Valerie Bernard

Research interests

• Philosophy of Mind (Perception and Imagination)
• Continental Philosophy
• Phenomenology
• Philosophy of Dreaming

Recent publications

Bernard, V. (2025). Sartre on imaginative presence. Philosophy and the Mind Sciences, 6. 

Bernard, V. (2024). Sartre’s relationalist(-ish) theory of perception. Sartre Studies International, 30(2).

Biography

PhD, University of Toronto

Dr. Bernard specializes in Jean-Paul Sartre’s theory of perception and imagination. Other areas of research and publication include the study of phenomenal or imaginative presence, the philosophy of dreaming, disjunctivism and naïve realist theories of perception.

Courses

• The Philosophy of Dreaming
• Perception and Imagination in 17th and 18th Century Philosophy
• Kant and Hegel
• Existentialism and Phenomenology
• History of Postmodern Philosophy
• Ethics of Life and Death
• Introduction to Ethical Theories
• History of Philosophy
• Critical Thinking
• Healthcare Ethics

Conferences and presentations

“Dreaming and Theories of Perception” Canadian Philosophical Association, June 2021

“What Dreams Can Tell Us About Perception and Imagination” Invited presentation at the University of New Brunswick, February 2020

“Dreams: Percepts or Images” Canadian Philosophical Association, June 2019

“Qualitative Distinctions of Worth: Charles Taylor and Gary Watson on Human Agency” What is Canadian Philosophy? University of New Brunswick, November 2017