Gary Steiner
John Howard Harris Professor of Philosophy
Bucknell University

Areas of Specialization:

• The Moral Status of Animals
• History of Modern Philosophy; Descartes
• 19th and 20th Century (especially German) Continental Philosophy

Areas of Competence:

• Social and Political Philosophy
• Philosophy of Technology and Environmental Philosophy
• Aesthetics
• History of Ancient Philosophy

Education:

• Ph.D., Philosophy, Yale University, 1992 (Dissertation: The Idea of a Ground for Ethical Commitment in Descartes and Heidegger)
• B.A., Philosophy, University of California, Berkeley, 1981
• Santa Clara University School of Law, 8-77 to 12-78
• B.A., Economics, U.C.L.A., 1977

Teaching Experience:

• John Howard Harris Professor of Philosophy, Bucknell University, 2005 to present
• Professor of Philosophy, Bucknell University, 2005 to present
• Associate Professor of Philosophy, Bucknell University, 1999 to 2005
• Assistant Professor of Philosophy, Bucknell University, 1993 to 1999
• Visiting Assistant Professor of Philosophy, Bucknell University, 1987-91 and 1992-93
• Teaching Fellow, Yale University, 1982-87

Books:

• Animals and the Limits of Postmodernism, Columbia University Press, 2013
• Animals and the Moral Community: Mental Life, Moral Status, and Kinship, Columbia University Press, 2008
• Anthropocentrism and Its Discontents: The Moral Status of Animals in the History of Western Philosophy, University of Pittsburgh Press, 2005
• Descartes as a Moral Thinker: Christianity, Technology, Nihilism, Journal of the History of Philosophy Book Series, Prometheus/Humanity Books, 2004

Essays and Articles:

• "Animals as Subjects and the Rehabilitation of Humanism," Thinking the Unthinkable, ed. John Sorenson, Canadian Scholars Press, 2013 (forthcoming)
• "Cognition and Community," Philosophical Perspectives on Animals: Mind, Ethics, Morals, ed. Markus Wild and Klaus Petrus, Berlin: Springer, 2013 (forthcoming)
• "Religious Faith," Cambridge Descartes Lexicon, ed. Larry Nolan, Cambridge University Press, 2013 (forthcoming)
• "Rethinking the Cognitive Abilities of Animals," Experiencing Animals: Encounters Between Animal and Human Minds, ed. Julie A. Smith and Robert W. Mitchell, Columbia University Press, 2012, pp. 219-30
• "Animal Rights and the Default of Postmodernism," Animal Rights - Animal Liberation, ed. Evangelos Protopapadakis, Berlin: Logos Verlag, 2012, pp. 151-62
• "Toward a Non-Anthropocentric Cosmopolitanism," Anthropocentrism: Humans, Animals, Environments, ed. Rob Boddice,Brill Academic Publishers, 2011, pp. 81-114
• "The Epistemic Status of Medicine in Descartes," International Philosophical Quarterly 51, no. 1(March, 2011): 51-68
• "Tierrecht und die Grenzen des Postmodernismus: Der Fall Derrida" [Animal Rights and the Limits of Postmodernism: The Case of Derrida], ALTEXethik 27 (2010): 3-10
• "The Cultural Significance of Rembrandt's 'Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaas Tulp'," History of European Ideas 36 (2010): 273-9
• "Animal, Vegetable, Miserable," New York Times, Sunday, November 22, 2009, Week in Review, p. 12
• "Plutarch on the Question of Justice for Animals," Ploutarchos 7 (2009/2010): 73-82
• "Cosmic Justice," Encyclopedia of Animal Rights and Animal Welfare, expanded ed., ed. Marc Bekoff, Greenwood Publishing, 2009, vol. 1, pp. 149-53
• "Descartes," History of Western Philosophy of Religion, 5 vols., ed. Graham Oppy and Nick Trakakis, Oxford University Press/Acumen Publishers, 2009, vol. 3, pp. 101-12
• "Das Tier bei Aristoteles und den Stoikern: Evolution eines kosmischen Prinzips" [Animals in Aristotle and the Stoics: The Evolution of a Cosmic Principle], Mensch und Tier in der Antike — Grenzziehung und Grenzüberschreitung, ed. Annetta Alexandridis, Lorenz Winkler-Horacek, and Markus Wild, Reichert-Verlag, 2009, pp. 27-46
• "What I Learned from a Cat that No Philosopher Could Teach Me," What Philosophy Can Tell You About Your Cat, ed. Steven D. Hales, Open Court, 2008, pp. 3-14
• "Foreword" to Gary Francione, Animals as Persons: Essays on the Abolition of Animal Exploitation, Columbia University Press, 2008, pp. ix-xii
• "Cosmic Holism and Obligations Toward Animals: A Challenge to Liberal Individualism," Journal of Animal Law and Ethics 2 (2007): 1-20
• "Descartes, Christianity, and Contemporary Speciesism," A Communion of Subjects: Animals in Religion, Science, and Ethics, ed. Paul Waldau and Kimberly Patton, Columbia University Press, 2006, pp. 117-131
• "The Perils of a Total Critique of Reason: Rethinking Heidegger’s Influence," Philosophy Today 47 (2003): 93-111
• "Descartes on the Moral Status of Animals," Archiv für Geschichte der Philosophie 80 (1998): 268-91
• "'This project is mad': Descartes, Derrida, and the Notion of Philosophical Crisis," Man and World 30 (1997): 179-198
• Four entries written for A Dictionary of Cultural and Critical Theory, Blackwell, 1995: "Transcendental Philosophy"; "Maurice Merleau-Ponty"; "Manfred Frank"; "Ernst Tugendhat"
• "Heidegger's Reflection on Alétheia: Merely a Terminological Shift?" Auslegung 13 (1986): 38-50

