I’m Anthony Nguyen (he/him), a postdoctoral scholar at Florida State University. My primary research interests are in political philosophy, philosophy of language, and metaphysics. I have published work on colonialism, the social bases of self-respect, liberal egalitarian justice, just war theory, contractualism, generics, action theory, biological teleology, and Hume's view of denial.
Within political philosophy, I have research interests in colonialism, self-respect, egalitarianism, and just war theory. Within philosophy of language, I have research interests in generics, subjective propositional attitudes, and implicatures. And within metaphysics, I have research interests in habits (as manifestations of dispositions), free will, and nonexistent objects.
My primary research project investigates how the Rawlsian social bases of self-respect and two moral powers can philosophically illuminate colonialism (with respect to, for example, what colonialism is and why it is necessarily unjust), as well as how the resulting account of colonialism should inform broader debates in political philosophy—such as those concerning liberal egalitarianism, political self-determination, just war theory, and global justice. My research on these topics is motivated by a sensitivity to colonized peoples' suffering and resilience, as well as by an optimism that an anticolonialism-first approach to political philosophy will prove theoretically fruitful.
I received my PhD in philosophy from the University of Southern California. I wrote my dissertation on colonialism and the social bases of self-respect. Jon Quong was my dissertation committee's chair.
I received my MA in humanities (concentration: linguistics) from the University of Chicago. I wrote my thesis on the semantics of the subjective attitude verb ‘consider’. Chris Kennedy was my advisor.
I received my BA in philosophy from Reed College. I wrote my thesis on the semantics and pragmatics of generics. Troy Cross was my advisor.
For my personal website, see https://anthonynguyen.org/.
Feel free to contact me at [email protected].
