Below is the audio recording of Charles W Mills’ 2017-2018 Central Division Presidential Address. The talk is titled “Through a Glass, Whitely: Ideal Theory as Epistemic Injustice” and offers an important critique of the liberal contractarian framework which John Rawls had reformulated in his A Theory of Justice (1972), and in later work. Mills argues, however, that this “ideal theory” fails to recognize itself as presupposing an ideology which, contrary to its valued transparency, has nevertheless precluded consideration of the distinctive ‘dikailogical’ problem presented by the historical presence of marginalized groups. By its failure to do so, Mills concludes, it has deceived itself by denying epistemic, testimonial, and hermeneutical justice to the very members whose exclusion is to be rectified.
The text of the address is available here (requires APA login). The audio of the address is available here:
Charles W. Mills is Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at the Graduate Center, CUNY. He works in the general area of social and political philosophy, particularly in oppositional political theory as centered on class, gender, and race. In recent years he has focused on race. He is the author of numerous journal articles, book chapters, and several books. His books include The Racial Contract (1997); Blackness Visible: Essays on Philosophy and Race (1998); From Class to Race: Essays in White Marxism and Black Radicalism (2003); Contract and Domination (co-authored with Carole Pateman, 2007); Radical Theory, Caribbean Reality: Race, Class and Social Domination (2010); and Black Rights/White Wrongs: The Critique of Racial Liberalism (2017). In 2017-2018, he was the President of the Central Division of the American Philosophical Association.
About this series: The Blog of the APA is pleased to publish the Presidential Addresses and John Dewey Lectures given at the Eastern, Central, and Pacific APA Division Meetings which communicate the ideas and experiences that the renowned philosophers who delivered them felt are most important for people in the field to know. The series starts with the Presidential Address given at the 2017-18 Eastern Division APA Meeting and will continue on a bi-weekly basis. Each speech will be available on the Blog for one month from publication. The Blog wishes to thank the APA leadership and Jeremy Cushing for their support and assistance in making these recordings available.
Emily Rose Ogland is a postgraduate student at the University of Warwick, currently studying the philosophy of literary translation and working on her own translations of current philosophical texts. Follow Emily Rose on Twitter @er_ogland.
