Profile

CURRENT RESEARCH

 

 

My most recent book, ETHICS FOR DISASTER (2009), adds philosophical ethics to disaster studies and disaster studies to philosophy. INCLUSIVE FEMINISM (2005) aims to resolve the contentions among feminists with a new relational definition of women and a theoretical basis for rule by women. Forthcoming in January 2010 is my HANDY PHILOSOPHY ANSWER BOOK for Viisible Ink Press, a general reader reference volume that provides the history of philosophy from the pre-Socratics to post-modernism in a series of questions and answers. I have an abiding interest in the history of philosophy, particularly 17c philosophy, pragmatism, and existentialism, as they are relevant to contemporary cultural criticism, stemming from my BACHELORS OF SCIENCE (1996) and my doctoral dissertation on the Epistemology of C. I. Lewis (Columbia University, 1970.) My earlier work on race and mixed race, as in THINKING ABOUT RACE (2006) and PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE AND RACE (2002) is also ongoing. In progress is a monograph, THE ETHICS AND MORES OF RACE, in which I engage philosophical ethics toward developing an ethics for race.

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

Books

ETHICS FOR DISASTER, Rowman and Littlefield, 2009.

Inclusive Feminism: A Third Wave Theory of Women's Commonality, Rowman and Littlefield, 2005.

Philosophy of Science and Race, Routledge, 2002.

Bachelors of Science: Seventeenth Century Identity, Then and Now, Temple University Press, 1996.

Race and Mixed Race, Temple University Press, 1993.

Textbooks

Thinking About Race, Wadsworth, 1998; 2nd edition, Thompson-Wadsworth 2005.

Edited Anthologies

Women of Color and Philosophy: A Critical Reader, Blackwell Publishers, 2000, editor's introduction and article, "Descartes' Awake-Asleep Distinction and Realism."

RACE/SEX: Their Sameness, Difference and Interplay, Routledge, 1997, editor's introduction and article, "The American Sexualization of Race."

American Mixed Race: Constructing Microdiversity, Rowman & Littlefield, 1995, editor's introduction and article, "Life After Race."

Articles

"Reparations and the Rectification of Race," The Journal of Ethics, Vol. 7, No. 1, 2003, pp. 139-151.

"Philosophical Aspects of the 1998 AAA (American Anthropological Association) Statement on Race." pp. 445-465 Anthropological Theory, December 2001.

"American Mixed Race: Theoretical and Legal Issues," Harvard BlackLetter Law Journal, v. 17, Spring 2001, pp. 33-46

"Philosophy and Racial Paradigms," Journal of Value Inquiry Vol. 33, No. 3, September 1999, 299-317.

"Lockean Money, Globalism and Indigenism," Canadian Journal of Philosophy, 1999 Supplementary, Vol. 25, Catherine Wilson, ed., Civilization and Oppression, University of Calgary Press, 1999, pp. 31-53.

"Mixed Black and White Race and Public Policy," Hypatia, Vol. 10, No. 1, Winter 1995, pp. 120-132.

"Race and Philosophic Meaning," American Philosophical Association Newsletter on Philosophy and the Black Experience, 94:1, Fall 1994, pp 14-20, reprinted in ibid, 99:2, Spring 2000, pp. 141-148.

"Locke's Identity Meaning of Ownership," Locke Newsletter, No. 23, 1992, pp. 105-114.

"An Autobiographical View of Mixed-Race and Deracination, American Philosophical Association Newsletter on Philosophy and the Black Experience, 91:1, Spring 1992, pp. 6-10.

Chapters in Books

"Race and Racial Discrimination," Hugh Lafollette, ed., Oxford Hand Book of Practical Ethics, Oxford University Press, 2002, pp. 245-271.

"White Ideas," Chris J. Cuomo and Kim Q. Hall, eds., Whiteness: Feminist Philosophical Reflections, Rowman and Littlefield, 1999, pp. 77-84.

"The Family and Radical Family Theory," Hilde L. Nelson, ed., Feminism and Families, Routledge 1997, pp. 43-51.

"On Being and Not Being Black and Jewish," Maria P.P. Root, ed., The Multiracial Experience, Newbury Park: Sage Publications, 1996. pp. 140-152

"Race, Life, Death, Identity, Tragedy and Good Faith," Lewis R. Gordon, ed., Existence in Black, Routledge 1996, pp. 99-110.

"Locke and the Indians," W. Creighton Pedan and Yaeger Hudson, eds., The Social Power of Ideas, Lewiston, NY: Edwin Mellon Press 1995, pp.347-360. (based on paper presented at University of Helsinki, 1993)

TEACHING INTERESTS

I was trained as an analytic philosopher at Columbia University. In teaching, I apply a method of traditional common sense philosophy to a variety of subjects. In addition to my research concentrations on race, mixed race, seventeenth century philosophy, and feminism. I'm interested in existentialism, contemporary ethics, philosophy of science and current philosophy of mind. I am strongly committed to helping students develop critical skills in thinking and writing. To that end, I encourage a lot of student participation and give and take in the classroom -- even in very large classes.

COURSE LINKS

Fall 2008

PHIL 407:  History of Philosophy

PHIL 433/533 Descartes

Winter 2009

PHIL 102:  Ethics

Spring 2009

PHIL 463/563 Sartre

PHIL 657:  Philosophy & Race

Fall 2009

PHIL 407: Sem Analytic Methods

PHIL 607:  Sem Pro Analytic Phil