Michael Bray
Associate Professor of Philosophy
Education
PhD, The Pennsylvania State University 2002
BA, Sarah Lawrence College 1995
Courses: Fall 2009
Environmental Philosophy
Film Theory
Publics and Counter-Publics
Research
My original area of research was early modern political philosophy, work that shaped my dissertation, "The Science and Politics of the Efficient Cause in Hobbes and Spinoza," as well as a series of articles on the relationship between political and moral conceptions in early modern Europe and the social transformations involved in the early stages of capitalist development.
My present research focuses on the relationship (and disjunctions) between notions of public spheres and participatory democracy in political and cultural theory and the sociology of class relationships. I have recently completed an essay on the political theory and early films of Alexander Kluge and am currently working on the politics of the sociologist Pierre Bourdieu and questions concerning "populism" as a productive mode of politics.
Publications
"Openess as a Form of Closure: The Public Sphere, Social Class and Alexander Kluge's Counterproducts," under review
"Sympathy, Disenchantment, and Authority: Adam Smith and the Construction of Moral Sentiments," Graduate Faculty Philosophy Journal 28: 1 (2007)
"Macpherson Restored?: Hobbes and the Question of Social Origins," History of Political Thought XXVIII: 1 (2007)
"The Hedges That Are Set: Hobbes and the Future of Politics," Epoche 11:1 (2006)
