Carlin Romano Explained

Occupation:Writer

Carlin Romano is an American writer and educator. Romano writes for The Chronicle of Higher Education.

Career

Romano was a writer for The Philadelphia Inquirer.[1] He teaches at the University of Pennsylvania's Annenberg School for Communication.[2] [3] He previously taught at Ursinus College[4] and Bennington College.[5] [6] [7]

In 1981, Romano reviewed books about philosophers for The Village Voice Literary Supplement[8] and one book for The New Yorker.[9] His writing has appeared in The Wall Street Journal,[10] The Nation,[11] The Weekly Standard,[12] Times Literary Supplement,[13] and elsewhere.

Romano contributed an article on Umberto Eco to Oxford University Press's Encyclopedia of Aesthetics. In 1993, Romano wrote an essay for Danto and His Critics entitled, "Looking Beyond the Visible: The Case of Arthur C. Danto," about art critic Arthur Danto.[14] In his essay, Romano sets up a dichotomy between "pragmatism" and "Hegelianism" and finds statements in Danto's books that he claims fit into one of these two schools of thought. The Institution of Philosophy: A Discipline in Crisis? (published 1989 by Open Court, edited by Avner Cohen and Marcelo Dascal), includes a proposal by Romano to set up a World Court of Philosophy in which appointed philosophers would stipulate philosophical conclusions.[15] [16]

He wrote America the Philosophical, a book with the main claim that the current United States has the "most philosophical culture in the history of the world."[17] [18] [19]

In 2013 he was awarded a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation fellowship.[20]

In June 2020 Romano was at the center of a controversy within the board of the National Book Critics Circle (NBCC), on which Romano has served periodically since the 1990s.[21] [22] In private communications between board members that were later leaked on social media, Romano objected to parts of the NBCC board's forthcoming statement in support of the Black Lives Matter movement and characterized the statement's overall message as "absolute nonsense".[23] The fallout from his comments, which some of his fellow NBCC board members viewed as racist, spurred waves of resignations by more than half of the NBCC board members, leaving the future of the institution and its leadership uncertain.[24] [25] [26]

Life

Romano was born in Brooklyn, New York. He received his Bachelor of Arts in philosophy from Princeton University.[27] He took an M.Phil. in philosophy from Yale University[28] [29] and a J.D. from Columbia University.[30] One of the Fulbright Scholars in 2002, he lectured at Smolny State University, St. Petersburg.[31] He was a Joan Shorenstein Center fellow in 1993.[32] and a National Arts Journalism Program Fellow at Columbia University in 1998.[33] In 1989 Romano received an Eisenhower Fellowship; in his case to travel to Israel.[34] He is an ongoing elected Fellow of the New York Institute for the Humanities at New York University.[35]

Controversial critiques

Martin Heidegger

In the October 18, 2009 issue of The Chronicle, in "Heil Heidegger!", citing Heidegger's well-known past Nazi affiliations, Romano was highly critical of Martin Heidegger's work and its continued acceptance amongst American academics and intellectuals.[36] The article was a review of the publication in English of French philosopher Emmanuel Faye's Heidegger: The Introduction of Nazism into Philosophy in Light of the Unpublished Seminars of 1933–1935 (first published in 2005, in France), highly critical of Heidegger for the same reason.[37] Romano called on librarians to stop stocking the collected works of the German philosopher, which appear under the term Heidegger Gesamtausgabe.[38] This controversial article renewed public dialogue about the relation between a person's politics and the merit of their work.[39] [40]

Catharine MacKinnon

The publication of "the most controversial by far"[41] Only Words book review, written by Romano, provoked a strong reaction with his imagined description of himself raping the author, Catharine MacKinnon.[42] This performative counterexample to MacKinnon's apparent contention that a rape in words is equivalent to a rape in deeds intensified the debate about legal sanctions against pornography. The philosopher Nancy Bauer in How to Do Things With Pornography described it as "a shockingly clueless and callous review."[43] David Gates wrote, "Free-speech stalwart Nat Hentoff jumped in—on MacKinnon's side, claiming Romano 'set out to debase [her] person, along with her ideas.'"[44] Romano said in defense of this review, "The worst thing that can happen to a flamboyant claim is to be tested by a good example."[45] [46]

