Alice Crary (; born 1967) is an American
philosopher
A philosopher is a person who practices or investigates philosophy. The term ''philosopher'' comes from the grc, φιλόσοφος, , translit=philosophos, meaning 'lover of wisdom'. The coining of the term has been attributed to the Greek th ...
who currently holds the positions of University Distinguished Professor at the Graduate Faculty,
The New School for Social Research
The New School for Social Research (NSSR) is a graduate-level educational institution that is one of the divisions of The New School in New York City, United States. The university was founded in 1919 as a home for progressive era thinkers. NSSR ...
in New York City and Visiting Fellow at
Regent's Park College
Regent's Park College (known colloquially within the university as Regent's) is a permanent private hall of the University of Oxford, situated in central Oxford, just off St Giles', Oxford, St Giles'.
Founded in 1810, the college moved to it ...
,
University of Oxford
, mottoeng = The Lord is my light
, established =
, endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019)
, budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20)
, chancellor ...
, U.K. (where she was Professor of Philosophy 2018–19).
Philosophical work
Crary works in the fields of
moral philosophy
Ethics or moral philosophy is a branch of philosophy that "involves systematizing, defending, and recommending concepts of right and wrong behavior".''Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy'' The field of ethics, along with aesthetics, concerns ma ...
,
feminism
Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism incorporates the position that society prioritizes the male po ...
, and
Wittgenstein
Ludwig Josef Johann Wittgenstein ( ; ; 26 April 1889 – 29 April 1951) was an Austrians, Austrian-British people, British philosopher who worked primarily in logic, the philosophy of mathematics, the philosophy of mind, and the philosophy o ...
scholarship. She has written about cognitive disability, critical theory,
propaganda, nonhuman animal cognition, and the philosophy of literature and narrative. Her work is especially influenced by
Cora Diamond
Cora Diamond (born 1937) is an American philosopher who works on Ludwig Wittgenstein, Gottlob Frege, moral philosophy, animal ethics, political philosophy, philosophy of language, and philosophy and literature. Diamond is the Kenan Professor of Ph ...
,
John McDowell
John Henry McDowell, FBA (born 7 March 1942) is a South African philosopher, formerly a fellow of University College, Oxford, and now university professor at the University of Pittsburgh. Although he has written on metaphysics, epistemology, ...
,
Stanley Cavell
Stanley Louis Cavell (; September 1, 1926 – June 19, 2018) was an American philosopher. He was the Walter M. Cabot Professor of Aesthetics and the General Theory of Value at Harvard University. He worked in the fields of ethics, aesthetics, an ...
,
Hilary Putnam
Hilary Whitehall Putnam (; July 31, 1926 – March 13, 2016) was an American philosopher, mathematician, and computer scientist, and a major figure in analytic philosophy in the second half of the 20th century. He made significant contributions ...
,
bell hooks
Gloria Jean Watkins (September 25, 1952December 15, 2021), better known by her pen name bell hooks, was an American author and social activist who was Distinguished Professor in Residence at Berea College. She is best known for her writings on ...
,
Kimberlé Crenshaw
Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw (born May 5, 1959) is an American civil rights advocate and a leading scholar of critical race theory. She is a professor at the UCLA School of Law and Columbia Law School, where she specializes in race and gender iss ...
,
Charles W. Mills
Charles Wade Mills (January 3, 1951September 20, 2021) was a philosopher who was a professor at Graduate Center, CUNY, and Northwestern University. Born in London, Mills grew up in Jamaica and later became a United States citizen. He was educat ...
, and
Peter Winch
Peter Guy Winch (14 January 1926 – 27 April 1997) was a British philosopher known for his contributions to the philosophy of social science, Wittgenstein scholarship, ethics, and the philosophy of religion. Winch is perhaps most famous f ...
.
Ethics and moral philosophy
Crary's first monograph, ''Beyond Moral Judgment'', discusses how literature and feminism help to reframe moral presuppositions. Her ''Inside Ethics'' argues that ethics in disability studies and animal studies is stunted by a lack of moral imagination, caused by a narrow understanding of rationality and by a philosophy severed from literature and art.
