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Papers by David M Pena-Guzman

Continental Philosophy Review, 2019

Your article is protected by copyright and all rights are held exclusively by Springer Nature B.V... more Your article is protected by copyright and all rights are held exclusively by Springer Nature B.V.. This e-offprint is for personal use only and shall not be self-archived in electronic repositories. If you wish to self-archive your article, please use the accepted manuscript version for posting on your own website. You may further deposit the accepted manuscript version in any repository, provided it is only made publicly available 12 months after official publication or later and provided acknowledgement is given to the original source of publication and a link is inserted to the published article on Springer's website. The link must be accompanied by the following text: "The final publication is available at link.springer.com".

Metaphilosophy, 2019

This article reflects upon the state of the philosophical profession vis-à-vis a close reading of... more This article reflects upon the state of the philosophical profession vis-à-vis a close reading of the hoax perpetrated against the International Journal of Badiou Studies in 2016. This hoax is not a subversive act of disciplinary criticism (as the hoaxers contend). Rather, it is a poorly disguised attempt to enforce a partisan and myopic conception of philosophy and to delegitimize an entire sub-field of philosophical production-namely, continental philosophy. The hoax is symptomatic of a deeper problem that plagues the profession today: the willingness exhibited by many philosophers to police the boundaries of the discipline by engaging in what we call "acts of force." The prevalence of acts of force demonstrates that professional philosophy is shaped not only by the giving and taking of reasons but also by shopworn disciplinary tribalisms (for example, continental versus analytic) and asymmetrical power relations involving agents with unequal amounts of social, professional, and philosophical capital.

Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A, 2019

In recent years, analytic philosophers have begun to recognize the value of the French school of ... more In recent years, analytic philosophers have begun to recognize the value of the French school of historical epistemology (as embodied by figures such as Jean Cavaillès, Gaston Bachelard, Georges Canguilhem, and Michel Foucault) for contemporary debates in the history and philosophy of science. This tradition, which some characterize as a ‘French’ approach to the philosophy of science, however, remains largely un-read by mainstream philosophers of science. This article offers an interpretation of this tradition, highlighting what the author takes to be its two central features: (i) its claim that scientific discourse is the object of epistemology and (ii) its claim that scientific concepts are the building blocks of scientific discourse.

Transversal: International Journal for the Historiography of Science,, 2018

In the 1950s, George Canguilhem became known in France as a vocal exponent of the philosophy of t... more In the 1950s, George Canguilhem became known in France as a vocal exponent of the philosophy of the concept, an approach to epistemology that treated science as the highest expression of human rationality and scientific concepts as the necessary preconditions for the manifestation of scientific truth. Philosophers of the concept, Canguilhem included, viewed concepts as the key to the study of science; and science, in turn, as the key to a substantive theory of reason. This article explains what concepts are for Canguilhem, how they are extracted from the history of the sciences, and why they continue to matter for contemporary debates in the History and Philosophy of Science (HPS).

Animal Sentience, 2018

This Response addresses the scientific and philosophical criticisms of my 2017 target article "Ca... more This Response addresses the scientific and philosophical criticisms of my 2017 target article "Can nonhuman animals commit suicide?" It defends my key claims and explores topics (such as animal judgment, animal theory of mind, and the evolution of suicide) that did not appear in the original article. It also points out areas in which further research is needed and concludes that we should be wary of accusations of "anthropomorphism" in debates about animal suicide.

Many people believe that only humans have the cognitive and behavioral capacities needed for suic... more Many people believe that only humans have the cognitive and behavioral capacities needed for suicidal behavior, such as reflexive subjectivity, free will, intentionality, or awareness of death. Three counterarguments — based on (i) negative emotions and psychopathologies among nonhuman animals, (ii) the nature of self-destructive behavior, and (iii) the problem of model fidelity in suicide research — suggest that self-destructive and self-injurious behaviors among human and nonhuman animals vary along a continuum.

This paper explores the relationship between biology, feminism, and phenomenology in Simone de Be... more This paper explores the relationship between biology, feminism, and phenomenology in Simone de Beauvoir's The Second Sex.

