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Ethics and insurrection: a pragmatism for the oppressedBloomsbury Academic. 2021.Lee A. McBride III articulates an ethical position that takes critical pragmatism and Harrisian insurrectionist philosophy seriously. It suggests that there are values and norms that create boundaries that confine, reduce and circumscribe the actions we allow ourselves to consider. This book argues that an insurrectionist ethos is integral in the disavowing of norms and traditions that justify or perpetuate oppression and that we must throw our faith behind something, some set of values, if we w…Read more
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McBride enters a discussion about Scott Stroud's book, _The Evolution of Pragmatism in India: Ambedkar, Dewey, and the Rhetoric of Reconstruction_. McBride offers a brief overview of the text, then focuses on Stroud's interpretation of Ambedkar as a pragmatist meliorist that is looking to persuasively reconstruct unjust sociopolitical institutions permeated with Vedic religious mores. McBride maintains that the influence of Deweyan pragmatist ideas is clear in Ambedkar's work, but he interprets …Read more
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5LeavingIn Alexander B. Pratt, Kevin Donley, Sage Hatch, Staci L. Tharp & Freyca Calderon-Berumen (eds.), _Walking Away: Refusing and Resisting Reactionary Curriculum Movements_, Information Age Publishing, Inc.. 2024.McBride offers a brief meditation on the tacit values and norms that undergird the dominant techno-industrial cultures of the Global North. He notes that we could leave; we could disavow the dominant mythos and its norms and values.
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2Culture, Acquisitiveness, and Decolonial PhilosophyIn Corey McCall & Phillip McReynolds (eds.), Decolonizing American Philosophy, Suny Press. pp. 17-35. 2020.
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36Food, Focal Practices, and Decolonial AgrarianismIn Samantha Noll & Zachary Piso (eds.), Fields, Farmers, Forks, and Food: The Philosophy of Paul B. Thompson, Springer. pp. 131-143. forthcoming.Agrarianism, according to Paul B. Thompson, is an environmental philosophy focused on agri-culture and the nurturing of food, fuel, and fiber. Agrarianism hopes to reestablish our fundamental connection to the land, helping us approach a tenable understanding of sustainability. Thompson enlists Albert Borgmann’s notion of “focal practices” to discuss farming and the culture of the table. With this, comes a critique of “the device paradigm,” the modern technological way of life that (i) alienates…Read more
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In _Democracy and Education_, John Dewey devotes a chapter to geography and history. McBride reveals that, until recently, he had not thought much about this chapter; geography and history were compulsory topics to be taught to children. In recent years, having read Katherine McKittrick’s _Demonic Grounds: Black Women and the Cartographies of Struggle_, McBride has been compelled to think more about geographies of dominance; the ways place, terrain, and geography are imbued with racialized and g…Read more
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In _Democracy and Education_, John Dewey devotes a chapter to geography and history. McBride reveals that, until recently, he had not thought much about this chapter; geography and history were compulsory topics to be taught to children. In recent years, having read Katherine McKittrick’s _Demonic Grounds: Black Women and the Cartographies of Struggle_, McBride has been compelled to think more about geographies of dominance; the ways place, terrain, and geography are imbued with racialized and g…Read more
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Lee McBride has articulated a philosophical position that subscribes to an unfinished amoral universe, incommensurability, and human fallibility—a world without antecedent immutable truths or sure-fire algorithmic decision-making procedures. McBride emphasizes the limits of efficacious reasoning and the folly of absolutism, and yet he remains resolute about the need for an epistemology based on more than armchair intuitions. In this paper, McBride advocates an experimental/genetic approach to ep…Read more
