Local Philosophy is a digital magazine and public philosophy organization.
The aim of Local Philosophy is to connect philosophical thinking with particular places in our communities, showing how philosophical ideas can arise out of or be applicable to them. Our ideas often arise out of our engagement with our communities and the places wherein we dwell.
Professional philosophers and philosophical thinkers tend to focus on matters of broad concern. We write about the nature of knowledge, elements of the good life, or the meaning of justice. This writing tends to have a certain academic style, written for journals or academic presses. This is important and meaningful work, but remains inaccessible to most people. Further, most of us do not just shut off our minds when we leave our offices or the classroom. We remain thoughtful. We live in particular places and find ourselves with insight into where we live, either because we see how our ideas are applicable to the world around us, or because where we live has generated new and interesting ideas. It is the aim of Local Philosophy to develop and share philosophical insight freely with the public.
People
Joseph Arel
Founder and Editor
Joe’s research focuses primarily on Hegel and contemporary “Continental” philosophy, though he teaches a variety of courses on topics including existentialism and applied ethics. He is a translator of German philosophy and ran the public philosophy program Philosophy in the Public Interest at Northern Arizona University before starting localphilosophy.org. Joe comes from a small town in Minnesota, though he has lived in a number of places since including Maine where he currently resides.
Board of Directors
Whitney Howell
Whitney is an associate professor of philosophy at La Salle University. Her research draws on existential phenomenology to consider how environments help us (or fail to help us) develop bodily and moral capacities. Her recent work has focused on urban environments and the distinctive material and social resources they offer their inhabitants. Originally from Nashville, Tennessee, Whitney currently lives in South Philadelphia.
Gregory Kirk
Greg teaches at Northern Arizona University. His research has been consistently oriented around the question ‘What is a good life?’ and, to the extent that we can determine what a good life is, what psychological, interpersonal, social and political conditions contribute to the accomplishment of a good life. These are themes that run through the Platonic corpus as well as in various texts of Aristotle, and these figures remain his principal focus of study and research. Greg is originally from Toronto but has been living in Flagstaff, AZ since 2012.
Jason Matteson
Jason’s teaching and research interests focus on understanding what it takes to live well and ethically, together, within complex modern societies. More narrowly, he works within environmental ethics, disability ethics, and the ethics of cities. Jason has taught courses on normative ethics, meta-ethics, economic markets, philosophy of law, and personal identity. He grew up in Kansas but has spent significant time in South Africa (in high school), Senegal (as a Peace Corps Volunteer), Tucson (for graduate school), Flagstaff (as a university instructor), and India (as a university instructor). He currently divides his time between family, teaching, and a textbook project on engineering ethics.