Welcome to BIOPOLITICAL PHILOSOPHY! BIOPOLITICAL PHILOSOPHY aims to provide the philosophical community with a forum for critical analysis of biopolitical asymmetries and other mechanisms and effects of power in philosophy and beyond. The BIOPOLITICAL PHILOSOPHY insignia depicts a dandelion, suggesting life, networks, systems, and change (photo credit: James Niland). BIOPOLITICAL PHILOSOPHY will showcase the insights […]
Using Phineas Gage for Questions on Personal Identity and Other Topics in Philosophy of Mind, Experimental Philosophy, and Cognitive Science
Philosophers generally take disabilities (plural) and impairments to be self-evident, natural, and politically neutral human characteristics or attributes that certain people possess and embody. In recent years, however, a growing number of philosophers have challenged this view, consolidating an area of philosophy for which I coined the name “philosophy of disability.” Many philosophers of disability, […]
The Historical Origin of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
Guest Post by Patrick S. O’Donnell Thanks to Patrick S. O’Donnell for sharing his thoughts regarding the historical origin of PTSD. He wrote in response to a recent article published on Quartz, “Palestine’s head of mental health services says PTSD is a western concept”. Patrick S. O’Donnell is an independent researcher and writer, published primarily […]
Microaggressions and Implicit Bias
In two previous posts (here and here), I consider the tactics of force relations that have come to be referred to as “microaggressions”. In the first post, I discuss ableist language and ableist exceptionism as examples of microaggressions. In the second post, I discuss microaggressions as “intentional and nonsubjective” practices (tactics). I point out in […]
CFA: Binational Conference: Ethics, Politics, and Migration at the U.S.-Mexico Border, Ciudad Juárez, México and El Paso, Texas, May 15-17, 2019 (deadline: Mar. 15, 2019)
Dates: May 15-17, 2019Locations: Universidad Autónoma de Ciudad Juárez (UACJ) and the University of Texas, El Paso (UTEP)Languages: Spanish, English and PortugueseConfirmed Speakers: Eduardo Mendieta (Penn State), Melissa W. Wright (Penn State) Tony Payan (UACJ), Amy Reed-Sandoval (UTEP)Sponsors: Doctoral Program in Philosophy (UACJ) Master Program in Social Work Program (UACJ), Department of Philosophy (UTEP) Overview: The unequal and exclusionary processes of […]
Climate Change: An Unprecedentedly Old Catastrophe
This article is a slightly adapted version of an article published online in Grafting Issue 1 (June 2018) by the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge and Blackwood Gallery* (Toronto, Ontario). Guest Post by Kyle Whyte Indigenous peoples of Turtle Island have already passed through human-caused ecological catastrophe at least once in their history. […]
Dialogues on Disability: Shelley Tremain Interviews Grace Joy Cebrero
Hello, I’m Shelley Tremain and I’d like to welcome you to the forty-sixth installment of Dialogues on Disability, the series of interviews with disabled philosophers that I began at Discrimination and Disadvantage and will henceforth post to BIOPOLITICAL PHILOSOPHY on the third Wednesday of each month. The series is designed to provide a public venue […]
BIOPOLITICAL PHILOSOPHY: The first two weeks
Here’s a look at the first two weeks of BIOPOLITICAL PHILOSOPHY, launched on January 1st, 2019! Thanks to our new readers for a fantastic start. We’ve made a big splash and posted challenging and engaging content. If you want to pitch a post and take advantage of our growing audience, please hit the “Pitch” link […]
‘Microaggressions’: Just Another Word For Practices
In my previous post, I refer to both microaggressions, in general, and linguistic microaggressions, in particular. I also claim that linguistic microaggressions are intentional and nonsubjective tactics, that is, are directed at specific aims and objectives (are intentional) and can seldom be attributed to a given actor who introduced them into discourse and practice (are […]
Social Visibility: An Interdisciplinary Workshop on Critique and Social Justice, Vanderbilt University, Apr. 12-13, 2019
Conference Description: If we are to register and respond rightly to conditions of suffering and injustice, these conditions must be visible. Unjust circumstances, and those harmed by them, must appear worthy of attention and practical response, so that they are taken to issue in intelligible and authoritative calls to action. Yet we inhabit a world […]
Ableist Language and Other Everyday Assaults on Disabled People (or, Stop Talking About “People with Disabilities”!)
Language, a ubiquitous sociopolitical mechanism, operates intentionally and nonsubjectively, and can produce microaggressions whose effects are far-reaching. Language, Lane Greene remarks, is a genius system with no genius. “Bound by rules, yet constantly changing,” Greene notes, “language might be the ultimate self-regulating system, with nobody in charge” (Greene 2018). In systems of language, words and […]