Feminism
Crary's work on feminism is critical of standard views of
objectivity in
analytic philosophy
Analytic philosophy is a branch and tradition of philosophy using analysis, popular in the Western world and particularly the Anglosphere, which began around the turn of the 20th century in the contemporary era in the United Kingdom, United Sta ...
and
post-structuralism
Post-structuralism is a term for philosophical and literary forms of theory that both build upon and reject ideas established by structuralism, the intellectual project that preceded it. Though post-structuralists all present different critique ...
. In her view, both traditions mistakenly conceive of objectivity as value-neutral, and thus incompatible with ethical and political perspectives.
According to Crary, these "ethically-loaded perspectives" invite both cognitive and ethical appreciation for the lives of women, in ways that count as objective knowledge. Like her moral philosophy, her feminist conception of objectivity is informed by Wittgenstein, who she understands as proposing a "wide" view of objectivity: one in which affective responses are not merely non-cognitive persuasive manipulations but reveal real forms of suffering that give us a more objective understanding of the world.
Wittgenstein
Crary is associated with the so-called "therapeutic" or "resolute" reading of Wittgenstein. In her co-edited collection of essays of such readings, ''
The New Wittgenstein
''The New Wittgenstein'' (2000) is a book containing a family of interpretations of the work of philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein. In particular, those associated with this interpretation, such as Cora Diamond, Alice Crary, and James F. Conant, ...
'', her own contribution argues against the standard use-theory readings of Wittgenstein that often render his thought as politically conservative and implausible. Since then, she has contributed to numerous collections of Wittgenstein scholarship, including ''Emotions and Understanding'' and interpretations of Wittgenstein's ''On Certainty''.
Public philosophy
Crary frequently participates in and organizes events for public discussion, such as public debates on the treatment of animals and the cognitively disabled,. She has also written for the ''New York Times''.
Crary has contributed to international educational activities focusing on the intersection of philosophy with critical theory and political philosophy. These include summer philosophy workshops at
Humboldt University
Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (german: Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, abbreviated HU Berlin) is a German public research university in the central borough of Mitte in Berlin. It was established by Frederick William III on the initiative of ...
in
Berlin, Germany
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constituent ...
, the Transregional Center for Democratic Studies/New School for Social Research Europe Democracy and Diversity Institute in
Wroclaw, Poland, and the ''Kritische Theorie in Berlin'' Critical Theory Summer School (Progress, Regression, and Social Change) in
Berlin, Germany
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constituent ...
, which she co-organized with
Rahel Jaeggi.
Personal life
Crary was a 1983-4
exchange student
A student exchange program is a program in which students from a secondary school (high school) or university study abroad at one of their institution's partner institutions.
A student exchange program may involve international travel, but doe ...
with
Youth for Understanding
Youth For Understanding (YFU) is an international educational exchange organization. A network of over 50 independent national organizations worldwide, YFU representatives work together to advance learning across cultures.
Each year, YFU exchang ...
in the southern German town of
Achern
Achern (; gsw, label= Low Alemannic, Achre) is a town in Western Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is located approximately 18 km southwest of Baden-Baden and 19 km northeast of Offenburg. Achern is the fourth largest town in the distric ...
. She was also a national champion rower at the
Lakeside School (Seattle)
Lakeside School is an elite private/independent school located in Seattle, Washington for grades 5–12. As of 2021, school review website Niche ranks Lakeside School the best private high school in Washington state and the 23rd best private hig ...
in
Seattle, Washington
Seattle ( ) is a port, seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the county seat, seat of King County, Washington, King County, Washington (state), Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in bo ...
and placed 6th in the Junior Women's Eight at the 1985 World Rowing Junior Championships in
Brandenburg, Germany
Brandenburg (; nds, Brannenborg; dsb, Bramborska ) is a state in the northeast of Germany bordering the states of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and Saxony, as well as the country of Poland. With an area of 29,480 square ...
.
In the 1980s, after studying liberation theology with
Harvey Cox
Harvey Gallagher Cox Jr. (born May 19, 1929) is an American theologian who served as the Hollis Professor of Divinity at Harvard Divinity School, until his retirement in October 2009. Cox's research and teaching focus on theological developments in ...
at
Harvard Divinity School
Harvard Divinity School (HDS) is one of the constituent schools of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The school's mission is to educate its students either in the academic study of religion or for leadership roles in religion, gov ...
