Catherine Peters

Philosophy begins in the human desire to understand ourselves and reality. I want every student, whatever their background or experience with philosophy, to find a place in that inquiry. My courses range from introductory philosophy and Jane Austen’s novels to medieval thought, Aquinas, and the ethics of disability. Across them, I bring diverse thinkers and traditions into conversation around questions that concern our lives: What can we know? What does it mean to be a person? How should we live with one another?

My assignments ask students to use philosophical concepts in new settings: students in my disability courses evaluate representations of disability in film; in my Jane Austen seminar, they use accounts of virtue to interpret characters’ choices; in my Aquinas seminar, they write arguments in both contemporary essay form and the summa style. I encourage individual meetings and oral discussion of student work to make the process of developing an argument visible and to give students feedback along the way.

Courses Offered

Introductory and Interdisciplinary Courses

• Philosophical Inquiry — Loyola Marymount University. Introduction to fundamental questions concerning truth, knowledge, reality, human nature, and personhood, with attention to ancient, medieval, and modern philosophical texts and the Catholic intellectual tradition.
• Sense & Synderesis: Virtue Ethics in the Novels of Jane Austen — Loyola Marymount University. Writing-intensive interdisciplinary first-year seminar examining Austen’s novels through Aristotelian and Thomistic accounts of the cardinal virtues. Students develop philosophical and literary interpretations through close reading, seminar discussion, writing conferences, revision, and oral defense. Also taught as an Honors course.
• Philosophy of the Human Person — University of St. Thomas (TX). Introductory course in Aristotelian-Thomistic philosophical anthropology, addressing hylomorphism, the soul and its powers, sensation and intellect, appetite and cognition, the passions, freedom of choice, and the incorruptibility of the human soul. Places Aristotle and Aquinas in conversation with Plato, Descartes, Hume, and C. S. Lewis.

Medieval Philosophy and the Aristotelian Tradition

• Medieval Philosophy — Loyola Marymount University. Required course in the philosophy major’s historical sequence; cross-listed with Catholic Studies, Jewish Studies, and Islamic Studies; fulfills the Faith and Reason requirement. Primary-text study of Augustine, Anselm, Avicenna, Averroes, Maimonides, Aquinas, Scotus, and Ockham, with particular attention to metaphysics, epistemology, natural theology, and the relationship between faith and reason.
• Aquinas — Loyola Marymount University. Advanced primary-text seminar organized around Aquinas’s division of the philosophical disciplines: logic and natural philosophy, moral philosophy, metaphysics, and natural theology. Draws upon philosophical and scriptural commentaries, disputed questions, shorter treatises, Summa theologiae, and Summa contra gentiles. Cross-listed with Catholic Studies; fulfills the Faith and Reason requirement. Taught as both an undergraduate seminar and a combined undergraduate–graduate seminar.
• The Philosophy of Nature — University of St. Thomas (TX) and St. Mary’s Seminary (Houston, TX). Examination of the nature, principles, and methods of natural philosophy, beginning with logic and demonstration and proceeding through matter and form, causality and chance, soul, place, time, motion, and the unmoved mover. Concludes by considering modern critiques of nature and causality and the relationship between the general science of nature and the particular sciences.
• Medieval Science — Loyola Marymount University. Graduate seminar on Aristotelian scientia and its development in Avicenna and Aquinas, including the principles and methods of physics, metaphysics, and theology and the relationships among the sciences.

Philosophy and Ethics of Disability

• The Philosophy of Disability — Loyola Marymount University. Philosophical examination of disability, including competing definitions and models of disability, philosophical anthropology, personhood, embodiment, dependence, and human flourishing. Places contemporary disability scholarship in conversation with historical philosophical accounts of human nature. Cross-listed with Health and Human Sciences; Bioethics elective.
• The Ethics of Disability — Loyola Marymount University. Examines the ethical questions raised by disability through virtue ethics, natural law, and contemporary approaches to disability justice. Topics include dignity, inclusion, accommodation, dependency, social responsibility, and the obligations of individuals and communities toward persons with disabilities. Cross-listed with Catholic Studies; fulfills the Ethics and Justice Core requirement.
• Pro-Seminar: Disability — Loyola Marymount University. Introduces graduate students to research, scholarly writing, seminar discussion, conference presentation, and publication practices through philosophical questions concerning disability.

