Selected Upcoming Talks and Events
Forthcoming:
Marist Lecture: 29 September 2023
UBC Standpoint Conference: 16-18 November 2023
USC: 1 December 2023
Univ. Zurich Master Class: 15-16 December 2023
Marist Lecture: 29 September 2023
UBC Standpoint Conference: 16-18 November 2023
USC: 1 December 2023
Univ. Zurich Master Class: 15-16 December 2023
Selected Recent Talks and Events
Benjamin Lectures, Center for Social Critique, Humboldt University, Berlin
Agents of Possiblity: The Agents of Social Change (14-16 June 2023)
Societies are not planned and implemented by anyone. They are complex dynamic systems, as are hearts, ant hills, economies, and ecosystems. Although legislatures and policy makers undertake to construct and intervene in social systems – and what they do matters – they are not in control. Well-informed and morally motivated interventions can have unpredictable and often inimical effects. The society, so to speak, has a life of its own, and much of what happens is not designed or intended by anyone.
Moreover, agents in a social system are shaped by it – we come to “fit” niches in the structure by internalizing the relevant norms for the positions we occupy – and coordination on available terms is imperative. This can make it difficult to even imagine escaping the system or intervening in a way that substantially tranforms it. So one might worry that it is hard to see beyond our current circumstances and undertake substantial change, and even when we try, the impact of our efforts is far from being under our control. What can we actually do to promote a better, more just, world?
The lectures will consider how a social theory sensitive to dynamic systems can help us understand social stability and radical social change. One of the most significant features of contemporary societies is their longstanding patterns of injustice, oppression, and harm. And yet, there are times when change seems to happen remarkably quickly, e.g., the movement for marriage equality in the US. How should we understand the systematic interaction between broad structures of race, gender, and class? What methods are promising for promoting positive social change? On what basis do we intervene in social systems that enable coordination – especially if disruption may make things worse before they get better?
"Ideology, Culture, and Social Meaning." Cornell, Feb 17, 2023
Lectures at San Raffaele, June 6-10, 2022
“Systemic, Structural, and Institutional Injustice: What’s the Difference?” (YouTube recording) Royal Institute of Philosophy Annual Lecture, December 2021.
Hempel Lectures, Princeton University. March 25-29, 2019
Lecture 1 handout
Lecture 2 handout
Lecture 3 handout
Minds of Our Own Conference, MIT, November 9-11, 2018
Mangoletsi Lectures (Leeds), May 15-16, 22-23, 2018
UNESCO Lectures on Gender Equality, Pontifica Universidad Católica del Perú, Lima, Perú
Kant Lectures (Stanford), May 31-June 2, 2017
Australasian Association of Philosophy Keynote (handout), July 6, 2016
American Academy of Arts and Sciences Induction Ceremony
Class IV (Humanities and Arts) Speaker (text of speech) (video)
October 10, 2015
Spinoza Chair, University of Amsterdam
Public Lectures: Critical Theory and Practice
Lecture 1 (April 9, 2015): Ideology and Materiality (handout)
Lecture 2 (May 21, 2015): Ideology and Morality (handout)
Published version of the lectures here.
Race and Philosophy: 2015 Arendt-Schürmann Symposium
New School for Social Research
"Racist Ideology, Racial Practices, and Social Critique," February 5, 2015 (handout, more recent (revised) version here)
Eventually published as "Racism, Ideology, and Social Movements." (Find pdf under "Research.")
Eastern APA Presidential Address
Eastern APA, Baltimore, MD, 29 December 2013, 6pm (handout)
Published as "Social Meaning and Philosophical Method." (Find pdf under "Research.")
Carus Lectures (APA Pacific Division, 2012)
Doing Justice to the Social
Handout from Lecture 1: "Social Explanation and Social Structure"
Handout from Lecture 2: "Ideology is a Moral Issue"
Handout from Lecture 3: "Epistemic Wrongdoing"
Canadian Journal of Philosophy Distinguished Lecture
"Social Structure, Narrative and Explanation." (handout 5/27/14; video)
(Find pdf under "Research.")
Some additional handouts...
Agents of Possiblity: The Agents of Social Change (14-16 June 2023)
Societies are not planned and implemented by anyone. They are complex dynamic systems, as are hearts, ant hills, economies, and ecosystems. Although legislatures and policy makers undertake to construct and intervene in social systems – and what they do matters – they are not in control. Well-informed and morally motivated interventions can have unpredictable and often inimical effects. The society, so to speak, has a life of its own, and much of what happens is not designed or intended by anyone.
Moreover, agents in a social system are shaped by it – we come to “fit” niches in the structure by internalizing the relevant norms for the positions we occupy – and coordination on available terms is imperative. This can make it difficult to even imagine escaping the system or intervening in a way that substantially tranforms it. So one might worry that it is hard to see beyond our current circumstances and undertake substantial change, and even when we try, the impact of our efforts is far from being under our control. What can we actually do to promote a better, more just, world?
