Dr Sean Palmer

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Dr Sean Palmer

Adjunct Lecturer of Philosophy

Philosophy

Contact Details

Email: Sean.Palmer@spcm.ie
Phone: +353 83 474 4005
Office:

Office hours:

Research
About

Research Interests

Continental Philosophy (Hermeneutics, Phenomenology, Mimetic Theory)
Philosophical Approaches to Evil and Violence
Philosophy of Religion
Pragmatism
Philosophy of Science

Highlighted Publications

Review of Barnabas Aspray, Ricœur at the Limits of Philosophy: God, Creation, and Evil. Philosophy 100 (2), 2025, pp. 289–293. Cambridge University Press.

‘Historical Faithfulness and Real Victims: Paul Ricœur, René Girard, and Jacques Derrida on the Pharmakon of Written Testimony,’ in Analogy, Desire, and Imitation, eds. Philip Gonzales and Sean R. Palmer. Wipf & Stock, Veritas Series

‘To welcome anew the mimetic concept’: A Reformulation of Paul Ricœur’s Conflict of Interpretations alongside René Girard’s Mimetic Theory. Études Ricœuriennes / Ricœur Studies (accepted, forthcoming).

Analogy, Desire, and Imitation, edited with Philip Gonzales. Wipf & Stock, Veritas Series (forthcoming, Fall 2026).

Research

Analogy, Desire, and Imitation, edited with Philip Gonzales. Wipf & Stock, Veritas Series (forthcoming, Fall 2026).

‘Is AI a Return to the Sacred in the 21st Century? Violence, Rivalry, and Language.’ Presses Universitaires de l’Institut Catholique de Toulouse (accepted, forthcoming).

‘Ecological Crisis as a Human Crisis: Making Debate Non-violent.’ Maynooth Philosophy Supplement (Spring 2026, accepted).

‘The Privation of Trinitarian Relation — Whence Comes Evil?’ In A Trinitarian Synthesis of Wisdom, ed. Eduard Fiedler. Alber Verlag (forthcoming, 2026).

‘The Understanding of Evil: Orienting an Interpretation.’ In The Faces of Contemporary Phenomenology, vol. 3: On Violence and Evil. Harrassowitz Verlag (forthcoming, 2026).

Biography

Dr. Sean R. Palmer is Adjunct Lecturer in Philosophy at St. Patrick’s Pontifical University, Maynooth, and Associated Postdoctoral Researcher at the UR CÉRES (Christianisme: Héritages et Présence) at the Institut Catholique de Toulouse. He holds a DPhil in Philosophy from St. Patrick’s Pontifical University and a Doctorat Canonique de Philosophie from the Institut Catholique de Toulouse, awarded jointly under a cotutelle agreement between the two institutions. His doctoral thesis, A Hermeneutics of Evil: A Synthesized Approach to the Philosophies of Paul Ricœur and René Girard, was completed under the supervision of Dr. Gaven Kerr and Dr. Andrea Bellantone.

His research examines philosophical approaches to evil and violence through the lenses of continental philosophy, hermeneutics, and mimetic theory, with particular attention to the intersection of symbolic interpretation and structural violence. He is currently completing a monograph, Understanding Evil: Ricœur, Girard, and the Question of Violence, under development for Michigan State University Press in the Studies in Violence, Mimesis, and Culture series. He is an active member of the International Network in the Philosophy of Religion, directed by Prof. Emmanuel Falque out of the Institut Catholique de Paris. Alongside his continental work, Dr. Palmer has taught and pursued research in pragmatism and philosophy of science, and brings a broad historical and interdisciplinary perspective to his teaching at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels.