Richard Velkley
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Richard L. Velkley (born March 17, 1949) is an American philosopher and Celia Scott Weatherhead Distinguished Professor of
Philosophy Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. Some ...
at
Tulane University Tulane University, officially the Tulane University of Louisiana, is a private university, private research university in New Orleans, Louisiana. Founded as the Medical College of Louisiana in 1834 by seven young medical doctors, it turned into ...
. Velkley is known for his expertise on
Kant Immanuel Kant (, , ; 22 April 1724 – 12 February 1804) was a German philosopher and one of the central Enlightenment thinkers. Born in Königsberg, Kant's comprehensive and systematic works in epistemology, metaphysics, ethics, and aest ...
,
Rousseau Jean-Jacques Rousseau (, ; 28 June 1712 – 2 July 1778) was a Genevan philosopher, writer, and composer. His political philosophy influenced the progress of the Age of Enlightenment throughout Europe, as well as aspects of the French Revolu ...
, and
post-Kantian philosophy German idealism was a philosophical movement that emerged in Germany in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. It developed out of the work of Immanuel Kant in the 1780s and 1790s, and was closely linked both with Romanticism and the revolutionary ...
. He is a former associate editor of ''
The Review of Metaphysics ''The Review of Metaphysics'' is a peer-reviewed academic journal of philosophy. It was established by Paul Weiss and the first issue was published in September 1947. The journal's primary sponsor is and has been The Catholic University of Ameri ...
'' (1997–2006) and a former president of the
Metaphysical Society of America The Metaphysical Society of America (MSA) is a philosophical organization founded by Paul Weiss in 1950. As stated in its constitution, "The purpose of the Metaphysical Society of America is the study of reality." The society is a member of the ...
(2017–18).


Philosophy

Velkley's writing treats questions about the status of philosophic reason and its relation to society and politics since the late 18th century: the principles of
Enlightenment thought The Age of Enlightenment or the Enlightenment; german: Aufklärung, "Enlightenment"; it, L'Illuminismo, "Enlightenment"; pl, Oświecenie, "Enlightenment"; pt, Iluminismo, "Enlightenment"; es, La Ilustración, "Enlightenment" was an intel ...
and their revision, criticism and sometimes complete rejection; conceptions of freedom and their role in attempts to address social and psychic division and alienation; the turn to aesthetic experience and aesthetic education; criticisms of modernity inspired by ancient thought; the meaning and the consequences of the historical turn in modern philosophy; accounts of crisis in the
philosophical tradition A tradition is a belief or behavior (folk custom) passed down within a group or society with symbolic meaning or special significance with origins in the past. A component of cultural expressions and folklore, common examples include holidays o ...
and critical analyses of the grounds of the tradition. He conceives the study of the history of philosophy as a way to become aware of persisting perplexities in human life that remain unresolved in the modern period. His historical inquiry starts from Rousseau's criticism of modern philosophy and considers responses of later thinkers to it, in the first place Kant. He has lectured widely in the U.S. and abroad (Canada, France, Germany, China, Belgium, Brazil, Italy, Denmark, Israel, Czech Republic, Poland and Japan) on these topics. In Velkley's account, Rousseau is not a sentimental thinker of natural contentment but the initiator of a problematically dialectical conception of human reason. Human perfectibility, chiefly through the invention of speech, expands desires beyond immediate needs, creating new desires for luxuries and unattainable goods. Reason is the root of human self-alienation, the loss of equilibrium between cognitive faculties and desires, for which Rousseau offers various remedies. With this thought he influenced Kant in ways that go beyond the widely recognized kinship of Kantian autonomy with Rousseau's general will. Kant is awakened by Rousseau in the 1760s to a crisis in modern civilization (the burdening of life by factitious desires, the weakening of confidence in reason); he then finds in freedom a unifying standpoint beyond nature to counter the chaos of artificial desires. Rousseau continues to exert a powerful pull on European philosophy, partly through Kant, by his interpretation of the modern self in terms of the dialectical striving of an
antinomic reason Antinomy (Greek ἀντί, ''antí'', "against, in opposition to", and νόμος, ''nómos'', "law") refers to a real or apparent mutual incompatibility of two laws. It is a term used in logic and epistemology, particularly in the philosophy of I ...
seeking unity with itself. This striving, in various guises, is the central plot of human history in numerous post-Kantian philosophers.''Being After Rousseau'' (Chicago 2002), pp. 4–8, 112–113