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45American Pragmatism: An Introduction by Albert R. Spencer (review) (review)The Pluralist 19 (1): 108-112. 2024.In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content: American Pragmatism: An Introduction by Albert R. Spencer. Polity Press, 2020. Reviewed by: Lee A. McBride III American Pragmatism: An Introduction is a judicious and stimulating read, comprising an introduction and five numbered chapters. The introduction orients the book, offering various ways of conceiving American Philosophy and American pragmatism. Spencer explains that it is difficult to discern the national and cultural var…Read more
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35Food, Focal Practices, and Decolonial AgrarianismIn Samantha Noll & Zachary Piso (eds.), Paul B. Thompson's Philosophy of Agriculture: Fields, Farmers, Forks, and Food, Springer Verlag. pp. 131-143. 2023.Agrarianism, according to Paul B. Thompson, is an environmental philosophy focused on agriculture and the nurturing of food, fuel, and fiber. Agrarianism hopes to re-establish our fundamental connection to the land, helping us approach a tenable understanding of sustainability. Thompson enlists Albert Borgmann’s notion of “focal practices” to discuss farming and the culture of the table. With this comes a critique of “the device paradigm,” the modern technological way of life that alienates us f…Read more
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46Discernment behind Asylum Walls; Or, The Limits of Efficacious ReasoningIn Jacoby Adeshei Carter & Darryl Scriven (eds.), Insurrectionist Ethics. Radical Perspectives on Social Justice, Palgrave. pp. 237-251. 2023.This chapter offers a discussion of Leonard Harris’ insurrectionist philosophy, paying special attention to those places where Harris attenuates the capability and scope of human reasoning. The chapter critically engages: claims to divine reasoning, conceptual approaches to racism that rely upon totalizing accounts, the prominent conception of modernity, the notion that human apperception is unaffected by the episteme (i.e., intervening background assumptions that pervade the present epoch), and…Read more
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Metaphors and allegories, storytelling and poetic language can serve a noble purpose in philosophy. In this vein, I focus on the role of rebellious poiesis (making), creative/imaginative works, and tactful praxis (doing) in helping the oppressed and immiserated escape from the intervening background assumptions (the episteme), the system that tacitly sets the boundaries and limitations of rational discourse in our present epoch. The claim is that we, in the West, dwell within socio-political geo…Read more
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Erin McKenna, preeminent pragmatist and ecofeminist, urges us to rethink our relationships, our connections to wild and domesticated animals. In _The Task of Utopia_ (2001), she articulates a process model of utopian thought, evoking utopian literature to distinguish this pragmatist feminist model from other models of utopia. In subsequent books, _Pets, People, and Pragmatism_ (2013) and _Living with Animals_ (2021), McKenna argues that there is a continuity between human beings and other living…Read more
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51Poetry and Well-Patterned Language (in Philosophy)Journal of Speculative Philosophy 38 (1): 1-14. 2024.ABSTRACT Toni Morrison suggests that storytelling is a highly effective way of structuring knowledge, and that the harnessing of a clever allegory, the search for well-patterned language is a constant, provocative engagement with the contemporary world. This article considers the ways poetry, imagination, and well-patterned language are utilized in the philosophies of Ralph Waldo Emerson, Richard Rorty, and Leonard Harris. The author notes that there are apparent similarities between Rorty and H…Read more
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18The University and Democracy: A Response to “Dewey, Implementation, and Creating a Democratic Civic University”The Pluralist 18 (1): 76-80. 2023.