The lectures will consider how a social theory sensitive to dynamic systems can help us understand social stability and radical social change. One of the most significant features of contemporary societies is their longstanding patterns of injustice, oppression, and harm. And yet, there are times when change seems to happen remarkably quickly, e.g., the movement for marriage equality in the US. How should we understand the systematic interaction between broad structures of race, gender, and class? What methods are promising for promoting positive social change? On what basis do we intervene in social systems that enable coordination – especially if disruption may make things worse before they get better?
- Benjamin I: Who's In Charge Here? Micro, Meso, Macro Interactions (You Tube)
- Societies are complex dynamic systems and, as a result, are self-organizing without central authorities, due to their internal structure. This lecture argues that the structure of a social system is constituted by social practices that enable us to coordinate and communicate by providing a set of tools – a cultural technē – that enables us to collectively interpret and respond to the material conditions. The structure shapes and constrains agency, but the possibility of individual improvisation, material intervention, and political organizing can – at least locally – influence how the system develops. Understanding the leverage points in a system can guide activism, and networked local change can, in principle, have broad impact.
- Benjamin II: What Can We Do? Co-Designing Social Interventions (You Tube)
- An important feature of theoretical projects that aim to promote social justice is their commitment to empowering those in oppressive circumstances so that they can solve their own problems. There are two reasons to take this approach. First, the oppressed have situated knowledge of the circumstances that others lack. But situated knowledge may not be enough to prompt critique. The second is that because both knowledge and values are shaped by social practices, a collective engagement with historically and materially grounded practices can provide a new frame for agency that enables a creative and potentially emancipatory restructuring of social relations. I argue that such path dependency of values is compatible with social justice being objective, but not to be discovered by theory alone.
- Benjamin III: Who Cares? Networks of Knowledge and Solidarity (You Tube)
- For decades, socialist feminists have insisted that an adequate account of society, and especially to capitalist societies, must involve attention to social reproduction, i.e., to “the activities and attitudes, behaviors and emotions, and responsibilities and relationships directly involved in maintaining life, on a daily basis and intergenerationally” (Brenner and Laslett 1991). One approach to social reproduction is to locate it within patriarchy, which is thought to be one of several interacting systems (others include capitalism and White supremacy). In this talk, I will argue it is better to understanding our current social formation as a single (patriarchal, capitalist, White supremacist) system, but one in which there are multiple dynamics or “logics” that interact to produce distinctive forms of oppression. I will go on to discuss why this matters for developing a feminist political agenda around care work.
"Ideology, Culture, and Social Meaning." Cornell, Feb 17, 2023
Lectures at San Raffaele, June 6-10, 2022
“Systemic, Structural, and Institutional Injustice: What’s the Difference?” (YouTube recording) Royal Institute of Philosophy Annual Lecture, December 2021.
Hempel Lectures, Princeton University. March 25-29, 2019
Lecture 1 handout
Lecture 2 handout
Lecture 3 handout
Minds of Our Own Conference, MIT, November 9-11, 2018
Mangoletsi Lectures (Leeds), May 15-16, 22-23, 2018
UNESCO Lectures on Gender Equality, Pontifica Universidad Católica del Perú, Lima, Perú
Kant Lectures (Stanford), May 31-June 2, 2017
Australasian Association of Philosophy Keynote (handout), July 6, 2016
American Academy of Arts and Sciences Induction Ceremony
Class IV (Humanities and Arts) Speaker (text of speech) (video)
October 10, 2015
Spinoza Chair, University of Amsterdam
Public Lectures: Critical Theory and Practice
Lecture 1 (April 9, 2015): Ideology and Materiality (handout)
Lecture 2 (May 21, 2015): Ideology and Morality (handout)
Published version of the lectures here.
Race and Philosophy: 2015 Arendt-Schürmann Symposium
New School for Social Research
"Racist Ideology, Racial Practices, and Social Critique," February 5, 2015 (handout, more recent (revised) version here)
Eventually published as "Racism, Ideology, and Social Movements." (Find pdf under "Research.")
Eastern APA Presidential Address
Eastern APA, Baltimore, MD, 29 December 2013, 6pm (handout)
Published as "Social Meaning and Philosophical Method." (Find pdf under "Research.")
Carus Lectures (APA Pacific Division, 2012)
Doing Justice to the Social
Handout from Lecture 1: "Social Explanation and Social Structure"
Handout from Lecture 2: "Ideology is a Moral Issue"
Handout from Lecture 3: "Epistemic Wrongdoing"
Canadian Journal of Philosophy Distinguished Lecture
"Social Structure, Narrative and Explanation." (handout 5/27/14; video)
(Find pdf under "Research.")
Some additional handouts...