Faculty

Lewis Gordon: Kanye West and the Age of the Unmanageable

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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

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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

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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.

Nelson Maldonado-Torres: “Decolonizing Academia”

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Check out Professor Nelson Maldonado-Torres‘ recent interview in “Decolonizing Academia: Obstacles and Paths Forward,” published in Chinese Social Sciences Today.

*Excerpt*

Nelson Maldonado-Torres, a professor from the Department of Philosophy at the University of Connecticut in the US, held a similar view, saying that decolonization refers to particular historical moments when former colonies of European empires struggled for their political and juridical independence, particularly within the disciplines of history and the social sciences.

Lewis Gordon: History of Philosophy Without Any Gaps

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Listen to Professor and Department Head Lewis Gordon as he discusses Frantz Fanon on "History of Philosophy without any gaps." In this podcast Peter Adamson, Professor of Philosophy at the LMU in Munich and at King's College London, takes listeners through the history of philosophy, "without any gaps." The series looks at the ideas, lives and historical context of the major philosophers as well as the lesser-known figures of the tradition.

Lewis Gordon: Eminent Scholar Roundtable

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Congratulations to Professor and Department Head Lewis Gordon, honoree of the Global Development Studies Eminent Scholar Roundtable 2021-2022 organized by the International Studies Association.

The Global Development Section draws together scholars broadly concerned with development and global justice working across a number of fields, for example, postcolonial studies, development studies, critical political economy, critical security studies, social and political theory, history, sociology, gender studies, and public policy. The Section approaches the phenomenon of development in its broadest sense as the study of change, rather than in its narrow hegemonic conceptualization as technical interventions in social worlds. GDS is further concerned with investigating alternative understandings, especially those that excavate the intimate links between development, colonialism, and global capitalism. In this respect, the Section seeks to cultivate an intellectual space or provocation, supporting many ways of seeing and being in the world. And for this purpose, the Section is committed to facilitating diverse modes of inquiry, establishing research networks, and supporting early-career scholars in their professional endeavors.

Tracy Llanera: “Pragmatism, Language Games, and the Philippine Drug War”

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Check out Professor Tracy Llanera’s recent article in Philosophy and Global Affairs, “Pragmatism, Language Games, and the Philippine Drug War.”

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

Mitch Green: Editor-in-Chief of “Philosophia”

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We are pleased to announce that Professor Mitch Green will be the new Editor-in-Chief of Philosophia, a general philosophy journal that welcomes broadly accessible submissions on all topics of current philosophical interest. Philosophia will continue to commission Author-Meets-Critics symposia, and starting in 2023 will commission state-of-the art essays accessible to a wide audience. Due to the growing number of high-quality submissions, the journal has moved from publishing four issues per year to five. For more information, please visit Philosophia’s homepage.

Julian Schlöder: Editorial Board for Logique et Analyse

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Please join us in congratulating Julian Schlöder, who has joined the editorial board of Logique et Analyse.

Logique et Analyse is an international, peer-reviewed journal that publishes research in logic, philosophy of logic and/or mathematics, argumentation-theory, and analytical philosophy, broadly conceived.

Its first issue was published in 1958 by the National Center for Research in Logic, the Belgian Society for the promotion of logical research founded by Leo Apostel, Philippe Devaux, Joseph Dopp, Robert Feys, and Chaïm Perelman. The journal has been appearing ever since. Its presents editor are Jan Heylen and Peter Verdée, who have succeeded Jean Paul Van Bendegem.

Lewis Gordon: The Chronical of Higher Education

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Check out Professor and Department Head Lewis Gordon in a recent article published on The Chronicle of Higher Education titled “A Philosopher Laughs at Death — and the Public Listens.” Gordon discusses the German philosopher Martin Heidegger and his impact on society today.

**Excerpt from article**

Martin Heidegger exemplifies values suitable for people so enwrapped in themselves that they treat their own death as the end of the world,” he told me. “We really don’t need Heidegger today. We didn’t need him then, in his rector lectures at Freiburg in 1933, with his callous investment in cruel charismatic leadership as a form of salvation. Indeed, I would go so far as to argue we never needed him. We need people who transcend self-absorption, psychotic and sociopathic indifference to the suffering of others, and delusions of importance from societal systems designed to support their limited relationship to reality. We need compassion, courage — something Heidegger lacked — and a clear understanding of institutions of power.