In the first pages of his autobiography, Darcus Beese, former president of Island Records, writes about growing up Black in mid Twentieth Century London. “Generally, it was a non-issue – he writes –; until it became an issue.” (p. 28) “Sometimes I’d be out on the street with a group of mates and a white […]
On the Academic Relevance of Amerindian Ontology
My colleague Angeles Eraña an me have recently seen our chapter on the Zapatista emancipatory project and tzotzil ontology finally in print, now that The Oxford Handbook of Applied Philosophy of Language is finally out. Last week, we were invited to discuss the chapter with Autumn Scarlett Harrison, Ana Carolina Zamora Buen Abad and Janice Dowel […]
Bantu Ontology and the Ontological Turn, SOAS, University of London/Online, Oct. 27, 14:00-16:00 (UK Time)
The Centre for Global and Comparative Philosophies is pleased to invite you to the 18TH LECTURE in the SOAS World Philosophies Lecture Series. The Lecture will be delivered by Angela Roothaan, Associate Professor at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. Here are the details: Title: Bantu Ontology and the Ontological Turn – a discussion of the (non)-relation between anthropological theory […]
Say Goodbye to Moral Responsibility Theory As You Know It
My article in Mich CIurria’s forthcoming special issue of Feminist Philosophy Quarterly on Feminist Approaches to Moral Responsibility contributes to growing discussions within philosophy about the ways in which and the extent to which philosophers are culpable with respect to the production and perpetuation of unjust social and political arrangements. A central motivational assumption of […]
Robert Chapman: Towards a Democratic Approach to Health Concepts, King’s College London/Online, Oct. 20, 2022
The Sowerby Philosophy & Medicine project at King’s College London are excited to announce a new colloquium series entitled ‘New Work on the Concepts of Health and Disease’, which will be running every other Thursday until early next year. The first talk will be given by Dr Robert Chapman on Thursday the 20th of October at […]
What makes something “social”?
We use the term ‘social’ to refer to a wide range of phenomena at different levels of abstraction… and it is very likely that most if not all of the social phenomena we care about as philosophers are complex enough to occur at more than one ontological level.
Whataboutisms, Exclusion and Silencing
Behind every whataboutism is a claim of exclusion. As such, they are easy to dismiss as irrelevant and distracting, since they are never already part of what is at issue.
Is racism really that different from classism, ableism, etc?
They are all social system of group oppression, and this is no superficial ontological feature. Thus the question can be neither whether they are different or not, nor even how deep these differences go. The question has to be how useful is it to treat these systems together, and when it is good to separate them or treat them in smaller groups
Should we stop talking of race, gender, etc.?
Does rejecting the metaphysical reality of races committees us to “resist a policy of providing support to black-owned businesses, or any other race-based prioritization”, presumably, because we would be committed to reject as false the race-talk behind such measures.
Social Ontology is Ontology
Social ontology is ontology. This might seem too much a truism to be worth stating, but its consequences are far-reaching. On the one hand, its methodology is completely on a par with other fields of ontology, like the ontology of abstract objects, midsize objects, the mind, etc. The consensual methodology in these fields is to […]
BIOPOLITICAL PHILOSOPHY 