This article investigates the historical and philosophical background of the French tradition of ... more This article investigates the historical and philosophical background of the French tradition of historical epistemology. As a sort of 'historical epistemology of historical epistemology,' it traces some of the forces, incidents, and events that made possible (and perhaps even necessary) the emergence of a new way of doing epistemology in the first half of the twentieth century in France. Three developments that occupy a position of privilege in this narrative are: (i) the collapse of German idealism, (ii) the birth of French positivism, and (iii) what the author calls 'the crisis in the theory of science' that swept over Europe in the early 1900s. These developments suggest that the emergence and development of historical epistemology was the effect of changes internal to the history of Western philosophy (from Kant to Comte) as much as a function of changes external to this history (including changes in the material fabric of society).

Translation of Georges Canguilhem's “Qu’est-ce que la psychologie?” (Source: Revue de Métaphysiqu... more Translation of Georges Canguilhem's “Qu’est-ce que la psychologie?” (Source: Revue de Métaphysique et de Morale, Vol. 63, No. 1 [January-March, 1958], 12-25). Georges Canguilhem’s “Qu’est-ce que la psychologie?” was first delivered at the Collège Philosophique on December 18, 1956. It was then published in Revue de Métaphysique et de Morale in 1958. Eight years later, in 1966, it appeared in the second volume of the Cahiers pour l’Analyse, which bore its title. This volume included a “Foreword” by Jean-Claude Milner, a “Supplement” (“Les graphes de Jacques Lacan, commentés par Jacques-Alain Miller”), and contributions by Robert Pagès, Alain Grosrichard, Chevalier de Merian, Serge Leclaire, and Thomas Herbert.

This paper develops a phenomenological theory of normativity through the works of the epistemolog... more This paper develops a phenomenological theory of normativity through the works of the epistemologist Georges Canguilhem and the existential phenomenologist Maurice Merleau-Ponty. It then explores the social and political implications of this theory.

Curiously, while the efficacy of the arts for the development of multicultural understandings has... more Curiously, while the efficacy of the arts for the development of multicultural understandings has long been theorized, empirical studies of this effect have been lacking. This essay recounts our combined empirical and philosophical study of this issue. We explicate the philosophical considerations that shaped the development of the arts course we studied, which was grounded in rather traditional humanist educational thought, informed by Deweyan considerations for pedagogy and multiculturalism. We also provide an overview of the course and of the study design: the ways in which the course worked to teach aesthetic theory through a combination of popular and canonical works, and the ways in which it sought to instill a sense of cross-cultural appreciation and solidarity among students through the inclusion of art from different cultures and generations. We then share our research findings and our return to the realm of philosophy to interpret them. Our postcolonial analysis incorporates emerging discussions of the arts as a tool for resistance and dialogue within the system of public education, and revisit and reconsider the very concept of education for pluralistic democracy. This approach problematizes traditional conceptions of pluralism, in which an attempt is made to dissolve difference in a common understanding, and instead advocates that works from among the contemporary popular arts and works drawn from the artistic ''canon'' alike must be considered and employed for their instrumental value to the educational process—especially for their ability to prompt an intersubjectivity that is accompanied by a heightened awareness of difference.

This inquiry developed during the process of " quantitizing " qualitative data the authors had ga... more This inquiry developed during the process of " quantitizing " qualitative data the authors had gathered for a mixed methods curriculum efficacy study. Rather than providing the intended rigor to their data coding process, their use of an intercoder reliability metric prompted their investigation of the multiplicity and messiness that, as they suggest here, are inherent to work that crosses the epistemological boundaries of academic fields and research paradigms. Even as the authors developed a deeper understanding of—and appreciation for—the nature of quantitative rigor, they moved toward a more deeply constructivist view of the research process itself. Ultimately, the authors abandoned the neat study of intercoder reliability that they had envisioned and moved toward the present dialogic report to reveal and examine their process.

Book Reviews by David M Pena-Guzman

This book review is forthcoming in Hypatia

Syllabi by David M Pena-Guzman