Clare Carlisle grew up in Manchester, and studied philosophy (BA, MA and PhD) at Trinity College, Cambridge from 1995 to 2002. She was Lecturer in Philosophy at the University of Liverpool before joining King’s in 2011.Professor Carlisle is the author of eight books, including philosophical biographies of Søren Kierkegaard and George Eliot, and the editor of George Eliot’s translation of Spinoza’s Ethics. In 2024 she gave the Gifford Lectures at the University of St Andrews. She is currently President of the British Society for Philosophy of Religion.

Research interests and PhD supervision

• History of modern philosophy, especially Spinoza, Kierkegaard and George Eliot
• Philosophy and literature/art
• Philosophies of religion
• Life writing
• Ethics and human flourishing, especially concepts of habit and practice

Clare Carlisle’s research connects philosophy and literature, and examines philosophical and literary/artistic practices. Her work on Spinoza includes her edition of George Eliot’s translation of the Ethics (Princeton University Press, 2020) and her book Spinoza’s Religion: A New Reading of the Ethics (2021), which develops some of the insights in her 2017 article ‘Spinoza’s Acquiescentia’, winner of the JHP Article Prize. Professor Carlisle’s biographies of Kierkegaard (2019) and Eliot (2023), followed by her 2024 Gifford Lectures, explored life-writing as a medium for philosophy. Professor Carlisle welcomes enquiries from prospective research students who would like to work with her on doctoral projects relating to the research themes listed above.

For more details, please see her full research profile.

Teaching

Professor Carlisle teaches the history of modern and early modern philosophy; the philosophy of religion; and ethics. 

Expertise and public engagement

'Clare Carlisle has written extensively on philosophy, religion and ethics for The Guardian and she is a regular reviewer for the Times Literary Supplement.   She has contributed to numerous podcasts and BBC Radio 4 programmes, including ‘In Our Time’ (on Kierkegaard, and on the Ontological Argument) and ‘The Moral Maze’.

Clare is also a course instructor for the IAI Academy, a new educational platform offering courses from world-leading scholars on the ideas that matter. A link to Clare's course can be found below:

• Fear and Trembling in the 21st Century

 

Selected publications

The Marriage Question: George Eliot's Double Life (Penguin/FSG, 2023)

Spinoza's Religion: A New Reading of the Ethics (Princeton University Press, 2021)

Spinoza's Ethics, translated by George Eliot (Princeton University Press, 2020)

Philosopher of the Heart: The Restless Life of Søren Kierkegaard (Penguin/FSG, 2019)

On Habit (Routledge, 2014)