Author: Noelle McAfee

I am professor of philosophy at Emory University and editor of the Kettering Review. My latest book, Fear of Breakdown: Politics and Psychoanalysis, explores what is behind the upsurge of virulent nationalism and intransigent politics across the world today. My other writings include Democracy and the Political Unconscious; Habermas, Kristeva, and Citizenship; Julia Kristeva; and numerous articles and book chapters. Edited volumes include Standing with the Public: the Humanities and Democratic Practice and a special issue of the philosophy journal Hypatia on feminist engagements in democratic theory. I am also the author of the entry on feminist political philosophy in the online Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy and well into my next book project on democratic public life.

Doing the Right Thing

The title to Spike Lee’s now-old movie, “Do the Right Thing,” supposes that it’s not hard to know what the right thing is to do; it’s just awfully tempting not to do it. You know damned well that you shouldn’t use your position of trust to give special perks to your sweetheart. A three-year-old knows… Continue reading Doing the Right Thing

Bob Solomon, Happy Warrior

I’ve been at the Central American Philosophical Association meeting these past two days. I gave a paper on public philosophy yesterday, a subject for another post. This afternoon I attended a memorial session for Robert Solomon, who died suddenly, in the Zurich airport, in January from a heart condition. Bob Solomon was on my dissertation… Continue reading Bob Solomon, Happy Warrior

Obscene Amounts: 100 million bucks

Here’s the CNN tally for first quarter fundraising for presidential candidates, not including Obama: The List from Alexander Mooney –> WASHINGTON (CNN) — Below is a list of money raised by the candidates, according to figures provided by their campaigns: Democrats   Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-New York, $26 million Former Sen. John Edwards, D-North… Continue reading Obscene Amounts: 100 million bucks

On Torture

Peter Levine has been thinking through ways to rebut consequentialist arguments that might condone torture. John Yoo, who wrote the official memo justifying the use of torture, still thinks that there are situations when torture is acceptable. “Look, death is worse than torture, but everyone except pacifists thinks there are circumstances in which war is… Continue reading On Torture

Continental Kantianism

Is the following secret or common knowledge? Many continental philosophers (including Levinas, Foucault, Derrida, Lyotard) are Kantians, at least with respect to morality. This may be surprising given that none of them cares much for concepts such as autonomy and reason, two concepts that seem central to Kant’s moral philosophy. But I think they all… Continue reading Continental Kantianism

Shortcomings of the FSP Index

I’ve learned this morning,  from a comment to my last post and from an e-mail from a friend, about a problem with Academic Analytics’ Faculty Scholarly Productivity Index.  In putting together the data for the index, Academic Analytics used the database company, SCOPUS, which bills itself primarily as covering life science, health science, physical science… Continue reading Shortcomings of the FSP Index

Ranking Philosophy Programs

There are now two sets of rankings of Ph.D.-granting philosophy departments in the United States: Brian Leiter’s Philosophical Gourmet (PG) and Academic Analytics’ Faculty Scholarly Productivity Index (FSPI). The latter only ranks the top ten, so I’ll stick with comparing both rankings’ top ten. Only two universities are listed in both rankings: Princeton and Rutgers.… Continue reading Ranking Philosophy Programs

Charles Taylor Wins Templeton Prize

The philosopher Charles Taylor was awarded the 2007 Templeton Prize of $1.5 million on Wednesday. I like it when good things happen to good people. I also like how Taylor questioned the very notion of the prize “for progress toward research or discoveries about spiritual realities.” An intellectual might indeed wonder whether there are spiritual… Continue reading Charles Taylor Wins Templeton Prize