Magnus Ferguson

Magnus Ferguson
Collegiate Assistant Professor, Society of Fellows
Gates-Blake Hall, Room 304
Office Hours: Autumn Quarter: Tuesdays and Thursdays, 2:30 - 4:30 pm, by appointment
Boston College, PhD, (2023); Columbia University, BA, (2014)
Teaching at UChicago since 2023
Research Interests: Ethics, 20th-Century European Philosophy, Social Epistemology, Feminist Philosophy

I study responsibility, social interpretation, and emotion using a pluralist set of philosophical resources, including: 20th-century European philosophy (especially Hannah Arendt), social epistemology (especially Bernard Williams), feminist ethics (especially Iris Marion Young), philosophical hermeneutics, and moral psychology. I am especially interested in the intersection of these themes, such as the ways in which emotions can open new self- and social-interpretive possibilities, and how social interpretation affects one’s perceived responsibilities.

Current research projects include an article on the normativity of fear in Aristotle and Hans Jonas; an article on Hannah Arendt and political speechlessness; an article on embodied hermeneutical resources and feminist epistemology; and a monograph on the moral emotion of being socially affiliated with wrongdoing. I also have active interests in James Joyce (especially his short stories) and Ancient Greek philosophy.
 

Recent Publications

“Feeling Responsible: On Regret for Others’ Harms,” Philosophy (2024) [Forthcoming]

“Does Forward-Looking Responsibility Have an Accountability Problem?,” Social Theory and Practice (2024) [Forthcoming]

“‘Wonder at what is as it is’: Arendtian Wonder as the Occasion for Political Responsibility,” Journal of the British Society for Phenomenology 53:3 (2022)

“Natality and Tradition: Reading Arendt with Habermas and Gadamer,” Arendt Studies 6 (2022)