Professor William McDonald

Adjunct Professor , Philosophy - Faculty of Humanities, Arts, Social Sciences and Education; School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences

William McDonald

Email: wmcdonal@une.edu.au

Biography

William McDonald is Adjunct Professor of Philosophy in the School of Humanities, Arts & Social Sciences. He has a PhD in philosophy from the University of Sydney and has taught at the University of Sydney, the University of Copenhagen, UNE, the American University of Central Asia, the United Arab Emirates University and Ashoka University, India. He has held research fellowships in Denmark, USA, Australia, UK and Slovak Republic.

William is an internationally recognized Kierkegaard scholar. He is co-editor of the six-tome Kierkegaard’s Concepts (Routledge) and author of the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy and the Literary Encyclopedia articles on Kierkegaard. He also did the first translation into English of Kierkegaard’s Prefaces (Florida University Press).

William undertakes research on history of philosophy, comparative religion, philosophical psychology, aesthetics and ethics.

Qualifications

BA Hons (UNE), Dip.Ed. (UNE), Ph.D. (Syd)

Primary Research Area/s

History of philosophy; Philosophical psychology; Comparative religion; Ethics; Aesthetics

Research Interests

Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, and Foucault.

Comparative philosophy of religion.

Philosophical psychology.

History of philosophy.

Ethics.

Aesthetics.

Publications

Books

  1. Andrew Burgess & William McDonald (eds), Kierkegaard and Classical Greek Thought, Acta Kierkegaardiana, University of Toronto, 2017.
  2. Steven Emmanuel, William McDonald & Jon Stewart (eds), Kierkegaard’s Concepts, Tome VI: Salvation to Writing, New York & Abingdon: Routledge, 2015.
  3. Steven Emmanuel, William McDonald & Jon Stewart (eds), Kierkegaard’s Concepts, Tome V: Objectivity to Sacrifice, New York & Abingdon: Routledge, 2015.
  4. Steven Emmanuel, William McDonald & Jon Stewart (eds), Kierkegaard’s Concepts, Tome IV: Individual to Novel, New York & Abingdon: Routledge, 2014.
  5. Steven Emmanuel, William McDonald & Jon Stewart (eds), Kierkegaard’s Concepts, Tome III: Envy to Incognito, New York & Abingdon: Routledge, 2014.
  6. Steven Emmanuel, William McDonald & Jon Stewart (eds), Kierkegaard’s Concepts, Tome II: Classicism to Enthusiasm, New York & Abingdon: Routledge, 2014.
  7. Steven Emmanuel, William McDonald & Jon Stewart (eds), Kierkegaard’s Concepts, Tome I: Absolute to Church, New York & Abingdon: Routledge, 2013.
  8. Nicole Helmy, Philosophy and Human Rights, edited by William McDonald and Wayne Stamp, Sydney: Pacific Books, 2015.
  9. Søren Kierkegaard, Prefaces: Light Reading For Certain Classes As The Occasion May Require, By Nicolaus Notabene, edited and translated with introduction and notes by William McDonald, Tallahassee: Florida State University Press, 1989.
  10. Finn Hauberg Mortensen, A Tale of Tales: Hans Christian Andersen and Danish Children’s Literature, translated by William McDonald, Minneapolis: Center for Nordic Studies, University of Minnesota, 1989.

Book Chapters 

“Recent Developments in Scholarship: Kierkegaard,” in Jack Reynolds, Felicity Joseph, & Ashley Woodward (eds), The Bloomsbury Handbook of Existentialism, Bloomsbury Publishing,  2024.

“The Transformative Potential of Boredom” in Josefa Ros Velasco (ed.), Boredom is in Your Mind, Springer, 2019: 91-110.

“Kierkegaard’s Experimenting Psychology,” in Adam Buben, Eleanor Helms & Patrick Stokes (eds), The Kierkegaardian Mind, Routledge: New York & Abingdon, 2019: 39-51.

“Introduction,” (with Andrew Burgess) in William McDonald and Andrew Burgess (eds), Kierkegaard and Classical Greek Thought, University of Toronto, 2017: 15-16.

“Kierkegaard’s Hiring Interview,” (with Andrew Burgess) in William McDonald and Andrew Burgess (eds), Kierkegaard and Classical Greek Thought, University of Toronto, 2017: 211-227.

