Author: Malley, Mary

Expression and Self-Knowledge

Posted on by

Dorit Bar-On, Co-Author

Wiley, 2023

Contemporary epistemologists and philosophers of mind continue to find puzzling the nature and source of privileged self-knowledge: the ordinary and effortless ‘first-person’ knowledge we have of our own sensations, moods, emotions, beliefs, desires, and hopes.

In Expression and Self-Knowledge, Dorit Bar-On and Crispin Wright articulate their joint dissatisfaction with extant accounts of self-knowledge and engage in a sustained and substantial critical debate over the merits of an expressivist approach to the topic. The authors incorporate cutting-edge research while defending their own alternatives to existing approaches to so-called ‘first-person privilege’.

Bar-On defends her neo-expressivist account, addressing the objection that neo-expressivism fails to provide an adequate epistemology of ordinary self-knowledge, and addresses new objections levelled by Wright. Wright then presents an alternative pluralist approach, and Bar-On argues in response that pluralism faces difficulties neo-expressivism avoids. Providing invaluable insights on a hotly debated topic in epistemology and philosophy of mind, Expression and Self-Knowledge:

  • Presents an in-depth debate between two leading philosophers over the expressivist approach
  • Offers novel developments and penetrating criticisms of the authors' respective views
  • Features two different perspectives on the influential remarks on expression and self-knowledge found in Wittgenstein’s later writings
  • Includes four jointly written chapters that offer a critical overview of prominent existing accounts, which provide a useful advanced introduction to the subject.

Expression and Self-Knowledge is essential reading for epistemologists, philosophers of mind and language, psychologists with an interest in self-knowledge, and researchers and graduate students working in expression, expressivism, and self-knowledge.

Cover of "Expression and Self-Knowledge" by Dorit Bar-On and Crispin Wright.

Black Existentialism and Decolonizing Knowledge

Posted on by

Lewis R. Gordon, Author and Co-Editor

Bloomsbury, 2023

Black Existentialism and Decolonizing Knowledge collects key philosophical writings of Lewis R. Gordon, a globally renowned scholar whose writings cover liberation struggles across the globe and make field-defining contributions to the philosophy of existence, philosophy of race, Africana philosophy, philosophy of human sciences, aesthetics, and decolonization.

Gordon's expansive output ranges across phenomenology, anti-Blackness, activist thinkers, sexuality, Fanon, Jimi Hendrix, Black Jewish struggles, critical pedagogy, psychoanalysis, and Ubuntu philosophy. Edited by Rozena Maart and Sayan Dey, two decolonial thinkers from South Africa and India, this reader shifts attention away from colonial centres of power, encouraging global dialogue across students, scholars, and activists. Featuring a foreword by the celebrated novelist and postcolonial thinker, Ngugi wa Thiong'o, this reader includes a mixture of research articles, short critical essays, reflections, interviews, poems, and photographs in the creative pursuit of liberation.

Tracy Llanera: CLAS Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Grant

Posted on by

Congratulations to Assistant Professor Tracy Llanera, who has been awarded a CLAS Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Grant to support her work titled “Resilience: A Workshop for Women Doing Philosophy.” Dr. Llanera’s work has already inspired an intellectual movement in the South Pacific, in which Indigenous and other South Pacific women of color working in philosophy have created a Women Doing Philosophy group and project. The result is a series of influential journal articles, conferences, colloquia, and a proposed anthology on resilience. The proposal for the anthology has been enthusiastically received by the series editors for the Routledge-India series Academics, Politics and Society in the Post-Covid World.  

Ayanna De’Vante Spencer: me.too International Social and Political Framework

Posted on by

Assistant Professor Ayanna De’Vante Spencer and her collaborators launched the me.too International’s Social and Political Framework. As the original author of the first two versions and now a co-author, Dr. Spencer is very proud of this public philosophy for and with survivors, and the extraordinary team at me too International. Interested parties can view the framework here digitally before physical copies are available.

Lewis Gordon: Interview in Newsweek

Posted on by

Check out Professor and Department Head Lewis Gordon’s recent interview in Newsweek, “Kanye West Confused About Antisemitism and Racism, Professor Says.”

*Excerpt*

Gordon explained that “the nonracial interpretation of antisemitism doesn’t quite play out in practice, since people who hate Jews use all the logic of race and racism when speaking about Jews, and, internally to Jewish communities, one could be born Jewish (through a Jewish mother) and remain so even when, in some cases, one has converted to other religions.”

“So,” said Gordon, “the short answer is this: Wherever there is antisemitism, there is racism. Wherever there is racism, there is often antisemitism. But bear in mind, antisemitism is a species of racism.”

Lewis Gordon: Kanye West and the Age of the Unmanageable

Posted on by

Check out Professor and Department Head Lewis Gordon’s comments on Kanye West in the Financial Times, “Kanye West and the Age of the Unmanageable.”

*Excerpt*

Lewis R Gordon is an American philosopher whose book Fear of Black Consciousness was published earlier this year. In 2018, he was interviewed for an article about Kanye in which he tried to explain the singer’s drift to the right following a controversial interview the musician had done on TMZ about the history of slavery. “It’s pretty clear that his psychological protection against vulnerability is to push himself to the level of a god,” said Gordon. “People who build up an edifice of pleasing falsehoods to protect themselves eventually lose the connection to certain elements of truth.”

Tracy Llanera: Keynote at Notre Dame School of Virtue and Character

Posted on by

Assistant Professor Tracy Llanera gave a keynote at the 2022 Notre Dame School of Virtue & Character presented by the Institute for Ethics & Society. Held over two weeks, the third NDSVC allows selected participants to engage with new research on the topic of cultivating good character. NDSVC features six keynote sessions, each running for 1.5 hours. The sessions are structured around a pre-read paper and provide participants with the opportunity to engage directly with the speakers in a rigorous but friendly discussion of their work. 

Flyer for the 2022 Notre Dame School of Virtue & Character

Lewis Gordon: Philosophy and Global Affairs Vol. 2

Posted on by

Check out the second volume of Philosophy and Global Affairs, co-edited by Professors Lewis Gordon and Jane Anna Gordon. You can also read Professor Tracy Llanera's contributed article, linked below.

"Pragmatism, Language Games, and the Philippine Drug War" by Tracy Llanera

This article explores the claim that how we talk can inspire how we reason and act. Contemporary research suggests that the words militant Christian leaders in the Philippines use shape how they rationalize President Rodrigo Duterte’s war on drugs. Describing drug users as “sinners,” a trope in religious language, is particularly lethal. Using work on pragmatism and philosophy of language by Richard Rorty, Robert Brandom, and Lynne Tirrell, the author examines how the term “sinner” generates pernicious claims in the drug war. It explores how the use of the term inspires hermeneutic uptake, redirects discursive focus, and engenders certain social and political actions in the Philippines.