ACU Researcher

Professor Peter Anstey

Director, Western Civilisation Program
Faculty of Education and Arts

Peter R. Anstey specialises in the philosophy of the early modern period with a focus on individual thinkers, such as John Locke, Francis Bacon, and Emilie Du Châtelet, as well as broader themes, such as experimental philosophy and the reception of indigenous knowledge in early modern Europe. He was Professor of Philosophy at the University of Sydney from 2012-2025 where he held a Future Fellowship, and inaugural Professor of Early Modern Philosophy at the University of Otago from 2006-2012. He is the author of Experimental Philosophy and the Origins of Empiricism (with Alberto Vanzo, Cambridge, 2023) and editor of the Oxford Handbook of British Philosophy in the Seventeenth Century (Oxford, 2013). He is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities and the author or editor of fourteen books and over eighty papers.

Select publications

Books

• Experimental Philosophy and the Origins of Empiricism (with Alberto Vanzo), Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2023

• John Locke and Natural Philosophy, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011 (Winner of the Journal of the History of Philosophy Book Prize 2012 for the best book in the history of Western philosophy published in 2011.)

• The Philosophy of Robert Boyle, London: Routledge, 2000.

Edited Collections

• Definition and Essence from Aristotle to Kant, ed. with David Bronstein, New York: Routledge, 2025

• The Berlin Academy in the Reign of Frederick the Great: Philosophy and Science, ed. with Tinca Prunea-Bretonnet, Oxford University Studies in the Enlightenment, Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2022

• Armstrong's Materialist Theory of Mind, ed. with David Braddon-Mitchell, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2022

• Locke on Knowledge, Politics and Religion: New Interpretations from Japan, ed. with Kiyoshi Shimokawa, London: Bloomsbury, 2021

• Experiment, Speculation and Religion in Early Modern Philosophy, ed. with Alberto Vanzo, New York: Routledge, 2019

• The Idea of Principles in Early Modern Thought: Interdisciplinary Perspectives, ed., New York: Routledge, 2017

• The Oxford Handbook of British Philosophy in the Seventeenth Century, ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013

• Vanishing Matter and the Laws of Motion: Descartes and Beyond, ed. with Dana Jalobeanu, New York: Routledge, 2011

• John Locke: Critical Assessments of Leading Philosophers, Series II, 4 vols, ed., London: Routledge, 2006

• The Science of Nature in the Seventeenth Century: Patterns of Change in Early Modern Natural Philosophy, ed. with John A. Schuster, Dordrecht: Springer, 2005

• The Philosophy of John Locke: New Perspectives, ed., London: Routledge, 2003.

Projects

• AHRC, United Kingdom, 'Experimental philosophy and empirical ethics: a historical reconstruction and philosophical assessment', Oct. 2014-Jan. 2017, £241,029 (Co-Investigator; Dr Alberto Vanzo, Warwick University, Principal Investigator; Prof Tom Sorell, Warwick University, Co-Investigator)

• Australian Research Council Future Fellowship, 'The nature and status of principles in early modern philosophy', 2012-2016, FT120100282, AUD800,000

• Marsden Fund Grant, 'Experimental philosophy and the origins of Empiricism', 2009-11, NZD475,000

• Visiting Scholars Fund Grant, Trinity College Cambridge, 2009, approx. NZD10,000

• Australian Research Council Discovery Grant DP0559436, 2004-7 (AUD173,000) 'Locke, botany and natural kinds'

Awards

• Fellow of the Australian Academy for the Humanities, November 2015

Appointments and Affiliations

• President of the Australasian Association of Philosophy, 2011-2012

• Member of Humanities and Law PBRF Peer Evaluation Panel, New Zealand, 2011-2012

• Royal Society of New Zealand Marsden Fund: Humanities Panel Member 2009-2011

• ANZAMEMS Vice President (New Zealand), April 2009-January 2013.

Editorial roles

• Editorial Board, Oxford Studies in Early Modern Philosophy (February 2018-)

• Editorial Board, Locke Studies (July 2017-); Interim Editor (with Antonia LoLordo) 2022

• Editorial Board, Journal of the History of Philosophy (March 2014-)

• Editorial Board, Early Science and Medicine (November 2014-)

• Editorial Board, Australasian Journal of Philosophy (2010-)

• Editorial Board, Parergon (January 2010-)

• Editorial Board, Society and Politics, (2011-)

• Editorial Board, Journal of Early Modern Studies (2012-)

• Founding co-editor of On the Boyle, the Robert Boyle newsletter (1998-)

• Early Modern Editor, Metascience, 2003-2006

• Senior Advisory Board, Encyclopedia of Early Modern Philosophy and the Sciences, Springer (2014-)

• Editorial Board, Springer Studies in History and Philosophy of Science, Scientific Committee, Studi Lockiani (November 2019-)

Grant agency review panels

• Australian Research Council

• Estonian Science Foundation

• Calgary Institute for the Humanities

• National Council for Scientific Research, Romania

• Marsden Fund, New Zealand

• FWO - Research Foundation Flanders, Belgium

• Canada Council for the Arts

• Israel Science Foundation

• National Science Foundation, USA

• Herzog August Bibliothek, Wolfenbütel

Public engagement

• Experimental Philosophy: Old and New, Special Collections Library, University of Otago, 1 July-23 September 2011 (Online at https://www.otago.ac.nz/library/exhibitions/experimental_philosophy/index.php)

• Philosophy by the Book (with Prof. Keith Campbell and Dr Mark Weblin), Rare Book Library, University of Sydney, June-December 2005

• Origins of Modernity, Rare Book Library, University of Sydney, June-December 2002