Eric Ritter | University of California, Berkeley (original) (raw)

Peer Reviewed Articles by Eric Ritter

Introduction to a special issue devoted to John Lachs's work. Lachs was a mentor, friend, and pro... more Introduction to a special issue devoted to John Lachs's work. Lachs was a mentor, friend, and professor. A brilliant man and dazzlingly kind soul.

Official abstract: A brief introduction to the papers presented at a conference held at Vanderbilt University in the Fall of 2023, called "John Lachs and American Philosophy," organized by the Philosophy Department and the College of Arts and Sciences. The symposium includes papers by Herman Saatkamp, John Stuhr, Eric Weber, and Chris Skowroński. It is followed by a response from John Lachs written down by Michael Hodges based on conversations.

Philosophy Today , 2023

The United States, alongside other Western democracies, is in search of a usable past. Collective... more The United States, alongside other Western democracies, is in search of a usable past. Collective memory in the United States has persistently distorted or whitewashed its past, resulting in a distinct kind of (socially sanctioned) ignorance of the present. Collective memory reconstruction can thus be understood as "epistemic activism," targeting an "epistemology of ignorance," borrowing and expanding key concepts from the work of Charles Mills and José Medina. In this article I begin to defend an ethical practice of collective memory reconstruction as epistemic activism. I first outline a qualified understanding of "collective memory" that survives philosophical skepticism. I then draw on Paul Ricoeur's critical phenomenology of abuses of memory and analyze collective memory distortions of the US Civil War and the US struggle for civil rights. I suggest that a reconstructed democratic collective memory will be a set of plural and dynamic collective memories, rather than a homogeneous and static memory. I end by outlining some consequences that follow from this conclusion.

Philosophy and Social Criticism, 2021

This article aims to rewrite Emerson’s moral perfectionism—his anti-foundationalist pursuit of an... more This article aims to rewrite Emerson’s moral perfectionism—his anti-foundationalist pursuit of an always more perfect state of self and society—onto his moral and intellectual participation in the abolitionist movement. I argue that Cavell artificially separated Emerson's moral perfectionism from his extensive, decades-long abolitionism. The source of Cavell’s oversight is his participation in the longstanding norm of dichotomizing Emerson’s work into the theoretical “essays” and the “antislavery writings,” or the philosophical and the polemical. Recent scholars of Emerson have questioned and even dismissed this dichotomy, however, while recentering Emerson’s politics in his oeuvre as a whole. They find much to praise, and also plenty to criticize, in Emerson’s abolitionist writings. I follow and extend that scholarly trend here, and introduce what I call Emerson’s abolitionist perfectionism as an expansion of Cavell’s influential work on moral perfectionism.

Journal of Speculative Philosophy , 2021

In the summer of 2019, the Cavell family, acting as literary executors of Stanley Cavell’s estate... more In the summer of 2019, the Cavell family, acting as literary executors of Stanley Cavell’s estate, designated Eric Ritter to organize and catalogue the masses of books and documents and papers with which Cavell had filled his study. In the process, Ritter found a surprising amount of unpublished work and presents some of it here for the first time. Building on the archival work as well as on recent scholarship, this article presents Cavell’s conception of philosophy as the public expression of moral perfectionist
practice, for which writing is catalyst, medium, and result. The article then enumerates some consequences that follow from this conception, especially a certain relation of philosophy to the arts and to a notion of philosophical pluralism. It also suggests that key themes in Cavell’s work already converse implicitly with ongoing debates about “American Philosophy” and have great potential to do so more explicitly.

Conversations: The Journal of Cavellian Studies, 2020

Cambridge Companion to Just War Theory , 2018

Book Reviews by Eric Ritter

Introduction to a special issue devoted to John Lachs's work. Lachs was a mentor, friend, and pro... more Introduction to a special issue devoted to John Lachs's work. Lachs was a mentor, friend, and professor. A brilliant man and dazzlingly kind soul.

Official abstract: A brief introduction to the papers presented at a conference held at Vanderbilt University in the Fall of 2023, called "John Lachs and American Philosophy," organized by the Philosophy Department and the College of Arts and Sciences. The symposium includes papers by Herman Saatkamp, John Stuhr, Eric Weber, and Chris Skowroński. It is followed by a response from John Lachs written down by Michael Hodges based on conversations.

Philosophy Today , 2023

The United States, alongside other Western democracies, is in search of a usable past. Collective... more The United States, alongside other Western democracies, is in search of a usable past. Collective memory in the United States has persistently distorted or whitewashed its past, resulting in a distinct kind of (socially sanctioned) ignorance of the present. Collective memory reconstruction can thus be understood as "epistemic activism," targeting an "epistemology of ignorance," borrowing and expanding key concepts from the work of Charles Mills and José Medina. In this article I begin to defend an ethical practice of collective memory reconstruction as epistemic activism. I first outline a qualified understanding of "collective memory" that survives philosophical skepticism. I then draw on Paul Ricoeur's critical phenomenology of abuses of memory and analyze collective memory distortions of the US Civil War and the US struggle for civil rights. I suggest that a reconstructed democratic collective memory will be a set of plural and dynamic collective memories, rather than a homogeneous and static memory. I end by outlining some consequences that follow from this conclusion.

Philosophy and Social Criticism, 2021

This article aims to rewrite Emerson’s moral perfectionism—his anti-foundationalist pursuit of an... more This article aims to rewrite Emerson’s moral perfectionism—his anti-foundationalist pursuit of an always more perfect state of self and society—onto his moral and intellectual participation in the abolitionist movement. I argue that Cavell artificially separated Emerson's moral perfectionism from his extensive, decades-long abolitionism. The source of Cavell’s oversight is his participation in the longstanding norm of dichotomizing Emerson’s work into the theoretical “essays” and the “antislavery writings,” or the philosophical and the polemical. Recent scholars of Emerson have questioned and even dismissed this dichotomy, however, while recentering Emerson’s politics in his oeuvre as a whole. They find much to praise, and also plenty to criticize, in Emerson’s abolitionist writings. I follow and extend that scholarly trend here, and introduce what I call Emerson’s abolitionist perfectionism as an expansion of Cavell’s influential work on moral perfectionism.

Journal of Speculative Philosophy , 2021

In the summer of 2019, the Cavell family, acting as literary executors of Stanley Cavell’s estate... more In the summer of 2019, the Cavell family, acting as literary executors of Stanley Cavell’s estate, designated Eric Ritter to organize and catalogue the masses of books and documents and papers with which Cavell had filled his study. In the process, Ritter found a surprising amount of unpublished work and presents some of it here for the first time. Building on the archival work as well as on recent scholarship, this article presents Cavell’s conception of philosophy as the public expression of moral perfectionist
practice, for which writing is catalyst, medium, and result. The article then enumerates some consequences that follow from this conception, especially a certain relation of philosophy to the arts and to a notion of philosophical pluralism. It also suggests that key themes in Cavell’s work already converse implicitly with ongoing debates about “American Philosophy” and have great potential to do so more explicitly.

Conversations: The Journal of Cavellian Studies, 2020

Cambridge Companion to Just War Theory , 2018