Thomas Curran, PhD

Tom Curran is  Associate Professor of Humanities at the University of King’s College. At King’s Tom serves as Chair of Faculty, Clerk of Convocation, and Associate Director (Students) of the Foundation Year Programme (FYP). As a member of Faculty in Holy Orders, Dr Curran is the Priest Assistant in King’s Chapel.

 

His chief research interest has always been early 19th-century German philosophy, with a particular emphasis on Hegel’s lectures on the philosophy of religion at the University of Berlin.  More recently, his emphasis has shifted to questions of intertextuality, as these find pre-eminent expression in the epic poetry of Statius, Dante, and T.S. Eliot, where Vergil’s Aeneid serves both as paradigm and archetype.

 

Dr Curran's most recent publication "Metaphysics & Suicide: Has Canada Become a Nation Without Metaphysics?" will be published in a collection edited by Dr H.G. Schwartz of Dalhousie University. This essays considers the impacts of the February 6, 2015 Supreme Court of Canada decision to remove the prohibition against assissted suicide. Tom explores the traditional religious and feudal arguments against suicide and suggests a new argument based on the insights and philosophy of Immanuel Kant.