Translations:

• Gerold Prauss, Knowing and Doing in Heidegger's "Being and Time," translated with Jeffrey S. Turner, Prometheus/Humanity Books, 1999
• Karl Löwith, Martin Heidegger and European Nihilism, Columbia University Press, 1995; paperback edition, 1998
• Klaus Hartmann, "Marx's Capital from the Viewpoint of Transcendental Philosophy," Journal of the British Society for Phenomenology 24 (1993): 157-171

Book Reviews:

• "Kathy Rudy's Feel-Good Ethics " (review of Kathy Rudy, Loving Animals: Toward a New Animal Advocacy, University of Minnesota Press, 2011), Humanimalia, vol. 3, no. 2 (Spring, 2012), pp. 130-5
• Review of Harry G. Frankfurt, Demons, Dreamers, and Madmen: The Defense of Reason in Descartes’s Meditations (Princeton University Press, 2008), The European Legacy 14:2 (2009), p. 243
• Review of Frans de Waal, Primates and Philosophers: How Morality Evolved (Princeton University Press, 2006), Current Anthropology 49, no. 4 (August, 2008), pp. 700-01

Invited Presentations:

• Title TBA, Die Gaben der Nahrung. Interdisziplinäre Perspektiven auf Essen, Nahrung und Ernährung als Bildungsraum [The Gifts of Food: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Food, Aliment, and Nutrition as an Area of Education], Free University of Berlin, Germany, June 21, 2013
• Title TBA (panel discussion of Animals and the Limits of Postmodernism), Meeting of Existential and Phenomenological Theory and Culture/Théorie et culture existentialistes et phénomenologiques at the Canadian Philosophical Association/Congress of the Social Sciences and Humanities of Canada Meeting, Victoria, British Columbia, June 5, 2013
• Title TBA, Messerli Research Institute of the Veterinary University of Vienna, May 29, 2013
• "Speciesism and Duties to Animals," Seminar on Speciesism and the Future of Humanity: Biology, Culture, and Sociopolitics, University of California, Berkeley, February 21, 2013
• "Animal Rights and the Evasion of Principles, " Animals and the Law: Multiple Perspectives, UCLA Law School, May 16, 2012
• "Postmoderne Philosophie und unsere moralische Verpflichtungen gegenueber Tieren: Eine Kritik " [Postmodern Philosophy and Our Moral Obligations Toward Animals: A Critique], University of Bern, Switzerland, March 13, 2012; University of Vienna, March 15, 2012
• "Animals as Subjects and the Rehabilitation of Humanism," Animal Studies: Changing the Subject? New York University, October 14, 2011
• "Insights and Limits of Postmodern Approaches to Understanding Animals," History and Philosophy of Ethology Workshop, Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia, February 21, 2011
• "Descartes on the Epistemic Status of Medicine," NY/NJ Research Group in Early Modern Philosophy, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, New York, NY, October 27, 2010
• "Do We Have Duties of Justice Toward Animals?" Hamilton College, Clinton, NY, October 1, 2010; Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA, October 18, 2010
• "Tierrecht und die Grenzen des Postmodernismus: Der Fall Derrida" [Animal Rights and the Limits of Postmodernism: The Case of Derrida], University of Heidelberg, Germany, March 15, 2010; Unversity of Vienna, Austria, March 19, 2010
• "Do We Have Duties of Justice Toward Animals?" Yale University School of Law, December 3, 2009
• "The Ideal of a Nonanthropocentric Cosmopolitanism," Animal Ethics Working Group, Center for Bioethics, Yale University, December 3, 2009
• "Das Ideal eines nicht anthropozentristischen Weltbürgertums" [The Ideal of a Non-Anthropocentric Cosmopolitanism], University of Vienna, Austria, November 29, 2008
• "Speciesism and the Moral Status of Animals: Overcoming a Historical Prejudice" and "The Limits of Reason in Moral Reflection: What We Can Learn From Descartes," Hendrix College, Conway, AK, October 25-26, 2007
• "Acknowledging the Moral Status of Animals: The Limits of Liberal Political Thought," University of Pennsylvania School of Law, March 27, 2007
• "Nihilism and Faith: What We Can Learn From Descartes," Alvernia College, May 1, 2006
• "Descartes and the Philosophical Foundations of Modern Medicine" and "The Philosophical Foundations of Early Modern Science: Copernicus to Kant," Sarah Lawrence College, April 17, 2003
• "Descartes and the Philosophical Foundations of Modern Medicine," Clinical Pharmacology Grand Rounds, New York University Medical School, March 20, 2003
• Modest Lectureship, Kenyon College: "Descartes and the Advent of Nihilism," October 17, 2002; "Speciesism and the Ideal of Dwelling," October 18, 2002
• "Descartes, Christianity, and Contemporary Speciesism," Religion and Animals Conference, Harvard Yenching Institute, Harvard University, May 21, 1999
• "'This project is mad': Descartes, Derrida, and the Notion of Philosophical Crisis," Trinity University, San Antonio, Texas, November 6, 1995

Conference Presentations:

