Samuel Pell
University of Notre Dame
Department of Philosophy
116 Malloy Hall
Notre Dame, IN 46556
703-899-7692 | spell@nd.edu
November 2025
AREAS OF INTEREST:
Areas of Specialization: Medieval Philosophy, Philosophy of Mind
Areas of Competency: Ethics, Metaphysics, Philosophy of Science, Ancient Philosophy
Languages: Latin, Ancient Greek, German, French (Reading), Italian (Reading)
EDUCATION:
Ph.D.
Philosophy, Notre Dame, 2022-
M.A. without Dissertation
Philosophy, Purdue University, 2022
B.A.
Chemistry (cum Laude) and Classics (with Honors), Cornell University, 2013
PUBLICATIONS:
Review of Introduction to Thomistic Metaphysics by Michael Gorman (Dialectica, Forthcoming)
‘Are NeoAristotelianism and Expressivism Incompatible? Reflections on Alasdair MacIntyre’s Ethics and the Conflicts of Modernity’ (Proceedings of the American Catholic Philosophical Association Vol. 96, 2022)
‘Joy, Truth, and the Search for God in Confessions X’ (Studia Patristica CIII, 2021)
AWARDS:
Society of Medieval and Renaissance Philosophy Founders’ Award 2023: for essay submission ‘Aquinas on the Development of Definitional Cognitions’
CONFERENCE PARTICIPATION:
Papers Presented
2025
‘From Insight to Axiom: Plantinga, MacIntyre, and Lonergan on A Priori Assertions’
American Catholic Philosophical Association Annual Meeting
University of Notre Dame: South Bend, IN
Invited Presentation for Lonergan Philosophical Association Panel
‘You Won’t Believe Your Eye: Latin Transformations of Avicenna’s Visual Theory’
‘Big Mistake! Big! Huge!’ Graduate Student Conference
University of Milan: Milan, Italy
Accepted Speaker
‘Albert the Great’s Commentary on Aristotle’s De Memoria 450a26-451a3’
Workshop on Aristotle’s De Memoria
Universidad Panamericana in Mexico City, Mexico
Invited Presenter
2024
‘Aquinas’s Agent and Possible Intellects and Albert’s Emanative Psychology’
American Catholic Philosophical Association Annual Meeting
Chicago, IL
Poster Presentation
‘Latin Transformations of Avicenna’s Visual Theory’
Medieval and Early Modern Theories of Cognition: New Approaches to an Old Debate
Círculo Universitário da Universidade do Porto in Porto, Portugal
Accepted Speaker
‘Principles of Nature and Reasoning in Some Medieval Physics Commentaries’
Physis: ND Lab for the Study of Nature in the Pre-Modern World
Rome, Italy
Seminar Presentation
‘He Can Say What He Likes, But I Don’t Understand Him at All: Albert the Great on Aquinas’s Theory of Universals’
Aquinas at 800: Ad Multos Annos
Notre Dame, IN
Panel Presentation
‘Loving the Unknowable: Aquinas and Ficino on the Metaphysics of Emanation and Union’
Renaissance Society of America Annual Conference
Chicago, IL
Invited Presenter for Panel in Memory of Michael Allen
‘Imagination, Illusory Mercy, and the Love of Evil: Augustine’s Moralism about the Theatre’
American Philosophical Association Eastern Division Meeting
New York, NY
Poster Presentation
2023
‘A Lucid Body and A Living Mirror: Albert the Great’s Physicalist Theory of Visual Perception’
American Catholic Philosophical Association Annual Conference
Houston, TX
Satellite Session: Augustine and Albert on Cognition
Ibid.
St. Louis University: St. Louis, MO
Colloquium Paper
‘Thomas Aquinas on the Development of Definitional Cognitions’
11th Annual Aquinas and ‘The Arabs’ International Working Group Graduate Student Conference
Online Conference
Accepted Paper
‘Aristotelian Visual Perception and Contemporary Functionalism’
Medieval Philosophy Network Meeting
Warburg Institute: London, England
Invited Speaker (Presentation over Zoom)
Ibid.
Angelicum Conference on Modelling, Idealization, and Truth
Thomistic Institute: Rome, Italy
Colloquium Paper
2022
‘Are NeoAristotelianism and Expressivism Incompatible? Reflections on Alasdair MacIntyre’s Ethics and the Conflicts of Modernity’
American Catholic Philosophical Association
Annual Conference
New Orleans, LA
Colloquium Paper
‘Conceptions as the Offspring of the Intellect: Towards a Naturalistic Interpretation of Aquinas’ Cognitional Theory’
The XVth International Conference of Société Internationale pour l’Etude de la Philosophie Médiévale
Campus Concordet: Paris, France
Panel on Radical Cognition in the Middle Ages
‘Aquinas, Scotus, and (Divine) Action at a Distance’
Society of Medieval and Renaissance Philosophy
University of Notre Dame: South Bend, IN
Metaphysics Breakout Presentation
‘Disjunctive Fregean Representationalism and Color Constancy’
American Philosophical Association Central Division Meeting
Chicago, IL
Colloquium Paper
2021
‘Divorcing Aquinas’ Intelligible Species from Conceptual Content’
Society of Medieval and Renaissance Philosophy
University of Notre Dame: South Bend, IN
Cognition Breakout Presentation
Ibid.