, Crary researched
Christian base communities
A base community is a relatively autonomous Christian religious group that operates according to a particular model of community, worship, and Bible study. The 1968 Medellín, Colombia, meeting of Latin American Council of Bishops played a maj ...
in southern Mexico and Guatemala. In the early 1990s, she was a teacher at the Collegio Americano in
Quito, Ecuador
Quito (; qu, Kitu), formally San Francisco de Quito, is the capital and largest city of Ecuador, with an estimated population of 2.8 million in its urban area. It is also the capital of the province of Pichincha. Quito is located in a valley on ...
.
Bibliography
Books – monographs
*''Inside Ethics: On the Demands of Moral Thought'' (Cambridge, Harvard University Press, 2016). (Reviewed i
Notre Dame Philosophical Reviewsan
Hypatiaas well a
Environmental Philosophy th
Nordic Wittgenstein ReviewChoice th
Kennedy Institute of Ethics Journal an
The Journal of Animal Ethics. The book's philosophical content and linkage with liberal arts education are discussed in recent interviews at th
APA blogan
Social Research Mattersas well a
Il Sole 24 Ore (in Italian) ''Inside Ethics'' is also the subject of a 201
Symposiuma
The Syndicate Networkfeaturing commentary by
Stanley Hauerwas
Stanley Martin Hauerwas (born July 24, 1940) is an American theologian, ethicist, and public intellectual. Hauerwas was a longtime professor at Duke University, serving as the Gilbert T. Rowe Professor of Theological Ethics at Duke Divinity School ...
, Anne-Marie Søndergaard Christensen, Aaron Klink, and Avner Baz, with extensive author responses (convened and edited by Sean Larson, Timothy J. Furry, and Ethan D. Smith).
*''Beyond Moral Judgment'' (Cambridge, Harvard University Press, 2007). (Reviewed in Analytic Philosophy, Choice, The European Journal of Philosophy, Ethics (twice), Hypatia, Metapsychology Online Reviews, Mind, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews, Philo, and The Pluralist and discussed at a 2008 "Author Meets Critics" session at the Eastern Division Meeting of the APA.)
Books – edited volumes
*''Wittgenstein and the Moral Life: Essays in Honor of
Cora Diamond
Cora Diamond (born 1937) is an American philosopher who works on Ludwig Wittgenstein, Gottlob Frege, moral philosophy, animal ethics, political philosophy, philosophy of language, and philosophy and literature. Diamond is the Kenan Professor of Ph ...
'' (Cambridge, MIT Press, 2007).
''Reading Cavell''(New York, Routledge, 2006 (co-edited with Sanford Shieh)).
*''
The New Wittgenstein
''The New Wittgenstein'' (2000) is a book containing a family of interpretations of the work of philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein. In particular, those associated with this interpretation, such as Cora Diamond, Alice Crary, and James F. Conant, ...
'' (New York, Routledge, 2000 (co-edited with
Rupert Read
Rupert Read (born 1966) is an academic and a Green Party campaigner and a former spokesperson for Extinction Rebellion. Read is a reader in philosophy at the University of East Anglia )).
See also
*
American philosophy
American philosophy is the activity, corpus, and tradition of philosophers affiliated with the United States. The ''Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy'' notes that while it lacks a "core of defining features, American Philosophy can nevert ...
*
List of American philosophers
This is a list of American philosophers; of philosophers who are either from, or spent many productive years of their lives in the United States.
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*
List of female philosophers
__NOTOC__
This is a list of women philosophers ordered alphabetically by surname. Although often overlooked in mainstream historiography, women have engaged in philosophy throughout the field's history. Some notable philosophers include Maitreyi ...
References
External links
New School for Social Research HomepageInstitute for Advanced Study Homepage
{{DEFAULTSORT:Crary, Alice
1967 births
20th-century American writers
21st-century American non-fiction writers
20th-century American philosophers
20th-century American women writers
21st-century American women writers
21st-century American philosophers
American ethicists
American feminists
Philosophers from Washington (state)
Philosophers from New York (state)
American women academics
Analytic philosophers
Disability studies academics
Epistemologists
Feminist philosophers
Feminist studies scholars
Gender studies academics
Harvard College alumni
Living people
The New School faculty
Writers from Seattle
University of Pittsburgh alumni
American animal rights scholars
American women philosophers
Critics of postmodernism
Wittgensteinian philosophers
Lakeside School alumni