“Philosophy/Philosophers,” in Steven Emmanuel, William McDonald & Jon Stewart (eds), Kierkegaard’s Concepts, Tome V: Objectivity to Sacrifice, New York & Abingdon: Routledge, 2015: 83-93.

“Time, Temporality, Eternity,” in Steven Emmanuel, William McDonald & Jon Stewart (eds), Kierkegaard’s Concepts, Tome VI: Salvation to Writing, New York & Abingdon: Routledge, 2015: 163-168.

“Understanding/Comprehension,” (with Matthew Brake) in Steven Emmanuel, William McDonald & Jon Stewart (eds), Kierkegaard’s Concepts Tome VI: Salvation to Writing, New York & Abingdon: Routledge, 2015: 209-214.

“Demonic,” in Steven Emmanuel, William McDonald & Jon Stewart (eds), Kierkegaard’s Concepts, Tome II: Classicism to Enthusiasm, New York & Abingdon: Routledge, 2014: 147-152.

“Despair,” in Steven Emmanuel, William McDonald & Jon Stewart (eds), Kierkegaard’s Concepts, Tome II: Classicism to Enthusiasm, New York & Abingdon: Routledge, 2014: 159-164.

“Evil,” (with Azucena Palavicini Sánchez) in Steven Emmanuel, William McDonald & Jon Stewart (eds), Kierkegaard’s Concepts, Tome III: Envy to Incognito, New York & Abingdon: Routledge, 2014: 29-35.

“Faith,” in Steven Emmanuel, William McDonald & Jon Stewart (eds), Kierkegaard’s Concepts, Tome III: Envy to Incognito, New York & Abingdon: Routledge, 2014: 67-72.

“Hope,” in Steven Emmanuel, William McDonald & Jon Stewart (eds), Kierkegaard’s Concepts, Tome III: Envy to Incognito, New York & Abingdon: Routledge, 2014: 163-168.

“Love,” in Steven Emmanuel, William McDonald & Jon Stewart (eds), Kierkegaard’s Concepts, Tome IV: Individual to Novel, New York & Abingdon: Routledge, 2014: 105-110.

“The Moment,” in Steven Emmanuel, William McDonald & Jon Stewart (eds), Kierkegaard’s Concepts, Tome IV: Individual to Novel, New York & Abingdon: Routledge, 2014: 173-180.

“Music,” in Steven Emmanuel, William McDonald & Jon Stewart (eds), Kierkegaard’s Concepts, Tome IV: Individual to Novel, New York & Abingdon: Routledge, 2014: 213-222.

“Myth,” (with Diego Giordano) in Steven Emmanuel, William McDonald & Jon Stewart (eds), Kierkegaard’s Concepts, Tome IV: Individual to Novel, New York & Abingdon: Routledge, 2014: 223-226.

“Introduction,” (with Steven Emmanuel & Jon Stewart) in Steven Emmanuel, William McDonald & Jon Stewart (eds), Kierkegaard’s Concepts, Tome I: Absolute to Church, New York & Abingdon: Routledge, 2013: xi-xiii.

“Aesthetic/Aesthetics,” in Steven Emmanuel, William McDonald & Jon Stewart (eds), Kierkegaard’s Concepts, Tome I: Absolute to Church, New York & Abingdon: Routledge, 2013: 23-29.

“Anxiety,” in Steven Emmanuel, William McDonald & Jon Stewart (eds), Kierkegaard’s Concepts, Tome I: Absolute to Church, New York & Abingdon: Routledge, 2013: 59-64.

“Kierkegaard and Romanticism,” in John Lippitt & George Pattison (eds), The Oxford Handbook of Kierkegaard, Oxford University Press, 2013: 94-111.

"The Higher Madness of Kierkegaard’s Inverse Dialectic," in Heiko Schulz & Jochen Schmidt (eds), Religion and the Irrational: Historical and Systematic Perspectives from Kant to Derrida, J.C.B. Mohr Verlag, 2012: 187-198.

"Recent Developments in Scholarship: Kierkegaard," in Jack Reynolds, Felicity Joseph, & Ashley Woodward (eds), Continuum Companion to Existentialism, Continuum Press, 2011: 282-290.

"Xenophon: Kierkegaard's Use of the Socrates of the Memorabilia," in Jon Stewart and Katalin Nun (eds), Kierkegaard and the Greek World, Tome I: Plato and Socrates, Aldershot etc.: Ashgate, 2010: 199-211.