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In _Human Nature and Conduct_ (MW14) John Dewey seems to suggest that we can and should change human nature (MW14: 76; LW13: 150). In light of the acquisitiveness, the imperialism, and social hierarchies of the 19th and early 20th centuries, Dewey claims that a new psychology of human nature is required, and that education is the most effective and organized way to bring about this change. In this chapter McBride suggests that Dewey proffers insights into the ways in which impulses, habitual con…Read more
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54Reweaving the Social Fabric TransversallyIn Lee McBride & Erin McKenna (eds.), Pragmatist Feminism and the Work of Charlene Haddock Seigfried, Bloomsbury Publishing. pp. 143-163. 2022.This chapter highlights the need to respond to human limits of attention and perspective with sympathetic apprehension of the other points of view—especially those who are rendered opaque. McBride outlines a way that Seigfried’s notions of radical empiricism, experimental logic, and cooperative intelligence can hang together, suggesting that pragmatist feminism comes with an imperative to weave and reweave our social fabric, to broaden the range of our experiences, to incorporate the perspective…Read more
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39New Descriptions, New PossibilitiesJournal of Speculative Philosophy 32 (1): 168-178. 2018.ABSTRACT In “Race, Multiculturalism, and Democracy,” Robert Gooding-Williams offers an insight. He writes: “Our sense of ourselves and of the possibilities existing for us is, to a significant degree, a function of the descriptions we have available to us to conceptualize our intended actions and prospective lives…. ‘Hence if new modes of description come into being, new possibilities of action come into being in consequence.’” In this article, I discuss the philosopher's role in the articulatio…Read more
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53Pragmatism and Insurrectionist PhilosophyIn Scott F. Aikin & Robert B. Talisse (eds.), The Routledge Companion to Pragmatism, Routledge. pp. 358-365. 2022.This chapter aims to articulate the motivation behind an insurrectionist philosophy. On this account, insurrectionist philosophy is about rejecting a world (and its norms and intervening background assumptions) and creating the possibility for transvaluation or a radical revolution of values. To shed light on this, McBride offers an account of Leonard Harris’s idiosyncratic philosophy born of strife and struggle, clarifying the role of Alain Locke’s critical pragmatism and the insurrectionist sp…Read more
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41Race, Multiplicity, and Impure Coalitions of ResistanceIn Jacoby A. Carter and Hernando A. Estévez (ed.), Philosophizing the Americas. pp. 284-303. 2024.Lucius Outlaw and Shannon Sullivan have argued for the preservation of racial distinctiveness and the necessity of racial separatism. This paper articulates and challenges this push for racial separatism and the particular conception of race evoked therein. The author points out that the multiplicity, the multiculturalism, the intersectionality within these communities of resistance is typically belittled, fragmented, or erased. Recognizing the practical use of racial coalitions to combat racism…Read more
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68Pragmatist Feminism and the Work of Charlene Haddock Seigfried (edited book)Bloomsbury Publishing. 2022.A contemporary appraisal of the breadth, significance, and legacy of the work of Charlene Haddock Seigfried, this book brings together writings focused on pragmatist feminism/feminist pragmatism, contemporary pragmatism, William James and the reconstruction of philosophy, education and American philosophy in the 21st century. Charlene Haddock Seigfried is a looming figure in American thought and feminist theory who coined the phrase 'pragmatist feminist' which has become an increasingly importan…Read more
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56Ethics and Insurrection: A Pragmatism for the OppressedBloomsbury Publishing. 2021.Ethics and Insurrection articulates an ethical position that takes critical pragmatism and Harrisian insurrectionist philosophy seriously. It suggests that there are values and norms that create boundaries that confine, reduce and circumscribe the actions we allow ourselves to consider. McBride argues that an insurrectionist ethos is integral in the disavowing of norms and traditions that justify or perpetuate oppression and that we must throw our faith behind something, some set of values, if w…Read more
