Todd May Explained

Region:	Western philosophy
Era:	21st-century philosophy
Todd May
Birth Name:	Todd Gifford May
Birth Date:	May 13, 1955
Birth Place:	New York City, New York
School Tradition:	Continental
Institutions:	Clemson University
Main Interests:	Political philosophy
Notable Ideas:	Post-structuralist anarchism
Thesis Title:	Psychology, Knowledge, Politics: The Epistemic Grounds of Michel Foucault's Genealogy of Psychology
Thesis Url:	https://philpapers.org/rec/MAYPKP
Thesis Year:	1989
Doctoral Advisor:	Alphonso Lingis
Alma Mater:	Penn State University

Todd Gifford May^[1] (born May 13, 1955) is a political philosopher who writes on topics of anarchism, poststructuralism, and post-structuralist anarchism. More recently he has published books on existentialism and moral philosophy. He is currently a professor of philosophy at Warren Wilson College.^[2]

Career

In 1989, May received a doctorate at Pennsylvania State University in continental philosophy.^[3] For the first part of his career, he focused on French philosophy, before turning to moral and political philosophy. May has been teaching moral and political philosophy for over thirty years, beginning as a graduate instructor at Penn State before becoming a visiting assistant professor at the Indiana University of Pennsylvania. May has taught at Clemson since 1991, and he currently teaches as the Class of 1941 Memorial Professor of Philosophy.^[4] May also teaches philosophy to incarcerated people.^[5]

Art academic Allan Antliff described May's 1994 The Political Philosophy of Poststructuralist Anarchism as "seminal,” and he credited the book with introducing "post-structuralist anarchism,” later abbreviated as "post-anarchism.”^[6] May has published works on major poststructuralist philosophers, including Gilles Deleuze and Michel Foucault.^{[7] [8]} He also wrote books on more general topics accessible to the general reader, including Death,^[9] Our Practices, Our Selves, or, What It Means to Be Human,^[10] Friendship in an Age of Economics: Resisting the Forces of Neoliberalism,^[11] A Significant Life: Human Meaning in a Silent Universe,^[12] A Fragile Life: Accepting Our Vulnerability.^[13]

May, along with Pamela Hieronymi, was a philosophical advisor to the NBC television show The Good Place.^[14] They both had cameos in the final episode.^[15]

Personal life

May has three children, the youngest of whom majored in philosophy at university.

Bibliography

• Between Genealogy and Epistemology (1993). University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press. .
• The Political Philosophy of Poststructuralist Anarchism (1994). University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press. .^[16]
• Reconsidering Difference (1997). University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press. .
• Our Practices, Our Selves, or, What It Means to Be Human (2001). University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press. .
• Operation Defensive Shield (2003). Sydney: Pluto Press. . Written in collaboration with Muna Hamzeh.
• The Moral Theory of Poststructuralism (2004). University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press. .
• Gilles Deleuze (2005). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. .
• Philosophy of Foucault (2006). Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press. .
• The Political Thought of Jacques Ranciere: Creating Equality (2008). Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. .
• Death (2008). Acumen Publishing. .
• Friendship in an Age of Economics: Resisting the Forces of Neoliberalism (2014). New York: Lexington Books. .
• A Significant Life: Human Meaning in a Silent Universe (2015). Chicago: University of Chicago Press. .
• Nonviolent Resistance: A Philosophical Introduction (2015). Cambridge: Polity Books. .
• A Fragile Life: Accepting Our Vulnerability (2017). Chicago: University of Chicago Press. .
• A Decent Life: Morality for the Rest of Us (2019). Chicago: University of Chicago Press. .
• Exploring the Philosophy of Death and Dying: Classical and Contemporary Perspectives, Chapter 21: Death, Mortality, and Meaning (December 31, 2020, 1st Edition). Publisher: Routledge.

Further reading

• Web site: The poststructural anarchist . 3:AM Magazine . Richard . Marshall . July 12, 2013.

External links

• " Gay Rights Outlook Improves in South", a letter to the editor by May published in The New York Times on 1998-07-07
• Poststructuralist Anarchism:An Interview with Todd May. Perspectives on Anarchist Theory. 4 . 2 . 2000.
• Web site: Interview with Todd May by Jason Adams, discussing the impact of The Political Philosophy of Poststructuralist Anarchism. June 2012 . https://web.archive.org/web/20060712025030/http://community.livejournal.com/siyahi/1572.html . July 12, 2006 .
• Web site: May, Todd G. . Clemson University.
• News: Opinion How Should An Atheist Think About Death?. The New York Times. October 20, 2020. Yancy. George.

Notes and References

1. Web site: Curriculum Vitae . Clemson University .
2. Web site: Todd May . 2023-06-22 . Warren Wilson College . en-US.
3. Web site: College of Architecture, Arts and Humanities Faculty Bio. September 2, 2021. www.clemson.edu.
4. Web site: Bieber . Matt . February 16, 2023 . Todd May . The Believer.
5. Web site: January 18, 2019. The Philosopher Behind 'The Good Place' Explains How To Raise Good Kids. September 2, 2021. Fatherly. en-US.
6. Antliff. Allan. 2007. Anarchy, Power, and Poststructuralism. SubStance. 36. 2, issue 113: The Future of Anarchism. 56–66. 10.1353/sub.2007.0026. 25195125. 146156609.
7. June 2005. Gilles Deleuze: An Introduction. Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews . Pearson . Keith Ansell .
8. Anthony A. Defalco. August 14, 2008. A Review of "Philosophy of Foucault (European Philosophy Series). Educational Studies. 44. 77–82. 10.1080/00131940802225119. 218508263.
9. News: Cave. Stephen. September 12, 2009. Better late than never. Financial Times.
10. Fillion. Réal. April 1, 2010. Our Practices, Our Selves, or, What It Means to Be Human. Dialogue: Canadian Philosophical Review. 42. 1. 150–153. 10.1017/S0012217300004273. 170352140.
11. Weiskopf. Richard. Friendship and counter-conduct in the neoliberal regime of truth. Ephemera. 13. 3. 683–693.
12. Metz. Thaddeus. August 19, 2015. A Significant Life: Human Meaning in a Silent Universe. Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews.
13. Web site: Zaretsky. Robert. October 10, 2017. Matters Large and Small: Reading Todd May's "A Fragile Life" in the Wake of Hurricane Harvey. Los Angeles Reviews of Books.
14. Web site: Philosophy on TV: "The Good Place". Blog of the APA. January 11, 2018. June 21, 2017.
15. Web site: The Good Place was groundbreaking TV. Did its finale measure up?. VanDerWerff. Emily. January 31, 2020. Vox. en. February 1, 2020.
16. Widmer . Kingsley . Kingsley Widmer . Notes on Some Recent Anarchisms . . 21 . 88–97 . 1996 . 0196-4801 .