Student Comments (selection)

“I think Dr. Peters is very clear in her lecturing. The structure of the lecture is very easy to follow and she is always willing to spend more time on topics or subjects that we have trouble grasping, which is much appreciated.” (Spring 2023)

“Although this course only scratched the surface of philosophy, Prof Peters did an excellent job of giving enough detail that we were able to fully grasp what we were learning. Her examples and anecdotes were funny and extremely effective. She does a fantastic job of connecting seemingly ancient ideas to very relevant concepts and making philosophy feel important to everyday life.” (Fall 2021)

“Dr. Peters has a great sense of humor and really has a wonderful sense of how to present these ideas well. She handles objections with grace. The best part of this course is that Dr. Peters treats it as a living philosophy, not merely a historical fact.” (Spring 2022)

“The wisdom of the scholastic tradition has become self–evident to me because of this course. I never had any doubts that it did, but I would not have been able to artfully articulate to someone else why scholasticism can help answer contemporary questions before taking this course. Thanks to Dr. Peters, I am much more confident in my ability to pursue a career that engages medieval philosophy. Her pedagogy was full of joy and compelled me to have faith in myself to contemplate such challenging material.” (Spring 2022)

“Dr. Peters was so passionate and knowledgeable about the topic, that it made me want to keep learning. I was not passionate about philosophy, but Dr. Peters’s enthusiasm made me want to learn more and keep going.” (Fall 2023)

“She has shown me that it is indeed possible to be an excellent philosopher and also be incredibly happy. That, above all, is what I have taken from her being my professor.” (Spring 2022)

“I greatly appreciated the time and effort Dr. Peters took to make sure her students were engaged and excited about course material. She put in 110% effort every day, which reflected her genuine passion for education. She made my time learning Medieval Philosophy extremely enjoyable, and subjects were addressed with clarity and precision. This was one of the courses I was most worried about this semester, as I had some difficulty at the start. Nonetheless, Dr. Peters was always available to meet and discuss course subjects. Over time, my work improved, and I’ve come to recognize how foundational medieval thought is to the core of philosophical discourse.” (Spring 2024)

“Dr. Peters is always willing to help students and explains the course material very clearly and enthusiastically. She goes out of her way to make herself available to meet with students, and is very understanding, fair, and patient in her interactions with us. It is apparent that she cares about us as students, yes, but more fundamentally as human beings; she does everything in her power to equip us with the knowledge that will allow us to do good and avoid evil in our academic careers and other aspects of our lives. I was already excited about medieval philosophy going into taking this course, and I am leaving it somehow even more excited about it. Dr. Peters has been an amazing mentor and has given me advice that I will––and do––carry with me in all aspects of my life.” (Spring 2023)

“I really enjoyed Prof. Peters lecture style, especially the many contemporary, somewhat ‘easy’ applications of a certain philosopher’s thought… These examples helped me to better understand the concepts and phenomena that philosophers tend to describe with complex, and sometimes archaic, terminology.” (Spring 2020)

“Dr. Peters was the best part about this course. I had her for Medieval Philosophy over zoom a couple of years ago, and she was the main reason why I took Aquinas this semester. I wasn’t too interested in Aquinas when I registered for this course; I registered because I love Dr. Peters and the way she teaches and interacts with students. She is extremely engaging and is always eager to meet with students if they have any questions. She is also super supportive and kind hearted. Something else that I love is that she makes the class really fun. I laugh and have more fun in this class than in my other ones while still learning more than I do in my other classes. Her examples are amazing and easy to understand which in turn makes the material easier to understand. Even though I wasn’t very interested in Aquinas when I initially registered for this course, I look forward to this class every week to learn more about the material because of how engaging this class is. Hands down one of my favorite classes now because of Dr. Peters.” (Fall 2022)

“I really enjoyed this course Professor Peters made the class so enjoyable and I always looked forward to attending. One thing I found particularly beneficial were our group discussions after each volume of a novel we would read. I got to see how my classmates think and what they found important versus my own opinions on the readings.” (Sense & Synderesis, Spring 2024)