• Title TBA, for the panel The Human-Animal Relationship: Theory and Practice, 23d Annual World Congress of Philosophy, Athens, Greece, August 6, 2013
• "The Nature and Limits of the Postmodern Challenge to Human Exceptionalism," for the panel Animals and the Legacy of Human Exceptionalism: From Ancient to Modern, Athens Institute for Education and Research 11th Annual International Conference, Athens, Greece, July 30, 2013
• "Veganism as a Strict Ethical Imperative," Minding Animals, Utrecht, The Netherlands, July 4, 2012
• "Tierrecht und die Grenzen des Postmodernismus" [Animal Rights and the Limits of Postmodernism], Sektion Tierphilosophie, XXII. Deutscher Kongress für Philosophie, Munich, September 15, 2011
• "Animals and the Limits of Postmodernism: The Case of Derrida," 20th/21st Century French and Francophone Studies International Colloquium, San Francisco, April 1, 2011
• "Porphyry on the Moral Status of Animals," for the panel Animals in the Greek and Roman World, Sixth Celtic Conference in Classics, Edinburgh, Scotland, July 30, 2010
• "Plutarch on the Question of Justice for Animals," American Philological Association Annual Meeting, Philadelphia, January 9, 2009
• "Der moralische Status von Tieren" [The Moral Status of Animals], Tierrechtskongreß, Vienna, Austria, November 28, 2008
• "Rethinking the Cognitive Abilities of Animals," The Minds of Animals Conference, University of Toronto, August 12, 2008
• "The Epistemic Status of Medicine in Descartes," International Society for the Study of European Ideas, Helsinki, July 29, 2008
• "The Cultural Significance of Rembrandt’s ‘Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaas Tulp’," American Association for the History of Medicine, Rochester, April 12, 2008
• "Descartes and the Technologization of the Human Body," Somatechnics Conference, Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia, April 19, 2007
• "The Ideal of a Communion of Subjects: A Challenge to Classical Liberalism," Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Religion, Washington, D.C., November 18, 2006
• "The Cultural Significance of Rembrandt’s ‘Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaas Tulp’," Mediated Bodies International Conference, Maastricht University, The Netherlands, September 14, 2006
• "The Creative Potential of Art and the Contemporary Crisis in Meaning," International Conference on the Arts in Society, Edinburgh, Scotland, August 17, 2006
• "The Theriophile and the Vivisectionist: Montaigne and Descartes on the Experiential Capacities and Moral Status of Animals," International Society for the Study of European Ideas, Malta, July 27, 2006
• "The Christian Foundations of Descartes’s Moral Thought," Midwest Regional Meeting of the Society of Christian Philosophers, University of Notre Dame, April 21, 2006
• "Art, Science, and the Invisible," Eastern Division Meeting of the American Society for Aesthetics, Philadelphia, April 8, 2006
• "The Fundamental Limits of Reason in Descartes’s Moral Thought," symposium paper, American Philosophical Association Pacific Division Meeting, March 24, 2006
