:Todd May

{{Infobox philosopher

| region = Western philosophy

| era = 21st-century philosophy

| image =

| name = Todd May

| birth_name = Todd Gifford May

| birth_date = {{birth date and age|May 13, 1955}}

| birth_place = New York City, New York

| death_date =

| death_place =

| school_tradition = Continental

| institutions = Clemson University

| main_interests = Political philosophy

| notable_ideas = Post-structuralist anarchism

| spouse =

| 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

| doctoral_students =

| education =

| alma_mater = Penn State University

| awards =

}}

Todd Gifford May{{cite web |last=May |first=Todd Gifford |date=2016 |title=Curriculum Vitae |url=https://media.clemson.edu/caah/upload/files/386.CV.2016.03.18.9.52.28.pdf |access-date=10 December 2024 |website=Clemson University |publisher= |archive-date=January 8, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180108062632/https://media.clemson.edu/caah/upload/files/386.CV.2016.03.18.9.52.28.pdf |url-status=live }}{{Cite web |last=May |first=Todd Gifford |date=March 2023 |title=Curriculum Vitae |url=https://www.warren-wilson.edu/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/CV.pdf |access-date=10 December 2024 |website=Warren Wilson College |archive-date=July 15, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240715225358/https://warren-wilson.edu/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/CV.pdf |url-status=live }} (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.

Career

In 1989, May received a doctorate at Pennsylvania State University in continental philosophy.{{Cite web|title=College of Architecture, Arts and Humanities {{!}} Faculty Bio|url=https://www.clemson.edu/caah/departments/philosophy-religion/people/facultyBio.html?id=386|access-date=September 2, 2021|website=www.clemson.edu|archive-date=September 2, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210902191552/https://www.clemson.edu/caah/departments/philosophy-religion/people/facultyBio.html?id=386|url-status=dead}} 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 taught at Clemson from 1991 to 2022, where he served as the Class of 1941 Memorial Professor of Philosophy.{{cite web |last=Bieber |first=Matt |date=February 16, 2023 |title=Todd May |url=https://www.believermag.com/exclusives/?read=interview_may |work=The Believer |access-date=January 7, 2018 |archive-date=January 8, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180108062636/https://www.believermag.com/exclusives/?read=interview_may |url-status=live }} Since 2022, he has been a lecturer in philosophy at Warren Wilson College.{{Cite web |title=Todd May |url=https://www.warren-wilson.edu/people/todd-may/ |access-date=2023-06-22 |website=Warren Wilson College |language=en-US |archive-date=June 8, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230608081533/https://warren-wilson.edu/people/todd-may/ |url-status=live }} May also teaches philosophy to incarcerated people.{{Cite web|date=January 18, 2019|title=The Philosopher Behind 'The Good Place' Explains How To Raise Good Kids|url=https://www.fatherly.com/play/the-good-place-todd-may-philosophy/|access-date=September 2, 2021|website=Fatherly|language=en-US|archive-date=September 2, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210902191549/https://www.fatherly.com/play/the-good-place-todd-may-philosophy/|url-status=live}}

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."{{cite journal|last=Antliff|first=Allan|date=2007|title=Anarchy, Power, and Poststructuralism|journal=SubStance|volume=36|issue=2, issue 113: The Future of Anarchism|pages=56–66|doi=10.1353/sub.2007.0026|jstor=25195125|s2cid=146156609}} May has published works on major poststructuralist philosophers, including Gilles Deleuze and Michel Foucault.{{cite journal|date=June 2005|title=Gilles Deleuze: An Introduction|url=http://ndpr.nd.edu/news/gilles-deleuze-an-introduction/|journal=Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews|last1=Pearson|first1=Keith Ansell|archive-date=January 7, 2018|access-date=January 7, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180107202653/http://ndpr.nd.edu/news/gilles-deleuze-an-introduction/|url-status=live}}{{cite journal|author=Anthony A. Defalco|date=August 14, 2008|title=A Review of "Philosophy of Foucault (European Philosophy Series)|journal=Educational Studies|volume=44|pages=77–82|doi=10.1080/00131940802225119|s2cid=218508263}} He also wrote books on more general topics accessible to the general reader, including Death,{{cite news|last=Cave|first=Stephen|date=September 12, 2009|title=Better late than never|work=Financial Times|url=https://www.ft.com/content/809ced06-9e6b-11de-b0aa-00144feabdc0|archive-date=October 27, 2019|access-date=January 7, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191027022653/https://www.ft.com/content/809ced06-9e6b-11de-b0aa-00144feabdc0|url-status=live}} Our Practices, Our Selves, or, What It Means to Be Human,{{cite journal|last=Fillion|first=Réal|date=April 1, 2010|title=Our Practices, Our Selves, or, What It Means to Be Human|journal=Dialogue: Canadian Philosophical Review|volume=42|issue=1|pages=150–153|doi=10.1017/S0012217300004273|s2cid=170352140}} Friendship in an Age of Economics: Resisting the Forces of Neoliberalism,{{cite journal|last=Weiskopf|first=Richard|title=Friendship and counter-conduct in the neoliberal regime of truth|url=http://www.ephemerajournal.org/contribution/friendship-and-counter-conduct-neoliberal-regime-truth|journal=Ephemera|volume=13|issue=3|pages=683–693|archive-date=January 5, 2021|access-date=January 7, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210105171545/http://www.ephemerajournal.org/contribution/friendship-and-counter-conduct-neoliberal-regime-truth|url-status=live}} A Significant Life: Human Meaning in a Silent Universe,{{cite journal|last=Metz|first=Thaddeus|date=August 19, 2015|title=A Significant Life: Human Meaning in a Silent Universe|url=http://ndpr.nd.edu/news/a-significant-life-human-meaning-in-a-silent-universe/|journal=Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews}} A Fragile Life: Accepting Our Vulnerability.{{cite web|last=Zaretsky|first=Robert|date=October 10, 2017|title=Matters Large and Small: Reading Todd May's "A Fragile Life" in the Wake of Hurricane Harvey|url=https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/matters-large-and-small-reading-todd-mays-a-fragile-life-in-the-wake-of-hurricane-harvey/|work=Los Angeles Reviews of Books|access-date=January 7, 2018|archive-date=November 26, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201126201802/https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/matters-large-and-small-reading-todd-mays-a-fragile-life-in-the-wake-of-hurricane-harvey|url-status=live}}

