Alice Crary

Alice Crary
Alice Crary, Reykjavik 2010
Born	1967 Seattle, WA
Alma mater	AB, Philosophy, Harvard University, 1990; PhD, Philosophy, University of Pittsburgh, 1999
Era	20th Century Philosophy, 21st Century Philosophy
Region	Western Philosophy
School	Analytic
Main interests	Moral Philosophy, Philosophy and Literature, Philosophy and Animals, Wittgenstein and Austin, Feminism and Philosophy
Notable ideas	Moral thought beyond moral judgment; Wider view of objectivity; Faulty logic of the math wars
Influences Ludwig Wittgenstein · Cora Diamond · Stanley Cavell · John McDowell · Iris Murdoch · John Austin
Influenced Jean-Marie Vivaldi · David Kishik · Anstein Gregersen · Aloisia Moser · Matthew Congdon · Robin Muller · Johnathan Chalier · Jason Fisette · Janna van Grunsven · Cato Wittusen

Alice Crary (/ˈkrɛəri/; born 1967) is an American philosopher and Chair of the Department of Philosophy in the Graduate Faculty of The New School for Social Research in New York City. She is well known for her numerous scholarly works on the moral dimension of language, as well as edited collections on Wittgenstein, Cora Diamond, and Stanley Cavell. Crary is the author of two monographs on ethics, Beyond Moral Judgment (Harvard, 2007) and Inside Ethics: On the Demands of Moral Thought (Harvard, 2016). While still finishing her doctorate in philosophy at the University of Pittsburgh, she co-edited and wrote the introduction to the The New Wittgenstein, which continues to influence debates over Wittgenstein's philosophy. Currently Associate Professor of Philosophy at The New School for Social Research, she has been a Humboldt Foundation Scholar in 2009–10 at Goethe University in Frankfurt, a Rockefeller Fellow in 2003–4 at Princeton University, and has been an invited speaker at such venues as the Society of Fellows in the Humanities at Columbia University, the Center for Philosophy, Art, and Literature at Duke University, and Brooklyn Public Philosophers in NYC.

Crary's writings address moral philosophy, Wittgenstein, philosophy and literature, feminism and philosophy, the writings of J.M. Coetzee, W.G. Sebald, and Leo Tolstoy, and issues surrounding philosophy and animals and cognitive disability.

Scholarship

Crary's second book, Inside Ethics: On the Demands of Moral Thought (January 2016, Harvard University Press), discusses the nature and difficulty of moral thought about human beings and animals, addressing topics ranging from moral development to cognitive disability. Crary is a member of a number of international research groups devoted to subjects such as feminist philosophy and ordinary language philosophy.

Graduate students

Crary currently directs fourteen PhD theses in the Department of Philosophy at The New School for Social Research.

Popular writing

Her commentary, with W. Stephen Wilson, on the faulty logic behind the K-12 education "Math Wars" appeared in The New York Times philosophy blog, The Stone.

Selected publications

Books – monographs

• Inside Ethics: On the Demands of Moral Thought (Cambridge, Harvard University Press, 2016).
• Beyond Moral Judgment (Cambridge, Harvard University Press, 2007). (Reviewed in Analytic Philosophy, Choice, The European Journal of Philosophy, Ethics (twice), Hypatia, Metapsychology Online Reviews, Mind, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews, Philo, and The Pluralist and discussed at a 2008 “Author Meets Critics” session at the Eastern Division Meeting of the APA.)

Books – edited volumes

• Wittgenstein and the Moral Life: Essays in Honor of Cora Diamond (Cambridge, MIT Press, 2007).
• Reading Cavell (New York, Routledge, 2006 (co-edited with Sanford Shieh)).
• The New Wittgenstein (New York, Routledge, 2000 (co-edited with Rupert Read)).

Selected articles

• "Feminist thought and rational authority: Getting things in perspective," New Literary History, Vol. 46, no.2 (Spring 2015), pp. 287-308.
• "A Radical Perfectionist: Revisiting Cavell in the Light of Kant," Journal of Aesthetic Education, Vol. 48, no.3 (2014), pp. 87-98.
• “Dogs and Concepts,” Philosophy, vol.87, no.2 (April 2012), pp. 215–237.
• “W.G. Sebald and the Ethics of Narrative,” Constellations, Vol. 19, no. 3, (Spring 2012), pp. 494-508.
• “A Brilliant Perspective: Diamondian Ethics,” Philosophical Investigations, vol.34, no.4 (October 2011), pp. 331–352.
• “Minding What Already Matters: A Critique of Moral Individualism,” Philosophical Topics, vol.38, no.1 (Spring 2011), pp. 17–49.
• “J.M. Coetzee, Moral Thinker,” in Anton Leist and Peter Singer, eds., Coetzee and Ethics: Philosophical Perspectives on Literature New York, Columbia University Press, 2010), pp. 249–268.
• “Ethics and the Logic of Life,” in SATS: The Nordic Journal of Philosophy, vol.10, no.2 (2009), pp. 5–34.
• “Wittgenstein’s Commonsense Realism about the Mind” in Ilva Gustafsson, Camilla Kronqvist and Michael McEachrane, eds., Emotions and Understanding: Wittgensteinian Perspectives (London, Palgrave Macmillan, 2009), pp. 12–26.
• “Humans, Animals, Right and Wrong,” in Alice Crary, ed., Wittgenstein and the Moral Life, pp. 381–404.
• “Wittgenstein and Ethics: a discussion in reference to On Certainty” in Daniele Moyal-Sharrock and William Brenner, eds., Readings of Wittgenstein’s On Certainty (London, Palgrave-MacMillan, 2005), pp. 275–301.
• “What Do Feminists Want in an Epistemology?” in Peg O’Connor and Naomi Scheman, eds., Re-Reading the Canon: Feminist Interpretations of Wittgenstein (University Park, PA, Penn State Press, 2002), pp. 97–118.
• “The Happy Truth: J.L. Austin’s How to Do Things With Words,” Inquiry, vol.45, no.1 (Spring 2002), pp. 1–22.
• “A Question of Silence: Feminist Theory and Women’s Voices,” Philosophy, vol.76, no.96 (July 2001), pp. 371–395.
• “Wittgenstein's Philosophy in Relation to Political Thought” in Alice Crary and Rupert Read, eds. The New Wittgenstein, pp. 118–145.
• “Does the Study of Literature Belong in Moral Philosophy? Some Reflections in the Light of Ryle's Thought,” Philosophical Investigations, vol.23, no.4 (October 2000), pp. 315–350.

Awards

• Elias J. and Rosa Lee Nemir Audi Lecture, Colgate College, 2016
• Alexander von Humboldt Foundation Fellowship for Experienced Researchers, Goethe University, Frankfurt, Germany, 2009–2010.
• University Distinguished Teaching Award, The New School, New York, 2005
• Faculty Fellow, Heyman Center for the Humanities, Columbia University, 2004-2005.
• Laurance S. Rockefeller Visiting Fellow, University Center for Human Values, Princeton University, 2003-2004.
• Charlotte W. Newcombe Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship (study of ethical and religious values), University of Pittsburgh, 1997-1998.
• Harvard University Certificate of Distinction in Teaching (Bok Center), Fall 1993-Spring 1994.

See also

• American philosophy
• List of American philosophers
• List of female philosophers

External links

• New School for Social Research Homepage
• PhilPapers Profile
• Recording of Prof. Alice Crary: "Wittgenstein and Ethics," lecture given on June 2, 2005 at the "Wittgenstein, Philosophy & Language" conference in Skjolden, Norway, June 1-4, 2005