdeen Agricola: Chemical Principles and Practice in James Aderson's Georgics and Geology. In New Narratives in Eighteenth-Century Chemistry. Principe, L. Dordrecht: Springer.
  • Eddy, M. & Knight, D. (2006). Introduction. In William Paley's Natural Theology. Eddy, M. & Knight, D. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  • Eddy, M. (2005). Set in Stone: The Medical Language of Mineralogy in Scotland. In Science and Beliefs: From Natural Philosophy to Natural Science. Eddy, M. & Knight, D. Aldershot: Ashgate.

Journal papers: academic

  • Eddy, M. (2011). The Line of Reason: Hugh Blair, Spatiality and the Progressive Structure of Language. Notes and Records of the Royal Society 65(1): 9-24.
  • Eddy, M. (2011). The Prehistoric Mind as a Historical Artefact. Notes and Records of the Royal Society 65: 1-8.
  • Eddy, M. (2010). The Alphabets of Nature: Children, Books and Natural History in Scotland, circa 1750-1800. Nuncius 25: 1-22.
  • Eddy, M. (2010). Tools for reordering:Commonplacing and the Space of Words in Linnaeus' Philosophia Botanica. Intellectual History Review 20(2): 227-252.
  • Eddy, M. (2008). An Adept in Medicine: Rev. Dr. William Laing, Nervous Complaints and the Commodification of Spa Water. Studies in the History and Philosophy of the Biological and Biomedical Sciences 39: 1-13.
  • Eddy, M. (2008). The Dark Side of Collecting: Early Modern Chemistry, Humanism and Classification. Amibx: Journal of the Society for the History of Alchemy and Chemistry 55: 283-292.
  • Eddy, M. (2006). Academic Capital, Postgraduate Research and British Universities: A Bourdieu Inspired Reflection. Discourse 6: 211-223.
  • Eddy, M. (2006). The Medium of Signs: Nominalism, Language and Classification in the Early Thought of Dugald Stewart. Studies in the History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences 37: 373-393.
  • Eddy, M. (2005). Converging Paths or Separate Roads? The Roles Played by Science, Medicine and Philosophy in the Scottish Enlightenment. Philosophical Writings 30: 30-40.
  • Eddy, M. (2004). Elements, Principles and the Narrative of Affinity. Foundations of Chemistry 6: 161-175.
  • Eddy, M. (2004). fallible or Inerrant? On the Constructivist's Bible. British Journal for the History of Science 37: 93-98.
  • Eddy, M. (2004). Scottish Chemistry, Classification and the Late Mineralogical Career of the "Ingenious" Professor John Walker. British Journal for the History of Science 37: 373-399.
  • Eddy, M. (2004). The Science and Rhetoric of Paley's Natural Theology. Literature and Theology 18: 1-22.
  • Eddy, M. (2003). Do Philosophers Make the Worst of Poets? Philosophical Writings 23: 81-85.
  • Eddy, M. (2003). The University of Edinburgh Natural History Class Lists. Archives of Natural History 30: 97-117.
  • Eddy, M. (2002). Scottish Chemistry, Classification and the Early Mineralogical Career of the "Ingenious" Rev. Dr. John Walker. British Journal for the History of Science 35: 411-438.
  • Eddy, M. (2001). Geology, Mineralogy and Time in John Walker's University of Edinburgh Natural History Lectures. History of Science 39: 95-119.
  • Eddy, M. (2001). The Doctrine of Salts and Rev John Walker's Analysis of Scottish Spa. Ambix: Journal of the Society for the History of Alchemy and Chemistry 48: 137-160.

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