Steven Affeldt

B.A., The University of California, Berkeley; Ph.D., Harvard University

Steven Affeldt's research explores intersections of ethics, social/political philosophy, and aesthetics.  Drawing on a wide range of figures—including Plato, Augustine, Rousseau, Kant, Emerson, Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Freud, Heidegger, and Wittgenstein—he works to show how philosophy and philosophical texts may be redemptive: possessed of the power to inspire, inform, and effect liberating transformations of both individuals and societies. He has published highly influential articles on Rousseau, Wittgenstein, and Stanley Cavell and is Director of The McDevitt Center at Le Moyne. He enjoys teaching in virtually any area of philosophy and at all levels.

• “The Space Between Philosophy and Politics: On Andrew Norris's Becoming Who We Are: Politics and Practical Philosophy in the Work of Stanley Cavell.” Syndicate, October 2018.
• “Metaphysical Emerson.” Nineteenth Century Prose 45, no. 1 (2018): 109-116.
• “The Normativity of the Natural.” In Varieties of Skepticism: Essays after Kant, Wittgenstein, and Cavell, edited by James Conant and Andrea Kern, De Gruyter Publishing, 2014, 309-59.

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