Media

Lewis Gordon: Black Consciousness

Check out Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor Lewis Gordon’s recent interview on the Overthink podcast on Black Consciousness. The episode discusses Professor Gordon’s book, Fear of Black Consciousness, as well as other works by race and philosophy scholars.

See below for a brief overview of the episode written on the Overthink website:

“Do you need black skin to be Black? How might concepts such as white privilege be limiting our understanding of how racism works? In Episode 117 of Overthink, Ellie and David chat with philosopher Lewis Gordon about his book, Fear of Black Consciousness. They talk through the history of anti-Black racism, the existential concept of bad faith, why Rachel Dolezal might have Black consciousness, and Frantz Fanon’s experience of being called a racial slur by a white child on a train. From the American Blues to the Caribbean movement of Negritude, this episode is full of insight into Black liberation and White centeredness.”

Congratulations, Lewis!

Lewis Gordon: The Honorable Shyne

Congratulations to Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor Lewis Gordon on his appearance in Hulu’s new documentary, The Honorable Shyne. The movie follows Moses “Shyne” Barrow, and his journey from famous hip-hop artist to Belizean politician. Below is an excerpt from the film’s synopsis:

This documentary provides an intimate look at Shyne’s personal evolution as he navigates fame, incarceration and a return home to Belize, where he finds new purpose and strives to lead his country to a brighter future.

 

You can watch the official trailer on Hulu’s YouTube channel.

Lewis Gordon: Final Installment in Spectrum Series

Check out the final installment on Spectrum‘s series on Distinguished Professor Lewis Gordon’s book, Freedom, Justice, and Decolonization. The final article, written by Maury Jackson, explores chapter seven of Gordon’s book. You can read the article, entitled “Irreplaceability and Bodily Resurrection: Adventist Philosophers Review ‘Freedom, Justice, and Decolonization'” on the Spectrum Magazine website.

Dr. Lewis Gordon will also be the featured lecturer at the November 2024 SAP conference this week.

Congratulations, Lewis!

Michael Lynch: Podcast Interviews

Congratulations to Dr. Michael Lynch on his two recent podcast appearances!

The first interview is the episode “Communicating Truth,” hosted by the American Associated of Biological Sciences on their Bioscience Talks podcast, where Professor Lynch talks about truth and misinformation.

The second interview is hosted by The Chasing Leviathan Podcast, where Professor Lynch discusses his the metaphysics of truth and his 2001 book, The Nature of Truth.

Lewis Gordon: DDT Jabavu Lecture

Tomorrow, Wednesday, September 4th, Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor Lewis Gordon will be delivering the DDT Jabavu Public Lecture at the University of Fort Hare. This lecture will examine Black Existentialism and Jabavu’s contributions to the topic. Additionally, it will explore the application of these philosophical insights to contemporary and prospective contexts.

The lecture will be held in person in Alice, South Africa, at the University of Fort Hare’s De Beers Gallery at 10:00am SAST (UTC+2:00). If you are interested in watching from home, the lecture will also be livestreamed on YouTube, which you can find by clicking here.

Tracy Llanera: Extremism, Gender, and Science

Congratulations to Dr. Tracy Llanera for her feature in The Philosopher’s Zone’s recent episode, “Extremism, gender and science”. This episode delves into how extremists are weaponizing gender and science in their arguments—an issue that has become increasingly prevalent in today’s political landscape.

You can read an excerpt from the website below:

Extremists used to be easy to spot: they were seen as irrational, unstable and… well, extreme. But in recent years, we’ve seen extremists on the political right laying claim to traditional Enlightenment values – reason, free speech, autonomy, human rights – that were traditionally used as bulwarks against extremism. This is clearly seen in contemporary battles around gender and science.

 

Check out Dr. Tracy Llanera’s interview on ABC’s The Philosopher’s Zone by clicking here.

Michael Hegarty: Publication in Erkenntnis

Congratulations to graduate student, Michael Hegarty, for being accepted for publication in Erkenntnis!

Check out the abstract for Michael Hegarty’s “Transformative Rationality” below:

Transformative Rationality and the Problem of ‘Creeping Rationalism’

According to ‘transformative’ theories of rationality, human rational mental capacities cannot be completely explained using the theories and concepts of natural science because rational mental states stand to one another in irreducibly normative relations of justification. Certain transformative theorists propose that a capacity counts as rational if a ‘Why?’ question is applicable to some exercises of that capacity. But ‘Why?’ questions are in principle applicable to any intentional action, like walking over there, or deliberately holding one’s breath. Transformative rationality therefore seems to entail that capacities for walking or breathing are rational and hence escape complete scientific explanation. Yet it would be surprising to learn that physiology, medicine, and biology could not completely explain such capacities. Given the ‘Why?’ question criterion for a rational capacity, there is a danger of ‘rationality’ creeping into capacities that (one might think) should submit to scientific explanation, and even into sub-individual processes. This is the ‘Problem of ‘Creeping Rationalism’’. After introducing the problem, I consider potential ways a transformative theorist could try to avoid the problem by limiting the scope of what capacities are ‘transformed’ by rationality. I argue that initially promising proposals to do this are either circular or are incompatible with core commitments of the theory.

Lewis Gordon: Spectrum Magazine & The Society of Seventh Day Adventist Philosophers

Congratulations to Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor, Lewis Gordon, for his work being featured in Spectrum magazine.

Spectrum, in collaboration with The Society of Seventh Day Adventist Philosophers, will be presenting reflections on Dr. Gordon’s Freedom, Justice, and Decolonization over the next few months leading up to his Londis Lecture in November in San Diego, CA.

Check out the article titled, Africana Thought: Adventist Philosophers on Gordon’s “Freedom, Justice, and Decolonization” – 1.