Books

* ''Sarastro's Cave: Letters from the Recent Past'' (philosophic novella) (
Mercer University Press Mercer University Press, established in 1979, is a university press operated by Mercer University Mercer University is a private research university with its main campus in Macon, Georgia. Founded in 1833 as Mercer Institute and gaining un ...
, 2021). * '' Freedom and the End of Reason: On the Moral Foundation of Kant's Critical Philosophy'' (
University of Chicago Press The University of Chicago Press is the largest and one of the oldest university presses in the United States. It is operated by the University of Chicago and publishes a wide variety of academic titles, including ''The Chicago Manual of Style'', ...
, 1989, reprint 2014). * '' Being after Rousseau: Philosophy and Culture in Question'' (University of Chicago Press, 2002). * '' Heidegger, Strauss, and the Premises of Philosophy: On Original Forgetting'' (University of Chicago Press, 2011, reprint 2014; Chinese translation, 2016; French translation, 2017). * ''Leo Strauss on Nietzsche's Thus Spoke Zarathustra'' (ed.) (University of Chicago Press, 2017). * ''The Unity of Reason: Essays on Kant's Philosophy by
Dieter Henrich Dieter Henrich (5 January 1927 – 17 December 2022) was a German philosopher. A contemporary thinker in the tradition of German idealism, Henrich is considered "one of the most respected and frequently cited philosophers in Germany today", who ...
'' (ed.) (
Harvard University Press Harvard University Press (HUP) is a publishing house established on January 13, 1913, as a division of Harvard University, and focused on academic publishing. It is a member of the Association of American University Presses. After the retir ...
, 1994). * ''Freedom and the Human Person'' (ed.), Studies in Philosophy and the History of Philosophy, vol. 48 (
Catholic University of America Press The Catholic University of America Press, also known as CUA Press, is the publishing division of The Catholic University of America. Founded on November 14, 1939, and incorporated on July 16, 1941,Roy J. Deferrari ''Memoirs of the Catholic Unive ...
, 2007). * ''Kant's 'Observations' and 'Remarks': A Critical Guide'', edited by Susan Shell and Richard Velkley (
Cambridge University Press Cambridge University Press is the university press of the University of Cambridge. Granted letters patent by Henry VIII of England, King Henry VIII in 1534, it is the oldest university press A university press is an academic publishing hou ...
, 2012). * ''The Linguistic Dimension of Kant's Thought: Historical and Critical Essays'', edited by
Frank Schalow Frank Schalow (born February 23, 1956) is an American philosopher and professor of philosophy and university research professor at the University of New Orleans. He is known for his exegesis of Martin Heidegger's writings. He is a co-editor of, t ...
and Richard Velkley (
Northwestern University Press Northwestern University Press is an American publishing house affiliated with Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. It publishes 70 new titles each year in the areas of continental philosophy, poetry, Slavic and German literary criticism ...
, 2014).


References


External links


Richard Velkley at Tulane University
* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Velkley, Richard 21st-century American philosophers Phenomenologists Continental philosophers Moral philosophers Political philosophers Kant scholars Philosophy academics Heidegger scholars Gadamer scholars Pennsylvania State University alumni Cornell University alumni Tulane University faculty Living people 1949 births Philosophy journal editors Catholic University of America faculty Earhart Foundation Fellows Fellows of the National Endowment for the Humanities Bradley Foundation Fellows ACLS Fellows Presidents of the Metaphysical Society of America Schelling scholars Rousseau scholars Philosophers from Kentucky Distinguished professors in the United States Distinguished professors of philosophy