Education
- BA in philosophy, Penn State University
- MA, Vanderbilt University
- PhD, Vanderbilt University
Biography
Sean Erwin is a Professor of Philosophy in the Department of Theology and Philosophy at Barry University.
He received a B.A. in Philosophy from Penn State and his M.A. and Ph.D. from Vanderbilt where he studied French and Italian Critical Theory and Early Modern Philosophy with a focus on Spinoza.
His research includes the Aristotelian tradition in Arabic and Jewish philosophy, Italian Renaissance and Early Modern thought—particularly Machiavelli and Spinoza—as well as 20th-century French and Italian philosophy.
He has served as the Senior Editor of the Humanities and Technology Review and is the past Program Chair and past Vice President fof the Society for Medieval and Renaissance Philosophy.
Professor Erwin is also the co-founder and co-chair of the International Machiavelli Society.
He is the author of numerous articles as well as book and art reviews.
In his first book, The Problems of Military Force in Machiavelli: A War of One’s Own (Bloomsbury Academic, 2022), Erwin explores the overlooked influence of Lucretius and Aelianus Tacticus on Machiavelli’s, Art of War.
He argues that Machiavelli’s militia project goes far beyond warfare, informing institutional arrangements and disciplinary frameworks that embed their principles throughout the political order.