John Carney

Visiting Associate Professor at Stamford

EDUCATION:
B.A.     Brooklyn College—Political Science
M.A.    New School for Social Research–Philosophy
Ph.D.  New School for Social Research—Philosophy

My most recent work was a paper I delivered at the UConn Stamford Spring colloquium. My point of origin for the paper was the appearance of a new term in our cultural lexicon—Touch Starvation. As a result of Covid 19, some individuals reported that they had not touched another person in years. The tendency appears to have continued after Covid and reflects changing attitudes toward the human body. In the paper I draw on a concept developed by French Philosopher Maurice Merleau-Ponty—that of the lived body. This concept allows us to investigate how this form of bodily alienation takes hold.

BIOGRAPHICAL STATEMENT:

I was born in Brooklyn, New York where I attended Saint Francis Prep. After a tour in the U.S. Navy, I attended Brooklyn College, where I studied Political Science and Philosophy. I then choose the Graduate Faculty of the New School for Social Research for my M.A. and Ph.D. Much of my scholarship focuses on liberation and alienation.

Council for Research in Values in Philosophy

I produced two book chapters for CRVP One was, The Religious Foundations of Solidarity (https://www.crvp.org/publications/Series-IVA/IVA-42.pdf#page=45 ). In this work I tried to explicate historical liberation evinced in the Solidarity Movement in Poland using the contributions of the Philosophy of Praxis.

Another area where liberation and alienation are thematized in an accessible way is in the History of Philosophy. At the time, I found it interesting that religion was emerging as a major force in global social movements. For example, the Solidarity Movement in Poland was part of an often-overlooked Catholic worker movement. This analysis led to my other study for the Council for Research in Values in Philosophy—On the Solidarity of Praxis.(https://www.crvp.org/publications/Series-I/I-35.pdf#page=187)

More recently, I have focused on a trend in American political culture that is increasingly nationalistic and intolerant of Others. One result of this has been the rise of extremist ideology and a growing acceptance of fascistic rhetoric. One question that sadly, continues to appear is this: What is the ground of contemporary fascism? In my study of crypto fascism, I used the analyses of the Frankfurt School and that of Sartre’s Existentialism to address this question.

https://www.pdcnet.org/pga/content/pga_2021_0001_0002_0209_0224