10th Annual Aquinas Philosophy Workshop of the Thomistic Institute
Greenville, SC
Graduate Student Paper
2019
‘Joy, Truth, and the Search for God in Confessions X’
North American Patristics Society Annual Conference
Katolicki Uniwersytet Lubelski Jana Pawła II: Lublin, Poland
Plenary Paper
Invited Conferences and Summer Schools
2025
Memory, Intellect, and Will: The 13th Century Reception of St. Augustine
Thomistic Institute: Regensburg, Germany
Instructors: Prince Albert von Thurn und Taxis, Fr. Philip-Neri Reese, Fr. Dominic Legge, Fr. Reginald Lynch, Julie Casteigt, Katya Krause
2024
Thomistic Seminar on Human Nature
Witherspoon Institute: Princeton, NJ
Instructors: Sean Kelsey, Dhananjay Jagannathan, John Schwenkler, Candace Vogler
Sixth Annual Thomistic Philosophy and the Natural Sciences Symposium
Dominican House of Studies: Washington, DC
Topic: The Metaphysics of Light
2023
Thomistic Seminar on Intellectual Creatures
Witherspoon Institute: Princeton, NJ
Instructors: Stephen Brock, Dhananjay Jagannathan, Anselm Mueller, Candace Vogler
Fifth Annual Thomistic Philosophy and the Natural Sciences Symposium
Dominican House of Studies: Washington, DC
Topic: Uncertainty, Confidence, and Truth
2022
Ancient and Medieval Metaphysics of Relations
Summer School and Conference Lugano, Switzerland
Instructors: John Marenbon and Anna Marmadoro
Thomistic Institute Graduate Colloquium on Eucharistic Metaphysics
Dominican House of Studies: Washington, DC
Instructor: Gyula Klima
Fourth Annual Thomistic Philosophy and the Natural Sciences Symposium
Dominican House of Studies: Washington, DC
Topic: Complexity, Simplicity, and Emergence
2021
Third Annual Thomistic Philosophy and the Natural Sciences Symposium
Dominican House of Studies: Washington, DC
Topic: Chance and Indeterminacy in the Natural World
Editorial/Review/Referee Work for Dialectica, University of Toronto Press (The Lonergan Enterprise in Philosophy, ed. Ryan Miller), Springer (The Metaphysics and Theology of the Eucharist, ed. Gyula Klima)
Service to the Profession
2025
American Catholic Philosophical Association Annual Conference
University of Notre Dame: South Bend, IN
Session Organizer: Ethics and Normativity; Individuation; Providence; Knowledge and Propositions, Divine and Mathematical
Session Moderator: NeoPlatonism
2024
American Catholic Philosophical Association Annual Conference
Houston, TX
Session Organizer: Late Medieval and Early Modern Metaphysics; Meinongianism, Panentheism, and Illuminationism
Session Moderator: Late Medieval and Early Modern Metaphysics; Problems in the Scholastic Metaphysics of Being
2023
American Catholic Philosophical Association Annual Conference
Houston, TX
Session Moderator: Aquinas in the Renaissance
2021
American Catholic Philosophical Association Annual Conference
Saint Louis University: St. Louis, MO
Commenter on ‘80,000 Hours for the Common Good: A Thomistic Appraisal of “Effective Altruism”’ by Ryan Miller
Indiana Philosophical Association
Indiana University: Bloomington, IN
Commenter on ‘Walter Chatton’s Argument for the Necessitation Principle: A Lesson for Modern Truthmaker Theorists’ by Emily McCarty
Society of Medieval and Renaissance Philosophy Conference University of Notre Dame: South Bend, IN
Session Moderator
TEACHING EXPERIENCE:
Primary Instructor (University of Notre Dame)
Fall 2025 PHIL 20216: Knowledge and Immortality from Plato to Aquinas
Teaching Assistant (University of Notre Dame)
Spring 2025 PLS 44777: Aquinas in Rome, Instructor: Denis Robichaud
A small seminar with many independent responsibilities including syllabus design
Fall 2024 PHIL 10100: Introduction to Philosophy, Instructor: Richard Cross
Administrative (Purdue University)
Summer 2021 Online Course Coordinator, Overseer: Matthew Kroll
Teaching Assistant (Purdue University)
Spring 2022 PHIL 111: Introduction to Ethics, Instructor: Patrick Kain
Spring 2021 PHIL 270: Biomedical Ethics, Instructor: Morganna Lambeth
Fall 2020, 2021 PHIL 111: Introduction to Ethics, Instructor: Daniel Frank