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38Philosophers at Table: On Food and Being Human by Raymond D. Boisvert and Lisa Heldke (review)The Pluralist 14 (3): 108-112. 2019.Raymond Boisvert and Lisa Heldke begin Philosophers at Table with a simile. Following Mary Midgley, they suggest that philosophy is like plumbing. We post-industrial urbanites and suburbanites rely on plumbing to bring us water and dispose of our waste. We rely on it daily, but we rarely think reflectively about it. In like fashion, we all rely on philosophy; ideas, concepts, values, and guiding principles structure and organize the way we perceive and experience the world. Philosophy lies undet…Read more
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133A Philosophy of Struggle: The Leonard Harris ReaderBloomsbury Publishing. 2020.Collating, for the first time, the key writings of Leonard Harris, this volume introduces readers to a leading figure in African-American and liberatory thought. Harris' writings on honor, insurrectionist ethics, tradition, and his work on Alain Locke have established him as a leading figure in critical philosophy. His timely and urgent responses to structural racism and structural violence mark him out as a bold cultural commentator and a deft theoretician. The wealth and depth of Harris' writi…Read more
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58Agrarian Ideals and Practices: Comments on Paul B. Thompson’s The Agrarian VisionJournal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics 25 (4): 535-541. 2012.In The Agrarian Vision , Thompson argues that a better appreciation of agrarian ideals could lead to a more virtuous, more sustainable way of life. While I agree with Thompson in many respects, there are some aspects of the book that I question and others that I would like to hear Thompson explicate in greater detail. In this paper, I question Thompson’s claim that agrarian farmers and farming communities serve as ideal models of virtuous habits and good character. I challenge Thompson’s use of …Read more
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50Culture, Acquisitiveness, and Decolonial PhilosophyIn Corey McCall & Phillip McReynolds (eds.), Decolonizing American Philosophy, Suny Press. pp. 17-35. 2020.There has been a recent surge in decolonial discourse. Decolonial thought is touted in op-ed pieces and blogs and shared via social media. At university, one is prodded to decolonize the curriculum, the canon, the faculty. In broader contexts, some suggest decolonizing your diet, your sexuality, your future. Hoping to dispel superficial and enigmatic evocations, McBride articulates what he takes to be core features of decolonial philosophy. Decolonial philosophy is described as an oppositional r…Read more
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26Putting Some Peirce into Symbolic LogicTransactions of the Charles S. Peirce Society 44 (2): 212-214. 2008.
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36A Lack of Sympathetic Understanding in the Classroom: Remarks from a Graduate Student InstructorThe APA Newsletter on Teaching in Philosophy 4 (1): 12-14. 2004.This paper elucidates a key element that is often missing from graduate training in philosophy -- the art of teaching. In the first section, the author details the extent of the training many philosophers receive in the area of teaching. In the second section, the notion of sympathetic understanding (a la William James, Jane Addams, and John Dewey) is introduced. In the last section, the author articulates the role of sympathetic understanding in the classroom and the benefits that arise from it…Read more
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19Anger and ApprobationIn Myisha Cherry & Owen Flanagan (eds.), The Moral Psychology of Anger, Rowman & Littlefield. pp. 1-13. 2017.Martha Nussbaum argues that “garden-variety anger” is normatively irrational, politically unnecessary, and inevitably destructive (Nussbaum 2015). Anger, on this account, is portrayed as a primitive vestige of bygone days, an impediment to the genuine pursuit of justice and the honoring of obligations. Yet, on Nussbaum’s account, there is one exception: “transitional anger” – anger that quickly transitions into compassionate hope, focusing on future welfare. Martin Luther King, Jr. is evoked as …Read more
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32Leftist Democratic PoliticsIn Michael Reder, Dominik Finkelde, Alexander Filipovic & Johannes Wallacher (eds.), Jahrbuch Praktische Philosophie in globaler Perspektive / Yearbook Practical Philosophy in a Global Perspective, Verlag Karl Alber. pp. 74-92. 2017.This paper offers an account of leftist democratic politics, one that seeks insights and new possibilities in the confluence of liberal-reformist thought and radical democratic post-Marxist thought. An interpretation of the renascent liberalism of John Dewey is compared to the radical democracy of Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe, exposing shared commitments to radical democracy, egalitarianism, and continued struggles to combat the varied intersectional manifestations of subordination. The aut…Read more
Wooster, Ohio, United States of America
Areas of Specialization
American Philosophy |
Normative Ethics |
Social and Political Philosophy |
Philosophy of Race |