Ordinary Philosophy

Dear readers, my newest journal article has just been published in New York History, Volume 104, Number 2, Winter 2023-2024, pp. 264-275. You can find it at https://muse.jhu.edu/article/918263 (It’s paywalled – my apologies! If you’re affiliated with an educational institution, you may be able to access it for free.) A.M.E. Zion Church, corner of West Tenth and Bleecker Street, New York City,…

Dear friends: While I delivered this live video presentation last autumn, Historic Environment Scotland just recently put out the recording on its YouTube channel, once the closed captioning was finished. If you missed it and are interested in following in the footsteps of Dr James McCune Smith when he was a student and newly minted physician in Glasgow, here it is! I hope you find it of interest.

Introducing: The Transatlantic World of James McCune Smith

Hello! I’d like to introduce my new Substack newsletter dedicated to the transatlantic world of the great American physician and intellectual James McCune Smith. I’m delighted to announce – to all who may not know already – that I’m writing a biography of him, under contract with the University of Georgia Press. (It will be his first published scholarly biography, to my knowledge, building on…

New Article: James McCune Smith and Glasgow: A Scholar’s Transatlantic Journey, 1821-1837

Illustration of James McCune Smith from “Builders of History and Civilization: Pfeiffer Presents Dr. James McCune Smith, Physician and Scholar, 1813-1864.” Detroit Tribune, 9 March 1940. Dear friends of Ordinary Philosophy: My scribbling away continues! I’ve just written an article for the University of Glasgow’s Beniba Centre for Slavery Studies. It discusses James McCune Smith’s early years…

New Journal Article: ‘Roots: Tracing the Family History of James McCune and Malvina Barnett Smith, 1783-1937’

Patrick H. Reason (1816-1898), James McCune Smith (1813–1865) (detail), ca. 1850, Engraving, The New-York Historical Society, Gift of A.D.F. Randolph and Co., 1868. Used with permission. Dear friends of Ordinary Philosophy, Though I’ve largely suspended writing original pieces for OP while I’m pursuing my doctorate degree at the University of Edinburgh – I’m in my final year – I’ve by no means…

James McCune Smith Predicted African American Preeminence in U.S. Art and Culture

In the 1843 published version of his 1841 lecture “The Destiny of the People of Color,” African American physician, intellectual, author, classicist, and human rights activist James McCune Smith (1813–1865) reflected on the future of his oppressed people. From the midst of their shared struggle for freedom from slavery and prejudice, he found hope:

For we are destined to write the literature of…

Liberate Minnesota protest at the Governor’s Residence in St Paul, Minnesota by Lorie Shaull, via Wikimedia Commons

Protests which have recently arisen in parts of the United States and Brazilclaim that economic disruption caused by lockdowns imposed to halt the spread of SARS-CoV-2 are more dangerous than Covid-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus. Protestors in the United States, in…

US Capitol Building under repair, Washington DC, photo 2016 by Amy Cools

Like so many others, I’m deeply disturbed, and yes, frightened, by the recent diatribe by the president of the United States against the legitimacy and patriotism of four American Congresswomen, and by those who support his remarks. My native country has long been a beacon of hope and a refuge for those around the world who…

Happy Birthday, Ida B. Wells!

In the course of my journey following the life of Frederick Douglass in 2016, I was so glad to have the opportunity to visit the place in New York City where he may have first met the great Ida B. Wells. It was late 1892, and the fiery young newspaperwoman had published her controversial piece of investigative journalism in the New York Age on June 25, 1892. It was expanded and published as a…

Why Spinoza, Why Now? Essay Two, by Charles Saunders

Portrait of Baruch de Spinoza (1632-1677), ca. 1665, by an unknown artist

A Reason to Believe Spinoza’s Explication of the Many Facets of the Divinity In Ethics Part One – Concerning God

Plus, a Challenge for the Reader – Pascal’s Wager with a 21st Century Twist

(Find Part One here)

Spinoza’s convention of the Triumvirate of Substance/god/Nature as synonymous interchangeable parts will be adhered…

Happy Birthday, Aimé Césaire!

Aimé-Fernand-David Césaire was a poet, playwright, philosopher, and politician from Martinique. In his long life (he was born on June 26, 1913, and died April 17, 2008), Césaire accomplished much in each of these roles, a rare feat as the disparate talents required for each rarely coincide in one person.

In turn mayor of Fort-de-France, deputy to the French National Assembly for Martinique, and…

Happy Birthday, W.V.O. Quine!

WVO Quine on the Bluenose II in Halifax, Nova Scotia, photo courtesy of Douglas Quine

The emphases in my undergraduate education in philosophy were Ethics, Politics, and Law, so I didn’t spend as much time studying Willard Van Orman Quine’s great contributions to philosophy as I would like. However, if my focus was Mathematical Logic, Epistemology, Philosophy of Language, or Philosophy of…

Freedom and Judgment, Part 2, by Sean Agius

Brain illustration from The Principles and Practice of Medicine…’ by W Osler, 1904, public domain via Wikimedia Commons

Within the conclusion of a previous article titled ‘Freedom and Judgement,’I implied that certain factors such as mental health, culture, and family, knowledge, and so on play a decisive role in determining the actions that one chooses to perform. In this article (which will be…

Happy Birthday, Adam Smith!

Adam Smith statue on the Royal Mile in Edinburgh, Scotland

Adam Smith was a philosophical disciple and life-long friend of David Hume, and as such, I encountered his ideas regularly while I was following the life and ideas of Hume some years ago in Edinburgh. Smith wrote a moving account of Hume’s last days. I also encountered his ideas regularly in my undergraduate studies in moral philosophy.

S…

Remembering Joan of Arc

Joan of Arc by Amy Cools, about 1998. My mental image of her then was influenced by popular iconography and films, much of it which, as I did, portrayed her as tall, fair-skinned, and light-haired (think Ingrid Bergman’s 1948 film portrayal). In real life, she was somewhat short, dark-eyed with black hair, and had a sun-tanned, athletic body that, despite their describing it as attractive,…