Philip Roth

In a 2007 book review of Philip Roth's Exit Ghost, Romano revived the long-standing controversy over the extent that Roth's fiction is autobiographical. He used Claire Bloom's 1996 memoir Leaving a Doll's House as proof that Roth's books are "more autobiographical than imaginative."[47]

Richard Rorty

In a 2007 elegy of Richard Rorty, Romano's characterization of his subject's originality and creativity drew an extended refutation from the philosopher Brian Leiter.[48] [49] [50]

Books

He wrote America the Philosophical, a book with the main claim that the current United States has the "most philosophical culture in the history of the world."[51] [52] [53] [54]

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Carlin Romano. philly.com. October 26, 2023 .
  2. http://www.asc.upenn.edu/Faculty/Faculty.aspx?pageType=adjunct Teaching Adjuncts at Annenberg School for Communications U of P
  3. Web site: University of Pennsylvania course registrar . upenn.edu . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20121021221017/http://www.upenn.edu/registrar/register/PDF/comm.pdf . October 21, 2012 . mdy .
  4. Web site: Faculty. ursinus.edu.
  5. http://chronicle.com/weekly/v46/i34/34a02001.htm Extensive report on Bennington firing
  6. Wilson, Robin. Bennington President Fires a Professor Who Criticized Her Fiercely and Openly, The Chronicle of Higher Education, April 28, 2000
  7. https://www.nytimes.com/2000/06/09/nyregion/editors-note-668516.html The New York Times on Bennington firing
  8. "The Wittgenstein Industry: Saving Ludwig from His Friends" by Carlin Romano, Voice Literary Supplement, August 1982
  9. Carlin Romano, Books, The New Yorker, March 13, 1995, p. 103
  10. https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052702304186404576389523194617398 The Dalai Lama, Marxist? The brave spiritual leader's unusual blind spot.
  11. Carlin Romano,The Troves of Academe, The Nation,6/12/2000.
  12. Romano, "Semite and Anti-Semite: Hatred of Jews in the Arab world", October 22, 2001
  13. News: Romano. Carlin . May 21, 2008. Net libertarianism. The Times (London). April 28, 2010.
  14. Rollins, Mark. Danto and His Critics Oxford, UK: Blackwell, 1993.
  15. [Ralph Dumain]
  16. Ralph Dumain, Four-part extended review of The Institution of Philosophy: A Discipline in Crisis?
  17. http://lareviewofbooks.org/article.php?id=651&fulltext=1 "Eden of Clowns by William Giraldi"
  18. News: The Best of All Possible Worlds 'America the Philosophical,' by Carlin Romano . . June 28, 2012 . October 17, 2012.
  19. Web site: Caws. Peter. America the Philosophical by Carlin Romano. Philosophynow.org. January 26, 2014.
  20. Web site: John Simon Guggenheim Foundation – About. gf.org. May 9, 2013. https://web.archive.org/web/20130523184234/http://www.gf.org/about-the-foundation. May 23, 2013. dead. mdy-all.
  21. Web site: The National Book Critics Circle Has Imploded. June 16, 2020.
  22. Web site: NBCC Board Gutted as Fallout over Leaked Emails, Race Issues Widens.
  23. Web site: The National Book Critics Circle Has Imploded. June 16, 2020.
  24. Web site: NBCC Board Gutted as Fallout over Leaked Emails, Race Issues Widens.
  25. Web site: National Book Critics Circle Board Members Resign over Racism Allegations. NPR. June 15, 2020 . Mayer . Petra .
  26. Web site: Associated Press . National Book Critics Circle: president and five board members resign amid claims of racism . The Guardian . 2020-06-15 . 2020-06-18.
  27. Web site: Tomlinson . Brett . Power 101 – Princeton Alumni Weekly | The Weekly Blog . Blogs.princeton.edu . January 7, 2009 . June 13, 2012 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20110708051019/http://blogs.princeton.edu/paw/2009/01/power_101.html . July 8, 2011 . mdy .
  28. Web site: A Bloom in springtime « 06520 . Yalealumnimagazine.com . April 29, 2011 . June 13, 2012 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20110708033925/http://www.yalealumnimagazine.com/blog/?p=9829 . July 8, 2011 . mdy .
