Biography

Alison Simmons, a jury member for the annual Berggruen Prize, is the Samuel H. Wolcott Professor of Philosophy and Harvard College Professor at Harvard University. She received her Ph.D. in Philosophy from the University of Pennsylvania in 1994.  Her primary area of research and teaching is early modern (17th and 18th century) philosophy, with a particular focus on theories of mind, the relationship between mind and body, the relationship between mind and world, and the way our understanding of those relationships has changed from classical Greek to contemporary philosophy.  She is currently writing a book entitled Beyond Dualism: Descartes on the Human Condition . She is also editing an interdisciplinary book on consciousness for the Oxford Philosophical Concepts series. Recent articles include “Leibnizian Consciousness Re-Considered,” “Sensory Perception of Body: Meditation 6.5,” “Cartesian Consciousness Reconsidered,” “Re-Humanizing Descartes,” “Sensation in the Malebranchean Mind,” and “Guarding the Body:  A Cartesian Phenomenology of Perception.” At Harvard, Professor Simmons was co-chair of the 2006-2007 Task Force on General Education, which drafted a new program of general education for Harvard College.