• "Das Tier bei Aristoteles und den Stoikern: Evolution eines kosmischen Prinzips" [Animals in Aristotle and the Stoics: The Evolution of a Cosmic Principle], at the conference "Mensch und Tier in der Antike: Grenzziehung und Grenzüberschreitung" [Humans and Animals in Antiquity: Boundaries and Transgressions], Institute for Archaeology, Rostock University, Germany, April 8, 2005
• "Do Animals Employ Concepts? A Reflection on the Controversy," Society for the Study of Ethics and Animals session at the Pacific Division American Philosophical Association Meeting, San Francisco, March 25, 2005
• "Anthropocentrism and Its Discontents: Edified Views of Animals in the History of Western Philosophy," International Society for the Study of European Ideas, Pamplona, Spain, August 5, 2004
• "Descartes as a Moral Thinker: Christianity, Technology, Nihilism," International Society for the Study of European Ideas, Pamplona, Spain, August 3, 2004
• "Do Animals Employ Concepts? The Roots of the Controversy in Aristotle," Society for the Study of Ethics and Animals session at the Central Division American Philosophical Association meeting, Chicago, April 24, 2004
• "Stoic Anthropocentrism and the Moral Status of Animals," Society for the Study of Ethics and Animals session at the Eastern Division American Philosophical Association meeting, Washington, D. C., December 29, 2003
• "The Limits of Anthropocentric Arguments for the Moral Status of Animals," International Association for Environmental Philosophy, Boston, November 9, 2003
• Commentary on Matthew Kisner, "Skepticism in the Early Descartes," American Philosophical Association Pacific Division Meeting, San Francisco, March 29, 2003
• "’The Animal is World-Poor‘: A Heideggerian Contribution to the Animal Rights Debate," American Philosophical Association Pacific Division Meeting, San Francisco, March 29, 2001
• "The Limits of a 'Technological' Reading of Descartes's Passions of the Soul, American Philosophical Association Pacific Division Meeting, Los Angeles, March 27, 1998
• "'This project is mad': Descartes, Derrida, and the Notion of Philosophical Crisis," International Association for Philosophy and Literature, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA, May 9, 1996
• "Descartes on the Moral Status of Animals," American Philosophical Association Central Division Meeting, Chicago, April 26, 1996
• "God and Christian Faith in Descartes's Philosophy," American Philosophical Association Pacific Division Meeting, Los Angeles, March 31, 1994
• "The Place(s) of Ethics in Descartes's Philosophy," American Philosophical Association Central Division Meeting, Chicago, April 24, 1993

Fellowships and Awards:

• John Howard Harris Professor of Philosophy, Bucknell University, 2005 to present
• Yale University Graduate Fellowship, 1981-84, 1985-86
• D.A.A.D. stipend for research at Albert Ludwigs University, Freiburg, Germany, 1984-85
• Phi Beta Kappa, University of California, Berkeley