Helen Catherine Steward, (born 29 May 1965) is a British philosopher and academic. She is currently Professor of Philosophy of Mind and Action at the

University of Leeds The University of Leeds is a public research university in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It was established in 1874 as the Yorkshire College of Science. In 1884, it merged with the Leeds School of Medicine (established 1831) and was renamed Y ...

. Her research focusses on Philosophy of Action, Free Will, Philosophy of Mind and Metaphysics.

Early life and education

Steward was born on 29 May 1965 in

Chester Chester is a cathedral city in Cheshire, England, on the River Dee, Wales, River Dee, close to the England–Wales border. With a built-up area population of 92,760 in 2021, it is the most populous settlement in the borough of Cheshire West an ...

, Cheshire, England. She studied

philosophy, politics and economics Philosophy, politics and economics, or politics, philosophy and economics (PPE), is an interdisciplinary undergraduate or postgraduate academic degree, degree which combines study from three disciplines. The first institution to offer degrees in P ...

St Hilda's College, Oxford St Hilda's College (full name = Principal and Council of St. Hilda's College, Oxford) is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. The college is named after the Anglo-Saxon saint Hilda of Whitby and was founded in 1893 as a ...

, graduating with a

Bachelor of Arts A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts deg ...

(BA) degree in 1986. She then undertook the postgraduate

Bachelor of Philosophy Bachelor of Philosophy (BPhil, BPh, or PhB; or or ) is the title of an academic degree in philosophy that usually involves considerable research, either through a thesis or supervised research projects. Unlike many other bachelor's degrees, the ...

(BPhil) at

St Cross College, Oxford St Cross College, known colloquially as StX, is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. Founded in 1965, St Cross is a graduate college with gothic and traditional-style buildings on a central site in St Giles', just sou ...

, which she completed in 1988. She remained at the

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...

to undertake a

Doctor of Philosophy A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of Postgraduate education, graduate study and original resear ...

(DPhil) degree, belonging to

St Hugh's College St Hugh's College is a Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent college of the University of Oxford. It is located on a site on St Margaret's Road, to the north of the city centre. It was founded in 1886 by Elizabeth Wordsworth as a ...

and Lincoln College. Her doctoral thesis was titled "Events, states and processes: the ontology of mind", and was submitted in 1992. She completed her DPhil in 1993.

Academic career

Steward was Salveson

Junior Fellow The Society of Fellows is a group of scholars selected at the beginnings of their careers by Harvard University for their potential to advance academic wisdom, upon whom are bestowed distinctive opportunities to foster their individual and intellect ...

University College, Oxford University College, formally The Master and Fellows of the College of the Great Hall of the University commonly called University College in the University of Oxford and colloquially referred to as "Univ", is a Colleges of the University of Oxf ...

for the 1990/91 academic year. From 1993 to 2007, she was

fellow A fellow is a title and form of address for distinguished, learned, or skilled individuals in academia, medicine, research, and industry. The exact meaning of the term differs in each field. In learned society, learned or professional society, p ...

and

tutor Tutoring is private academic help, usually provided by an expert teacher; someone with deep knowledge or defined expertise in a particular subject or set of subjects. A tutor, formally also called an academic tutor, is a person who provides assis ...

in philosophy at

Balliol College, Oxford Balliol College () is a constituent college of the University of Oxford. Founded in 1263 by nobleman John I de Balliol, it has a claim to be the oldest college in Oxford and the English-speaking world. With a governing body of a master and aro ...

. She joined the

in 2007 as an

associate professor Associate professor is an academic title with two principal meanings: in the North American system and that of the ''Commonwealth system''. In the ''North American system'', used in the United States and many other countries, it is a position ...

. Since 2013, she has been Professor of Philosophy of Mind and Action. In February 2015 she was awarded a Research Leadership Fellowship by the

Arts and Humanities Research Council The Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), formerly Arts and Humanities Research Board (AHRB), is a British research council, established in 1998, supporting research and postgraduate study in the arts and humanities. History The Arts a ...

. She was president of the

Aristotelian Society The Aristotelian Society for the Systematic Study of Philosophy, more generally known as the Aristotelian Society, is a philosophical society in London. History Aristotelian Society was founded at a meeting on 19 April 1880, at 17 Bloomsbury Squar ...

from 2019 to 2020. Her interests include the

metaphysics Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy that examines the basic structure of reality. It is traditionally seen as the study of mind-independent features of the world, but some theorists view it as an inquiry into the conceptual framework of ...

and

ontology Ontology is the philosophical study of existence, being. It is traditionally understood as the subdiscipline of metaphysics focused on the most general features of reality. As one of the most fundamental concepts, being encompasses all of realit ...

of mind and agency; the free will problem; the relation between humans and animals; and the philosophy of causation and explanation. In 2021, Steward was elected a

Fellow of the British Academy Fellowship of the British Academy (post-nominal letters FBA) is an award granted by the British Academy to leading academics for their distinction in the humanities and social sciences. The categories are: # Fellows – scholars resident in t ...

(FBA), the United Kingdom's national academy for the humanities and social sciences.

Bibliography

Books

* ''A Metaphysics for Freedom'', (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012) �
BBIP podcast
* ''Agency and Action'' ed. H. Steward and John Hyman (Cambridge: CUP, 2004). * ''The Ontology of Mind: Events, Processes and States'' (Oxford: OUP, 1997).

Selected articles

* 'What is a Continuant?', ''Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, Supplementary Volume'', LXXXIX, 2015: 109-23 * ‘Do Animals Have Free Will?’, ''The Philosophers’ Magazine'', 68 (1), Apr 2015: 43-4

* ''A Metaphysics for Freedom'', (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012) �
BBIP podcast
* ‘Responses’, ''Inquiry'' 56 (2013): 681–706. (Contains Steward's responses to the comments of eight authors on her monograph, A Metaphysics for Freedom, to which a special issue of ''Inquiry'' was dedicated). * 'Processes, Continuants and Individuals', ''Mind'' 122 (2013): 781-812 * 'Actions as Processes', ''Philosophical Perspectives'' 26:1 (2012): 373-88

References

External links

Inaugural lecture recording
{{DEFAULTSORT:Steward, Helen 1965 births 20th-century British philosophers 21st-century British philosophers Living people Fellows of the British Academy Alumni of St Hilda's College, Oxford Alumni of St Cross College, Oxford Alumni of St Hugh's College, Oxford Alumni of Lincoln College, Oxford Fellows of University College, Oxford Fellows of Balliol College, Oxford Academics of the University of Leeds