Guest Lecturer (Purdue University)
04/12/2022 ‘Expressivism and NeoAristotelianism in MacIntyre’
PHIL 424: Contemporary Ethics, Primary Instructor: Patrick Kain
11/23/2021 ‘Aquinas on the Names of God’
PHIL 402: Medieval Christian Thought, Primary Instructor: Jeff Brower
04/02/2021 ‘Virtue Ethics and Abortion’
PHIL 270: Biomedical Ethics, Primary Instructor: Morganna Lambeth
Reading Groups (Thomistic Institute)
Spring 2022 Aquinas 101: Science and Faith
PROFESSIONAL MEMBERSHIPS:
2021-Present American Catholic Philosophical Association
2021-Present Aquinas and ‘the Arabs’ International Working Group
2021-Present Thomistic Institute
2021-Present Society of Medieval and Renaissance Philosophy
2021-Present Société Internationale pour l’Etude de la Philosophie Médiévale
2021-Present St. Louis/Chicago Medieval Latin Reading Group (SLUCHI)
2020-Present American Philosophical Association
RELEVANT EXPERIENCE:
2021-2022 Chemistry Researcher, Swift Enterprises Fuel Cells
2014-2020 Teacher of Chemistry (Honors, Organic, and AP), Philosophy, and Latin at Bishop O’Connell High School in Arlington, VA
2013-2014 Novice with the Dominican Province of St. Joseph
2011-2013 Chemistry Researcher, Park Laboratories, Cornell University
2012 Participant in Intercollegiate Center for Classical Studies intensive study abroad program in Rome, Italy
GRADUATE-LEVEL COURSEWORK
History of Philosophy
Plato’s Sophist, Paolo Crivelli (Audit, University of Notre Dame)
Aristotle’s Metaphysics, Paolo Crivelli (Audit, University of Notre Dame)
Avicenna, Averroes, and Aquinas on Intellect, Stephen Ogden and Therese Cory (Audit, University of Notre Dame)
Medieval Theories of Universals, Richard Cross (University of Notre Dame)
Platonism and Christianity in the 15th Century, Denis Robichaud (University of Notre Dame)
Albert the Great, Therese Cory (University of Notre Dame)
Leibniz, Sam Newlands (University of Notre Dame)
Aristotle’s Ethics, Sean Kelsey (University of Notre Dame)
Thomas Aquinas on the Soul, John O’Callaghan (University of Notre Dame)
Studies in Early Modern Philosophy, Jan Cover (Purdue University)
Plato and the Immoralist, Dan Frank (Purdue University)
Mind and Mental Acts in the 13th and 14th Centuries, Therese Cory (University of Notre Dame)
Aquinas’ Ontology of Space, Jeffrey Brower (Purdue University)
Aquinas’ Ontology of the Material World, Jeffrey Brower (Independent Study, Purdue University)
Thomas Aquinas Speaks of God, John Wippel (Catholic University of America)
Augustine’s Confessions, Charles Brittain and Scott MacDonald (Cornell University)
Latin Philosophical Texts, Charles Brittain and Scott MacDonald (Reading group, Cornell University)
Greek Philosophical Texts, Daniel Frank (Reading group, Purdue University)
Metaphysics
Proseminar, Kristopher McDaniel (University of Notre Dame)
The Soul, Christopher Shields and Katharina Krause (Audit, University of Notre Dame)
Metaphysics, Michael Bergmann and Jeffrey Brower (Purdue University)
Actualism and Modal Logic, Michael Bergmann and Jeffrey Brower (Reading group, Purdue University)
Molinism, Michael Bergmann and Jeffrey Brower (Reading group, Purdue University)
Epistemology
Studies in the Theory of Knowledge, Michael Bergmann (Purdue University)
Studies in Lonergan’s Verbum, Br. Dunstan Robideaux (Reading group, Lonergan Institute, St. Anselm’s Abbey)
Ethics and Value Theory
Action Theory, Robert Audi (Audit, University of Notre Dame)
Imagination and Literature, Morganna Lambeth (Purdue University)
Contemporary Ethical Theories, Patrick Kain (Purdue University)
Virtue Ethics, Daniel Frank (Purdue University)
Logic and Philosophy of Mind
The Aim and Structure of Science, Nicholas Teh (Audit, University of Notre Dame)
Intermediate Logic, Joel Hamkins (University of Notre Dame)
Consciousness and Perception, Brian Cutter (University of Notre Dame)
The Normative Mind, Daniel Kelly and Taylor Davis (Purdue University)
Mathematical Logic, Dana Tulodziecki (Purdue University)
Phenomenology, Jacqueline Mariña (Purdue University)