Society of Fellows in the Liberal Arts

Simon Grote completed his Ph.D. in History at the University of California, Berkeley, where he focused on early modern European and late antique intellectual history. He also holds an A.B. in History (Harvard College) and an M.Phil. in Political Thought and Intellectual History (Cambridge University). In the book he is now preparing, provisionally entitled The Origins of Modern Aesthetic Theory, he aims to rewrite the early history of modern aesthetic theory in Scotland and Germany by situating its origins in late seventeenth- and early eighteenth-century theology, moral philosophy, and natural law theory. While working on this book, he plans to expand his focus to include early eighteenth-century Swiss aesthetic theories against the background of Swiss Pietism. His research in the U.S., the U.K. and Germany has been supported by Jacob Javits, Gates-Cambridge, Fritz Thyssen, and DAAD Fellowships, among other awards. He has published articles on the moral theories of Shaftesbury and Francis Hutcheson, the German Pietist background of Alexander Baumgarten’s aesthetics, the fourth-century Brevarium of Festus, and the career of George Santayana at Harvard University. His teaching experience at Berkeley included undergraduate seminars on Augustine and his modern intellectual legacy, and on Adam Smith and the Scottish Enlightenment. At Princeton, he has taught a seminar on the Enlightenment, and collaborated in the team-taught Humanistic Studies course exploring interdisciplinary approaches to Western culture from Antiquity to the Renaissance.  His teaching in 2011-12 includes a lecture course on German history from Martin Luther to Napoleon, and the latter half of the team-taught Humanistic Studies course from the Renaissance to Modernity.  He is also Associate Director of the Behrman Undergraduate Society of Fellows.