Helen De Cruz (born 1978) is a Belgian philosopher and Danforth Chair of Philosophy at Saint Louis University who specialises in philosophy of religion, experimental philosophy, and philosophy of cognitive science. She is also an activist supporting the rights of EU citizens in the context of Brexit.
Helen Lucretia De Cruz | |
|---|---|
| Born | |
| Alma mater | Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Groningen University |
| Known for | Philosophy of Religion |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Philosophy of religion |
| Doctoral advisor | Igor Douven |
Biography
editDe Cruz received her BA in archaeology and art studies and an MA in anthropology of art from Ghent University. In 2007 she completed a PhD in archaeology and art studies at Vrije Universiteit Brussel, and in 2011 she completed a PhD in philosophy at Groningen University, entitled Through a Mind Darkly: An Empirically-informed philosophical perspective on systematic knowledge acquisition and cognitive limitations, under the supervision of Igor Douven. After post-doctoral research positions at University of Leuven and Somerville College, Oxford, she joined VU Amsterdam as an assistant professor of philosophy in 2015, before moving to Oxford Brookes University in 2016.[1] She has held the Danforth Chair of Philosophy at Saint Louis University since September 2019.[2]
She is currently an Executive Editor of the Journal of Analytic Theology,[3] and a member of the editorial boards of the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, the Journal of Mind & Behavior,[4] and Religious Studies.
In 2014 De Cruz published a series of interviews with philosophers working outside of academia for the NewAPPS blog.[5] She was a signatory on a 2018 open letter from academic philosophers to Amber Rudd, which urged the then home secretary to reconsider a request for asylum. The letter described a request which had been denied on the grounds that the applicant had not mentioned Plato or Aristotle when asked about humanism. The letter's signatories argued that the applicant should not have been expected to mention them.[6]
De Cruz regularly engages in public philosophy and has been featured on several public philosophy podcasts discussing the public sphere, religious disagreement, science fiction, philosophy of science, and experimental philosophy of religion.[7] [8] [9] [10][11]
In addition to being a prolific philosopher, De Cruz is also a player of the Renaissance lute and a digital artist.[12]
Books
edit- (in press). Religious disagreement. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- De Cruz, H., & De Smedt, J. (2015). A natural history of natural theology. The cognitive science of theology and philosophy of religion. MIT Press.[13]
- De Cruz, Helen (2024). Wonderstruck: How Wonder and Awe Shape the Way We Think, Princeton University Press
References
edit- ^ "Helen De Cruz: Curriculum Vitae" (PDF).
- ^ Weinberg, Justin (2019-03-29). "De Cruz from Oxford Brookes to Saint Louis". Daily Nous. Retrieved 2019-12-17.
- ^ "Journal of Analytic Theology". journalofanalytictheology.com.
- ^ "Home - The Journal of Mind and Behavior - University of Maine". The Journal of Mind and Behavior.
- ^ Rosen, Rebecca (2014-07-08). "What do philosophers do?". The Atlantic. Retrieved 2018-07-24.
- ^ "You don't need to know Plato and Aristotle to be a humanist". The Guardian. 2018-01-26. Retrieved 2018-07-24.
- ^ Brennan, John (October 11, 2021). "Owning the Public Square". Radio National.
- ^ Howard, Jeffrey (November 25, 2020). "Religious Disagreement and Whether Religious Expertise Exists w/ Helen De Cruz". Damn the Absolute!.
- ^ Peña-Guzmán, David M.; Anderson, Ellie (March 9, 2021). "Episode 42". Overthink podcast.
- ^ Roundtable Discussion on Experimental Philosophy of Religion. Center for Philosophy of Religion. June 6, 2019. Retrieved April 20, 2023.
- ^ "Owning the Public Square". ABC Radio National. February 28, 2021. Retrieved April 20, 2023.
- ^ "Sporadic pics". helendec.tumblr.com. Retrieved 2018-07-24.
- ^ Reviews of A Natural History of Natural Theology:
- Grundmann, Christoffer H. (November 2015), Zygon, 50 (4): 1024–1026, doi:10.1111/zygo.12223
{{citation}}: CS1 maint: untitled periodical (link) - Vasalou, Sophia (February 2016), Religious Studies, 52 (3): 424–429, doi:10.1017/s0034412516000020
{{citation}}: CS1 maint: untitled periodical (link) - Thurow, Joshua C. (July 2016), Faith and Philosophy, 33 (3): 370–374, doi:10.5840/faithphil201633367
{{citation}}: CS1 maint: untitled periodical (link) - Eyghen, Hans Van (January 2017), Journal for the Cognitive Science of Religion, 3 (2): 207–209, doi:10.1558/jcsr.27221
{{citation}}: CS1 maint: untitled periodical (link) - Haan, Daniel D. De (April 2017), Reviews in Religion & Theology, 24 (2): 257–260, doi:10.1111/rirt.12897
{{citation}}: CS1 maint: untitled periodical (link) - Skolits, Wes (July 2017), Philosophical Psychology, 30 (6): 849–853, doi:10.1080/09515089.2017.1320371, S2CID 171806010
{{citation}}: CS1 maint: untitled periodical (link) - Krannich, Laura-Christin (June 2018), Philosophy, Theology and the Sciences, 4 (2): 264–267, doi:10.1628/ptsc-2017-0011
{{citation}}: CS1 maint: untitled periodical (link)
- Clark, Kelly James, "Trusting intuitions?", pp. 336–337, doi:10.1080/2153599X.2015.1107247
- Green, Adam, "Natural theology as model-based reasoning", pp. 337–342, doi:10.1080/2153599X.2015.1107248
- Jensen, Jeppe Sinding, "The naturalness of natural theology – an exercise in collective imagination", pp. 342–346, doi:10.1080/2153599X.2015.1107249
- Liénard, Pierre, "Natural theology, verification, and growth of knowledge", pp. 346–349, doi:10.1080/2153599X.2015.1107250
- Shults, F. LeRon, "Can theism be defeated? CSR and the debunking of supernatural agent abductions", pp. 349–355, doi:10.1080/2153599X.2015.1107251
- Grundmann, Christoffer H. (November 2015), Zygon, 50 (4): 1024–1026, doi:10.1111/zygo.12223