"Kierkegaard's Demonic Boredom," in Carlo Salzani & Barbara dalla Pezza (eds), Essays on Boredom and Modernity, Amsterdam & New York: Rodopi, 2009: 61-84.

"Kierkegaard," in Graham Oppy & Nick Trakakis (eds), History of Western Philosophy of Religion Volume 4: Nineteenth Century Philosophy of Religion, London: Acumen, 2009: 175-186.

"Australia: An Archaeology of the Silence of Kierkegaard's Philosophical Reception," in Jon Stewart (ed.), Kierkegaard Studies: Sources, Reception, and Resources Volume 8, Aldershot etc.: Ashgate, 2009: 175-193.

"Indirection and Parrhesia - The Roles of Socrates' Daimonion and Kierkegaard's Styrelse in Communication," in Poul Houe and Gordon Marino (eds), Kierkegaard and the Word, Copenhagen : Reitzel, 2003: 126-138.

"Retracing the Circular Ruins of Hegel's Encyclopedia," in Robert Perkins (ed.), International Kierkegaard Commentary: Concluding Unscientific Postscript, Macon: Mercer University Press, 1997: 227-245.

"Translator's Introduction," in Søren Kierkegaard, Prefaces: Light Reading For Certain Classes As The Occasion May Require, By Nicolas Notabene, translated and with an introduction by William McDonald, Tallahassee: Florida State University Press, 1989, pp. 1-13.

Online Publications

"Søren Kierkegaard,"in Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (ed. Edward N. Zalta), Stanford: Center for the Study of Language and Information, http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/kierkegaard/ (revised November 2017)

"Gjentagelsen [Repetition]" in The Literary Encyclopedia, http://www.litencyc.com (2005)

"Frygt og Bæven [Fear and Trembling]" in The Literary Encyclopedia, http://www.litencyc.com/ (2005)

"Søren Kierkegaard," in The Literary Encyclopedia, http://www.litencyc.com/ (2004)

"Love in Kierkegaard's Symposia," Minerva – an internet journal of philosophy, Volume 7 http://www.ul.ie/~philos/vol7/kierkegaard.html (November 2003)

"Søren Aabye Kierkegaard," The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy http://www.iep.utm.edu/k/kierkega.htm (2002)

Journal Articles

“Nietzsche’s Reception of Indian Buddhism,” Researcher: European Journal of Humanities & Social Sciences, 3(2), 2019: 31-48.

Cappuccio, Max, Anco Peeters & William McDonald, “Sympathy for Dolores. Moral Consideration for Robots based on Virtue and Recognition,” Philosophy & Technology, v33 n1, 2019: 9-31.

"The Dialectic of Moods, Emotions and Spirit in Kierkegaard and Mādhyamika Buddhism," Acta Kierkegaardiana, Volume 5, University of Toronto, 2011: 100-108.

"Dialektika vnutorneho rozpolozenia, pocitov a ducha u Kierkegaarda a v budhistickej skole Mädhyamika," in Roman Kralik (ed.), Acta Kierkegaardiana, Supplementary Volume, University of Toronto, 2012: 144-153.

"From the Individual to the Institution to the Individual," Kierkegaard Studies, Kyoto, 2006: 53-70 [in Japanese].

"Writing as a Technology of the Self in Kierkegaard and Foucault," Enrahonar, No. 25 Revista de Filosofia de la Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona, April 1996: 55-67.

"Madness in Postscript," Søren Kierkegaard Newsletter , No.32, November 1995: 4-9.

"Confession As Mask," Søren Kierkegaard Society Bulletin, No.1, August 1995: 2-10.

Stage Plays

True Sex, UNE Theatre Studies Department (performed Aug. 21-23, 1997). Scripted and produced by William McDonald. Based on Michel Foucault (ed.), Herculine Barbin: Being the Recently Discovered Memoirs of a Nineteenth Century French Hermaphrodite. [2 hours].

Womb Loom. UNE Theatre Studies Department (performed Oct. 17-18, 1996). Scripted and produced by William McDonald [2 hours].

Films

Dreaming Out Loud. Scripted and produced by William McDonald. A documentary film about the first indigenous Australian woman to contest a seat in federal parliament. Recipient of a NSW Centenary of Federation Aboriginal History Grant (June, 2001) [88 minutes].

Koori Health in Koori Hands. Scripted and produced by William McDonald. A film on the ADSI Aboriginal Medical Service (June, 2000) [15 minutes].