Africanizing Queerness; Latina Feminism; the Future of Thinking; the Value of Objectivity
Two events on Tuesday, an essay, and a course starting next month
Greetings!
This is the final week before we lie low for the summer. It’s been an extremely intensive yet rewarding spring, with our events series attracting more people than ever, the publication of our book, and the launch of our groups/classes. And, of course, the publication of the first of our 100th anniversary print issues. I am looking forward to a summer of, amongst other things, lazy days reading The Count of Monte Cristo and watching the Ashes cricket (that’s the plan from Wednesday, at any rate…). I will still be uploading a new article every Sunday and sending out the weekly email, but not much else will be happening aside from Amogh Sahu’s “Value of Objectivity” group (weekly from 5th July to 9th August - more on this below) and the rescheduled final event in the “Century of Violence” series which will take place on Monday 24th July (more on this next week). Wishing you all a restful and beautiful summer ahead!
Your Sunday Read
“Predicting the Future of Mind”: an essay by Thomas Moynihan. Why do all tours through prior predictions regarding knowledge’s future give a sense of how much we err in our prophecies? Why is the future of thought so hard to predict? In this exciting and ambitious essay which fuses philosophy, evolution, and history of ideas, Tom takes us through some amusing episodes in this history of failures (e.g. Robert Millikan’s prediction in 1928 that nuclear power would only ever power popcorn) before establishing his theory around the holistic nature of idea: “Ideas don’t exist as atoms, isolated from one another. They come as bundles – as webs of belief – where altering one doesn’t just invalidate or update neighbours, but has collateral, cascading ramifications for distant attitudes that are not always obviously related.” For Tom, the process of treating ideas atomistically rather than holistically “serves to conceal the true variability of worldviews over time, occlude the alienness of past belief, and lure us toward expecting attitudes to remain more recognisable into the future.” You can read Tom’s essay here.
Tuesday Event #1: 9.30am PDT/12.30pm EDT/5.30pm UK
“Africanizing Queerness”: Firstly, a huge thanks to our brilliant editorial board member, Nathalie Etoke, for putting this event together. Nathalie will be in conversation with S.N. Nyeck and S.M. Rodriguez on a topic of great complexity and sensitivity. For several years now, western media has fashioned a homophobic identity specific to people of African descent, while overlooking the fact that many of these punitive, homophobic measures are financially and/or ideologically supported by Western, and especially American, right-wing evangelical organisations. Because the West ignores the repressive interventions made by its own evangelicals, a complicated story about agency, resistance, negotiation, and imperialism is absent from its mainstream narrative about Queerness in sub-Saharan Africa. Against such a background, this conversation will provide an insightful analysis that problematizes tensions between local and global power dynamics in the day-to-day existence of Queer people in Sub-Saharan Africa. You can register for the event here.
Tuesday Event #2: 11am PDT/2pm EDT/7pm UK
“Latina Feminist Philosophy”: While thinkers like Gloria Anzaldúa and María Lugones are finally emerging as important figures within certain fields of philosophy, in many ways they and other Latina feminist thinkers remain rather liminal figures in the philosophical world, seemingly more at home in fields like cultural theory, literary theory, and queer theory. However, thinkers like Anzaldúa and Lugones have explored diverse political, epistemological, ethical, historiographical, and aesthetic themes in their writings, as a result of which philosophy is beginning to take notice. Join Latina feminist scholars Mariana Ortega, Andrea Pitts, and Cynthia Paccacerqua to find out more about the remarkable thinkers and ideas that have emerged within this tradition. Full details and registration here.
Recording of last Monday’s event
For those of you who missed the super conversation on “The Philosophy of Care” featuring Todd May and Joan Tronto, you can watch the recording here.
Summer Course - weekly from 5th July to 9th August
“The Value of Objectivity”: Objectivity is a common point of reference in intellectual culture. We use it as a criterion for good journalism, good scientific theory, good moral reasoning, and so on. However, there are reasonable questions about its value. Is objectivity achievable? Does this matter for its value? Does the pursuit of objectivity hamper important ethical goals? Does it prevent us from considering the interests of marginalized groups? This short course run by Amogh Sahu will consider these questions by engaging with some classic readings about the value of objectivity, from, among others, Elizabeth Anderson, Richard Rorty, Bernard Williams and Sandra Harding. More information and registration here.
Donations/Support
The Philosopher is unfunded and while we are certainly doing better than last year when we were on the verge of financial collapse, over the first six months of 2023 we have barely broken even which obviously puts us in a precarious situation if, say, we are faced with an unexpected large cost. In short, we rely on your generosity to keep going. Please consider becoming a digital subscriber, a supporter via Patreon, or offering a one-off/monthly/annual donation. Your support is hugely appreciated.
Wishing you all a lovely Sunday, wherever you are.
Anthony Morgan
Editor