•  4806
    Foucault's Kantian critique: Philosophy and the present
    Philosophy and Social Criticism 34 (4): 357-382. 2008.
    In several lectures, interviews and essays from the early 1980s, Michel Foucault startlingly argues that he is engaged in a kind of critical work that is similar to that of Immanuel Kant. Given Foucault's criticisms of Kantian and Enlightenment emphases on universal truths and values, his declaration that his work is Kantian seems paradoxical. I agree with some commentators who argue that this is a way for Foucault to publicly acknowledge to his critics that he is not, as some of them charge, at…Read more
  •  3909
    Introduction to Philosophy: Ethics (edited book)
    The Rebus Community. 2019.
    This is an open-access textbook designed for introduction to philosophy courses that contain a section on ethics, or for introductory courses in moral theory. In this edited work, chapter authors explore both historical and contemporary approaches to understanding and justifying moral and ethical norms. The chapters cover a wide range of topics, including moral relativism, the relationship between ethics and religion, virtue ethics in the Western and Eastern traditions, the question of self-inte…Read more
  •  2399
    At several points throughout his career, Foucault suggests that publishing texts without authors’ names attached would be a useful step towards dismantling what he calls the “author-function:” a social and political role structured according to the way discourse is treated and disseminated in a particular social setting. I discuss Foucault’s criticisms of the author-function in terms of its relationship to the political role of intellectuals, and I argue that the demise of this role cannot be …Read more
  •  1294
    The Enlightenment (review)
    Teaching Philosophy 26 (2): 179-181. 2003.
  •  1171
    Paper presented at a meeting of the International Association for Philosophy and Literature, Stony Brook, New York, USA, May 2000. Foucault rejects the idea of intellectuals acting as "prophets": telling others what must be done and what sorts of social and political goals they should pursue. I argue that in outright rejecting such prophecy, Foucault may not be pursuing the most effective means of eventually breaking it down. I locate in Foucauldian genealogical works such as Discipline and Pun…Read more
  •  544
    Presented at the 2010 Annual Meeting of the Association for Core Texts and Courses, New Brunswick, New Jersey, USA, April 2010. René Descartes’ Discourse on Method is paradoxical in several respects: it was published anonymously, yet is rich in autobiographical detail; further, Descartes insists that “the power of judging well and of distinguishing the true from the false…is naturally equal in all men,” and also that “the world consists almost exclusively of … minds for whom [his method of rea…Read more
  •  530
    The Feminine and the Sacred (review) (review)
    Journal of Speculative Philosophy 18 (2): 161-164. 2004.
  •  506
    Paper presented at the Association for Informal Logic and Critical Thinking meeting in conjunction with the Central Division of the American Philosophical Association, Chicago, April 2004.
  •  439
    Teaching and Learning Philosophy in the Open
    American Association of Philosophy Teachers Studies in Pedagogy 1 17-32. 2015.
    Many teachers appreciate discussing teaching and learning with others, and participating in a community of others who are also excited about pedagogy. Many philosophy teachers find meetings such as the biannual AAPT workshop extremely valuable for this reason. But in between face-to-face meetings such as those, we can still participate in a community of teachers and learners, and even expand its borders quite widely, by engaging in activities under the general rubric of “open education.” Open ed…Read more
  •  344
    What is Philosophy? (review)
    Teaching Philosophy 27 (4): 384-388. 2004.
  •  171
    Foucault on freedom (review) (review)
    Journal of Speculative Philosophy 22 (4). 2008.
  •  72
    Gathers authors with different backgrounds and methods to advance feminist discussions of the relation between language and women's oppression, suggesting promising new directions for further research
  •  39
    Introduction : How to Do (Feminist) Things with Words
    with Kelly Oliver
    In Christina Hendricks & Kelly Oliver (eds.), Language and Liberation: Feminism, Philosophy and Language, Suny Press. 1999.
    Introduction to Language and Liberation: Feminism, Philosophy and Language, Ed. Christina Hendricks and Kelly Oliver. SUNY, 1999.
  •  36
    Socratic Citizenship (review)
    Teaching Philosophy 26 (4): 402-406. 2003.
  •  26
    Comments for a paper by Elizabeth Brake (University of Calgary) called "Marriage and Morals," presented at the Summer Workshop on Feminist Philosophy at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, BC, Canada June 17-18, 2005.
  •  18
    Commitment and Suspicion in Critical Thinking as Transcendence
    Philosophy of Education Yearbook. 2006.
    Critical thinking is often described by philosophers of education as a process of transcendence: a way to take one’s beliefs, values, and actions as objects of thought, and to reflect on them for the sake of evaluation and possible transformation. John Dewey argues, for example, that “the essence of critical thinking is suspended judgment”; it involves a pause that allows us to stand back to reflect, to “metaphori- cally climb a tree...[to get] a more commanding view of the situation.”1 Thi…Read more
  • Prophets in Exile: A Diagnosis of Michel Foucault's Political Intellectual
    Dissertation, The University of Texas at Austin. 2000.
    I investigate the question of the political role of the intellectual, considering the political and ethical impact of the scholarly work of intellectuals. I concentrate on the subtle ways in which such intellectual work can contribute to efforts to encourage others to think for themselves and thereby manage effective resistance to oppressive practices of power. My focus in this investigation rests on the work of Michel Foucault, who in his own work plays an intellectual role that I label, after …Read more