  29. Web site: Heidegger and hate « 06520 . Yalealumnimagazine.com . November 10, 2009 . June 13, 2012 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20120606175703/http://www.yalealumnimagazine.com/blog/?p=1706 . June 6, 2012 . mdy .
  30. Web site: 5 juni . Twitter / ColumbiaLaw: Literary critic Carlin Rom . Twitter.com . June 13, 2012.
  31. Web site: One of 815 Fulbright Scholars in 2002 . . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20091108165809/http://www.cies.org/schlr_directories/usdir01/us_dir_name.htm . November 8, 2009 . mdy .
  32. Web site: Former Fellows by Semester – Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy . Hks.harvard.edu . April 22, 2012.
  33. Web site: National Arts Journalism Program at Columbia University, past fellows. columbia.edu. June 14, 2012.
  34. One of 1900 Eisenhower Fellowships in 1989
  35. Web site: The New York Institute for the Humanities at New York University. Fellows.
  36. http://chronicle.com/article/Heil-Heidegger-/48806/ "Heil Heidegger!"
  37. http://yalepress.yale.edu/yupbooks/book.asp?isbn=9780300120868 Presentation of Emmanuel Faye's book
  38. https://web.archive.org/web/20121114140833/http://lareviewofbooks.org/article.php?id=651&fulltext=1 William Giraldi:"In a 2009 piece for The Chronicle Review he hollered support for the banning of Heidegger's books — the German philosopher was a Nazi — right after neglecting to understand that banning books is an exceedingly Nazi thing to do."
  39. http://www.slate.com/blogs/blogs/browbeat/archive/2009/10/23/carlin-romano-s-wrongheaded-heidegger-assessment.aspx In Slate, Stephen Metcalf addresses Romano’s argumentum ad hominem-inspired call to ban Heidegger's work as hate speech and to make fun of it, as Romano advocates in his essay
  40. https://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/09/books/09philosophy.html "An Ethical Question: Does a Nazi Deserve a Place Among Philosophers?"
  41. http://mtprof.msun.edu/Fall1994/TrtArt.html "L'Affaire MacKinnon"
  42. https://web.archive.org/web/20110122194914/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,979960,00.html "Assault by Paragraph"
  43. How to Do Things with Pornography by Nancy Bauer, Harvard University Press (2015) page 193 See also page 192.
  44. http://www.newsweek.com/id/111687 "Free Speech—Or a Hostile Act?"
  45. https://web.archive.org/web/20121114140833/http://lareviewofbooks.org/article.php?id=651&fulltext=1 William Giraldi:"Romano defended his minatory spew by claiming it was a thought experiment prompted by the book, but it was really just a starved attempt to thieve attention by trivializing crimes against women."
  46. News: RAPE BY THE WRITTEN WORD? . 1994-01-04 . David Streitfeld . . Washington, D.C. . 0190-8286 . 1330888409.
  47. http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2007/09/28/the-rake-s-progress-giving-up-the-ghost.html "The Rake’s Progress Giving Up The Ghost" by David Gates
  48. Web site: Richard Rorty (1931-2007): The View from Somewhere . June 29, 2007 .
  49. Web site: Leiter vs. Romano, Round 1 . September 10, 2007 .
  50. Web site: Carlin Romano: Total Ignorance of Philosophy is No Obstacle to Opining about Richard Rorty .
  51. Web site: Caws. Peter. America the Philosophical by Carlin Romano. Philosophynow.org. January 26, 2014.
  52. http://lareviewofbooks.org/article.php?id=651&fulltext=1 "Eden of Clowns by William Giraldi"
  53. Web site: By Jeff Simon . Amid rancor of U.S. politics, philosopher offers surprising thesis - Book reviews . The Buffalo News . 2012-05-28 . 2012-06-13 . https://web.archive.org/web/20120601141500/http://www.buffalonews.com/entertainment/gusto/books/book-reviews/article875387.ece . June 1, 2012 . dead .
  54. News: The Best of All Possible Worlds 'America the Philosophical,' by Carlin Romano . . June 28, 2012 . 2012-10-17.

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