Marie Jayasekera

Marie Jayasekera is an Assistant Professor of Philosophy at California State University, Long Beach within the College of Liberal Arts. Her research focuses on free will and human agency in early modern philosophy, exploring how thinkers like Descartes, Hobbes, Hume, and Astell conceptualized the nature of freedom and the threats to agency posed by psychological, sociocultural, and divine factors.

Education:

• Bachelor of Science in Biology (Yale University)
• Master of Arts in Philosophy (Tufts University)
• Doctor of Philosophy (University of Michigan)

Research Interests: Marie examines the interplay between experience, custom (both psychological mechanisms and social practices), and their impact on agency. She analyzes how early modern philosophers addressed questions of responsibility, moral psychology, and the role of reason versus emotion in shaping human action. Recent projects include reinterpreting Descartes’ theory of judgment and exploring Mary Astell’s critiques of societal norms.

Teaching: She teaches courses ranging from introductory classes like The Meaning of Life to advanced seminars on Moral Responsibility, Hume’s Treatise, and Free Will in Early Modern Philosophy.

Publications: Her work appears in journals such as Ergo, British Journal for the History of Philosophy, and Journal of the History of Philosophy, with a focus on Descartes, Hobbes, and the broader early modern philosophical tradition.