May, along with Pamela Hieronymi, was a philosophical advisor to the NBC television show The Good Place.{{cite web|title=Philosophy on TV: "The Good Place"|url=https://blog.apaonline.org/2017/06/21/philosophy-on-tv-the-good-place/|website=Blog of the APA|accessdate=January 11, 2018|date=June 21, 2017|archive-date=January 31, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180131014551/https://blog.apaonline.org/2017/06/21/philosophy-on-tv-the-good-place/|url-status=live}} They both had cameos in the final episode.{{Cite web|url=https://www.vox.com/culture/2020/1/31/21116261/the-good-place-series-finale-recap-whenever-youre-ready-season-4-door|title=The Good Place was groundbreaking TV. Did its finale measure up?|last=VanDerWerff|first=Emily|date=January 31, 2020|website=Vox|language=en|access-date=February 1, 2020|archive-date=February 1, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200201025109/https://www.vox.com/culture/2020/1/31/21116261/the-good-place-series-finale-recap-whenever-youre-ready-season-4-door|url-status=live}}

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. {{ISBN|978-0-271-00905-6}}.
The Political Philosophy of Poststructuralist Anarchism (1994). University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press. {{ISBN|978-0-271-01046-5}}.{{Cite journal |last1=Widmer |first1=Kingsley |author-link=Kingsley Widmer |title=Notes on Some Recent Anarchisms |journal=Social Anarchism |issue=21 |pages=88–97 |date=1996 |issn=0196-4801 }}
Reconsidering Difference (1997). University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press. {{ISBN|978-0-271-01658-0}}.
Our Practices, Our Selves, or, What It Means to Be Human (2001). University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press. {{ISBN|978-0-271-02086-0}}.
Operation Defensive Shield (2003). Sydney: Pluto Press. {{ISBN|978-0-7453-2063-2}}. Written in collaboration with Muna Hamzeh.
The Moral Theory of Poststructuralism (2004). University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press. {{ISBN|978-0-271-02585-8}}.
Gilles Deleuze (2005). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. {{ISBN|978-0-521-84309-6}}.
Philosophy of Foucault (2006). Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press. {{ISBN|978-0-7735-3169-7}}.
The Political Thought of Jacques Ranciere: Creating Equality (2008). Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. {{ISBN|978-0-7486-3586-3}}.
Death (2008). Acumen Publishing. {{ISBN|1-84465-164-9}}.
Friendship in an Age of Economics: Resisting the Forces of Neoliberalism (2014). New York: Lexington Books. {{ISBN|978-0-739-19284-9}}.
A Significant Life: Human Meaning in a Silent Universe (2015). Chicago: University of Chicago Press. {{ISBN|978-0-226-23567-7}}.
Nonviolent Resistance: A Philosophical Introduction (2015). Cambridge: Polity Books. {{ISBN|978-0-745-67118-5}}.
A Fragile Life: Accepting Our Vulnerability (2017). Chicago: University of Chicago Press. {{ISBN|978-0-226-43995-2}}.
A Decent Life: Morality for the Rest of Us (2019). Chicago: University of Chicago Press. {{ISBN|978-0-226-60974-4}}.
Exploring the Philosophy of Death and Dying: Classical and Contemporary Perspectives, Chapter 21: Death, Mortality, and Meaning (December 31, 2020, 1st Edition). Publisher: Routledge.
Should We Go Extinct?: A Philosophical Dilemma for Our Unbearable Times (2024). New York, Crown Publishing Group. ISBN 978-0-593-79872-0.

References

External links

"[https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D0CEFD91F3EF93AA35754C0A96E958260&sec=&spon=&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink Gay Rights Outlook Improves in South]", a letter to the editor by May published in The New York Times on 1998-07-07
{{cite journal |url=http://www.cwmorse.org/archives/perspectives.on.anarchist.theory.vol4.no2.fall2000.pdf|title=Poststructuralist Anarchism:An Interview with Todd May|journal= Perspectives on Anarchist Theory|volume =4 |number=2 |date= 2000}}
{{cite web|url=http://community.livejournal.com/siyahi/1572.html|title=Interview with Todd May by Jason Adams, discussing the impact of The Political Philosophy of Poststructuralist Anarchism|date=June 2012 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20060712025030/http://community.livejournal.com/siyahi/1572.html |archivedate= July 12, 2006 }}
{{cite web |url=http://www.clemson.edu/caah/departments/philosophy-religion/people/facultyBio.html?id=386|title= May, Todd G. |work=Clemson University}}
{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/20/opinion/philosophy-death-atheism.html|title=Opinion How Should An Atheist Think About Death?|newspaper=The New York Times|date=October 20, 2020|last1=Yancy|first1=George}}