Arnold Ira Davidson (born 1955) is an American philosopher and

academic An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary or tertiary higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membership). The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, ...

, and the Robert O. Anderson Distinguished Service Professor in Philosophy,

Comparative Literature Comparative literature is an academic field dealing with the study of literature and cultural expression across linguistic, national, geographic, and disciplinary boundaries. Comparative literature "performs a role similar to that of the study ...

, History of Science, and

Philosophy of Religion Philosophy of religion is "the philosophical examination of the central themes and concepts involved in religious traditions". Philosophical discussions on such topics date from ancient times, and appear in the earliest known texts concerning ph ...

at the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chic ...

.Arnold Davidson
, University of Chicago, retrieved 2011-07-10 He is also a member of the Committee on the Conceptual Foundations of Science at Chicago and a professor at the

Università di Pisa The University of Pisa ( it, Università di Pisa, UniPi), officially founded in 1343, is one of the oldest universities in Europe. History The Origins The University of Pisa was officially founded in 1343, although various scholars place ...

in Pisa, Italy.

Education and career

Davidson holds a

Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is ...

from

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...

, where he wrote a dissertation under the supervision of

John Rawls John Bordley Rawls (; February 21, 1921 – November 24, 2002) was an American moral, legal and political philosopher in the liberal tradition. Rawls received both the Schock Prize for Logic and Philosophy and the National Humanities Medal in ...

and

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 ...

.https://humanities-web.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/philosophy/prod/2018-09/Davidson_CV_2017.pdf He taught at Stanford University from 1981 to 1985, apart from a year as a visiting assistant professor at

Princeton University Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ...

in 1984–85. He joined the

faculty in 1986. Davidson, who often speaks and teaches at French and Italian universities, has been a fellow of the Wissenschaftskolleg in Berlin as well as visiting professor, chaire d'Etat, at the

Collège de France The Collège de France (), formerly known as the ''Collège Royal'' or as the ''Collège impérial'' founded in 1530 by François I, is a higher education and research establishment ('' grand établissement'') in France. It is located in Paris n ...

. He is also the executive editor of the journal ''

Critical Inquiry ''Critical Inquiry'' is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal in the humanities published by the University of Chicago Press on behalf of the Department of English Language and Literature (University of Chicago). While the topics and historic ...

''. Davidson was also a Guggenheim Fellowship recipient in 2003.

Philosophical work

Davidson's scholarship concentrates in

contemporary Contemporary history, in English-language historiography, is a subset of modern history that describes the historical period from approximately 1945 to the present. Contemporary history is either a subset of the late modern period, or it is o ...

continental philosophy,

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 ...

, the history of

theology Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing the ...

, and

historical epistemology French philosophy, here taken to mean philosophy in the French language, has been extremely diverse and has influenced Western philosophy as a whole for centuries, from the medieval scholasticism of Peter Abelard, through the founding of modern ph ...

, and the

history of the human sciences ''History of the Human Sciences'' is a peer-reviewed academic journal that covers research on the history of the human sciences. Its editors-in-chief are Felicity Callard (University of Durham), Rhodri Hayward (Queen Mary University of London), Ang ...

. His publications (books, articles and essays) cover a wide array of ranging from the

Emmanuel Levinas Emmanuel Levinas (; ; 12 January 1906 – 25 December 1995) was a French philosopher of Lithuanian Jewish ancestry who is known for his work within Jewish philosophy, existentialism, and phenomenology, focusing on the relationship of ethics t ...

Vladimir Jankélévitch Vladimir Jankélévitch (; 31 August 1903 – 6 June 1985) was a French philosopher and musicologist. Biography Jankélévitch was the son of Russian Jewish parents, who had emigrated to France. In 1922 he started studying philosophy at the Éco ...

, and

Pierre Hadot Pierre Hadot (; ; 21 February 1922 – 24 April 2010) was a French philosopher and historian of philosophy specializing in ancient philosophy, particularly Neoplatonism. Life In 1944, Hadot was ordained, but following Pope Pius XII’s e ...

, to

Georges Canguilhem Georges Canguilhem (; ; 4 June 1904 – 11 September 1995) was a French philosopher and physician who specialized in epistemology and the philosophy of science (in particular, biology). Life and work Canguilhem entered the École Normale Supé ...

philosophy of science Philosophy of science is a branch of philosophy concerned with the foundations, methods, and implications of science. The central questions of this study concern what qualifies as science, the reliability of scientific theories, and the ult ...

. Many of Davidson's publications are written in French and Italian and published by European presses. Much of Davidson's scholarship focuses on the theory of Michel Foucault. Davidson is the editor of several books on or by Foucault including: ''Foucault and His Interlocutors'', ''Society Must Be Defended'', ''Abnormal'', and ''The Hermeneutics of the Subject''. In Davidson's recent book, ''The Emergence of Sexuality: Historical Epistemology and the Formation of Concepts'', he applies and develops Foucauldian archeological and

genealogical Genealogy () is the study of families, family history, and the tracing of their lineages. Genealogists use oral interviews, historical records, genetic analysis, and other records to obtain information about a family and to demonstrate kin ...

methodological innovations in the development of a method he calls "Historical Epistemology". This work consists of essays on

epistemology Epistemology (; ), or the theory of knowledge, is the branch of philosophy concerned with knowledge. Epistemology is considered a major subfield of philosophy, along with other major subfields such as ethics, logic, and metaphysics. Epis ...

, the

history of sexuality The social construction of human sexuality and sexual behavior—along with its taboos, regulation, and social and political impact—has had a profound effect on the various cultures of the world since prehistoric times. The study of the hi ...

and scientific concepts, and the interpretation of Foucault.

Bibliography

* A. I. Davidson: ''L'Emergence de la sexualité; épistémologie historique et formation des concepts''; Albin Michel, 2005. * A. I. Davidson: ''The Emergence of Sexuality: Historical Epistemology and the Formation of Concepts''; Paperback, 2004. * A. I. Davidson: ''La aparición de la sexualidad''; Alpha Decay, 2004. * A. I. Davidson: ''Foucault and His Interlocutors''; Paperback, 1998. * M. Foucault, A. I. Davidson, G. Burchell: ''Psychiatric Power: Lectures at the Collège de France 1973–1974''; Hardcover, 2006. * M. Foucault, A. I. Davidson, G. Burchell: ''The Hermeneutics of the Subject: Lectures at the Collège de France 1981–1982''; Paperback, 2005. * M. Foucault, A. I. Davidson: ''Abnormal: Lectures at the Collège de France, 1974–1975''; Hardcover, 2003. * W. J. T. Mitchell, A. I. Davidson: ''The late Derrida''; Paperback, 2007. * J. Chandler, A. I. Davidson, H. D. Harootunian: ''Questions of Evidence: Proof, Practice, and Persuasion across the Disciplines''; Paperback, 1994. * A. I. Davidson, M. H. Lytle, J. W. Davidson: ''After the fact''; Paperback, 1992. * P. Hadot, A. I. Davidson: ''Philosophy As a Way of Life: Spiritual Exercises from Socrates to Foucault''; Hardcover, 1995.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Davidson, Arnold 1955 births 20th-century American philosophers 21st-century American philosophers Continental philosophers Derrida scholars Foucault scholars Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni Institute for Advanced Study visiting scholars Living people Stanford University faculty University of Chicago faculty University of Pisa faculty