Dr Alexander Douglas

Director of Teaching

Senior Lecturer in Philosophy

Researcher profile

Phone

+44 (0)1334 46 4437

Email

axd@st-andrews.ac.uk

 

Research areas

I am generally interested in the philosophy of the human sciences, particularly those that address practical and theoretical reasoning. This interest has led me to the thought of Benedict de Spinoza – an early pioneer of philosophical anthropology. My other interests include the philosophy of economics and political economy, René Girard and mimetic theory, and early Daoist texts, especially the Zhuangzi.

PhD supervision

• Aliza Ashraf
• Meg Gottschall

Selected publications

• Against Identity: The Wisdom of Escaping the Self

  Xavier Douglas, A., 12 Jul 2025, Penguin. 259 p.

  Research output: Book/Report › Book

• Open access

  Essence is fluttering

  Douglas, A., 1 Sept 2025, Aeon.

  Research output: Contribution to specialist publication › Article

• From breath to beatitude: Spinoza in respiratory medicine

  Lim, T. K. & Douglas, A., 2 Nov 2025, In: Respirology. Early View

  Research output: Contribution to journal › Comment/debate › peer-review

• Open access

  God as moral anti-exemplar in Spinoza

  Xavier Douglas, A., Oct 2025, In: Topoi. 44, 4, p. 983–991 9 p.

  Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

• Tech bros don’t get René Girard -- Luckily, the Popes do

  Xavier Douglas, A., 17 Jun 2025, Unherd.

  Research output: Contribution to specialist publication › Article

• Open access

  Meritocracy in the political and economic spheres

  Sachs-Cobbe, B. A. & X. Douglas, A., Jan 2024, In: Philosophy Compass. 19, 1, 15 p., e12955.

  Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

• Précis of The Philosophy of Hope: Beatitude in Spinoza

  Douglas, A., 3 Jul 2024, In: Res Philosophica. 101, 3, p. 591-601

  Research output: Contribution to journal › Comment/debate › peer-review

• Responses to the reviews of Stephen Harrop, Kristin Primus, and Brook Ziporyn

  Douglas, A., 1 Jul 2024, In: Res Philosophica. 101, 3, p. 629-638

  Research output: Contribution to journal › Comment/debate › peer-review

• Spinoza on money and social desire

  Xavier Douglas, A., 28 Jun 2024, The Palgrave handbook of philosophy and money: Volume 2 - Modern thought. Tinguely, J. J. (ed.). Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, p. 67-87 21 p.

  Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter

• Open access

  Interest rates: the case for cutting them permanently to zero

  Douglas, A., 9 Aug 2023, The Conversation.

  Research output: Contribution to specialist publication › Article

 

See more publications