Aristotelian Proto-racism and the Western Invention of the Zoological Other: Lessons from Maxi Glamour’s Genealogy

When I worked at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, I had the privileged of meeting Maxi Glamour, a philosopher, digital creator, activist, and mythical genderless fairy creature of many talents. I encourage readers to follow their blog and social media accounts if you don’t already.  Recently, Glamour published a brief and illuminating genealogy of racism in philosophy, which […]

Becoming Black

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 […]

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.

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.