Peg O'Connor, is a Professor of Philosophy and Gender, Women, and Sexuality Studies as well as Chair of the Department of Philosophy at Gustavus Adolphus College. Her present research interests include two separate but intersecting strains:

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 ...

's approach to ethics, and the philosophy of addiction. She also contributes to public discourse about her areas of interest through contributing to popular media, especially around philosophical issues surrounding addiction, and has actively spoken out about issues of gender equity facing the field of philosophy.

Education and career

O'Connor earned her bachelor's degree from

Wesleyan University Wesleyan University ( ) is a private liberal arts university in Middletown, Connecticut. Founded in 1831 as a men's college under the auspices of the Methodist Episcopal Church and with the support of prominent residents of Middletown, the col ...

in 1987, and her master's and doctorate in philosophy from the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public land-grant research university in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States. ...

in 1993 and 1996, respectively. Her doctoral thesis focused on Wittgensteinian moral realism. While pursuing her doctorate, O'Connor also acted as an instructor of philosophy at the University of Minnesota from 1994 to 1995, and an instructor of philosophy at

Moorhead State University Minnesota State University Moorhead (MSUM) is a public university in Moorhead, Minnesota. The school has an enrollment of 7,534 students in 2019 and 266 full-time faculty members. MSUM is a part of the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities s ...

from 1995 to 1996. After completing her doctorate, O'Connor accepted a position as a visiting assistant professor of philosophy at Gustavus Adolphus College from 1996 to 1999, before accepting a position as assistant professor of women's studies at Gustavus Adolphus. She was promoted to associate professor in 2003 and to full professor in 2007, in both philosophy and women's, gender, and sexuality studies. O'Connor has also acted in several administrative capacities, including chair of the Philosophy Department in 2011, and director of the Women's Studies Program from 1999 to 2011.

Research areas

O'Connor's research interests include two separate but intersecting strains:

's approach to ethics and the philosophy of addiction. She has also written extensively about issues involving gender equity and harassment, sexuality, abuse, and oppression.

Publications

O'Connor has published two books and is working on a third. She has also edited two books, contributed several book and encyclopedia chapters, and published several journal articles. O'Connor's first book, published in 2002, is ''Oppression and Responsibility: A Wittgensteinian Approach to Social Practices and Moral Theory''. It draws on a primarily Wittgensteinian framework to articulate various forms of political oppression (focusing on forms she views as primarily invisible because their existence relies on rarely questioned assumptions) and to put forward a theory of moral responsibility. Her second book, published in 2008, is ''Morality and Our Complicated Form of Life: Feminist Wittgensteinian Metaethics''. It opposes both realist and antirealist positions to metaethics, suggesting instead a Wittgensteinian approach that O'Connor calls "felted contextualism". O'Connor's third book will explore issues of addiction and recovery through the lens of philosophy. In an interview about the book, she said: "Addicts are frequently very philosophical; we tend to be armchair thinkers. Addicts struggle with issues of self-identity, self-knowledge and self-deception, the nature of God, existential dilemmas, marking the line between appearance and reality, free will and voluntariness, and moral responsibility. These are prompted by acute instances of self-examination and reflection about how to live well." O'Connor also maintains a blog on Psychology Today that deals with the philosophy of addiction, contributes to the

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

's Opinionator and The Stone blogs about similar topics, and co-maintains the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy's article about topics in feminism.

Selected bibliography

Books

* * * * * O'Connor, Peg (2016). Life on the rocks: finding meaning in addiction and recovery. Las Vegas, NV: Central Recovery Press. *

References

External links

Profile page: Peg O'Connor
Gustavus Adolphus College, St. Peter's, Minnesota {{DEFAULTSORT:OConnor, Peg 1965 births 21st-century American philosophers American women philosophers Feminist philosophers Gustavus Adolphus College faculty Living people University of Minnesota College of Liberal Arts alumni Wesleyan University alumni Wittgensteinian philosophers 21st-century American women