Lorenzo Simpson

Professor

Philosophy

Education: Ph.D. Yale University, 1978 • M. Phil., Philosophy, Yale University, 1973 • M.S., Physics, University of Maryland, 1970 • B.A., Physics and Philosophy, Yale University, 1968

Areas of Specialization: Contemporary continental philosophy (hermeneutics and critical theory); philosophy of the social sciences; philosophy of science and of technology; neopragmatism and postanalytic philosophy (Rorty, Davidson, Quine and Putnam); philosophy and race; philosophy of music

l simpson

Trained in both physics and philosophy, Lorenzo Simpson's research interests include contemporary Continental philosophy, philosophy of the natural and social sciences, philosophy of technology, neopragmatism, and philosophy and race. His recent work has emerged from a critical engagement with various aspects of postmodernism. This has culminated in two books, Technology, Time and the Conversations of Modernity (Routledge, 1995) and The Unfinished Project: Toward a Postmetaphysical Humanism (Routledge, 2001).

Simpson is now exploring the science and multiculturalism debates, as well as the relationship between musical aesthetics and social theory. He has also published articles and book chapters in the areas of hermeneutics, Critical Theory, the philosophy of science and technology, and African-American philosophy.

Simpson is a member of the Consulting Board of Stony Brook's Humanities Institute, the program committee of the Eastern Division of the American Philosophical Association, and is on the editorial board of a number of professional journals. He was awarded the Outstanding Faculty Award by the State Council of Higher Education of the Commonwealth of Virginia, and he has been awarded postdoctoral fellowships by the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Ford Foundation, the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, and the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. In 2008, Simpson will be the Visiting Mars Professor in the Program in Ethics, Politics and Economics and the Department of Philosophy at Yale University. He is also an aspiring jazz saxophonist.

To learn more about Professor Simpson, please view his  Curriculum Vitae.