Dr. John Harfouch

Associate Professor,
Pre-Law Advisor,
Philosophy

Contact

1310 Ben Graves Drive
Morton Hall
Room 222
Huntsville, AL 35899
Campus Map

256.824.2337
john.nale@uah.edu

Biography

Dr. Harfouch researches the mind-body problem and the concept of race. His recent essay, Kant's Racial Mind-Body Unions," argues that Kant's concept of race should be recognized as a solution to the problem. He is wrapping up a manuscript entitled "Another Mind-Body Problem: Mind, Body, and Race from Descartes to Kant," which argues that the mind-body problem is less a problem of beings that lack unity, but rather unifies minds and bodies that lack being. Earlier this year, Dr. Harfouch saw The Cambridge Foucault Lexicon appear, a volume of which he is co-editor.

Curriculum Vitae


Education

  • Ph.D., Philosophy, Pennsylvania State University, 2011
  • M.A., Philosophy, University of Memphis, 2008
  • B.A., Philosophy, The George Washington University, 2003

Honors & Awards

  • Liberal Arts Outstanding Teaching Award for Graduate Students Nominee, Penn State University, 2010
  • Harold F. Martin Graduate Assistant Outstanding Teaching Award Nominee, Penn State University, 2010
  • Penn State University Graduate Assistant Fellowship, 2008-2011
  • University of Memphis Graduate Assistant Fellowship, 2004-2008
  • Awarded 'Distinction' on Comprehensive Exam in Ancient Philosophy, University of Memphis, August 2005
  • The George Washington University, Presidential Scholarship, 2001-2003

Expertise

  • Modern Philosophy
  • Critical Race Theory
  • 19th and 20th Century Continental Philosophy
  • Social and Political Philosophy

Recent Publications

  • “Anticolonial Middle Eastern and North African Thought: A Philosopher’s Introduction” (Accepted with revisions at Critical Philosophy of Race)

  • “A Subaltern Pain: The Problem of Violence in Philosophy’s Pain Discourse.” Eidos: A Journal for Philosophy of Culture. vol. 3, no. 3, 2019, pp. 127-144.

  • Another Mind-Body Problem: A History of Racial Non-Being (SUNY Press, 2018) Reviewed in Choice Magazine, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews, Hypatia, Journal of the History of Philosophy

  • “Does Leibniz Have Any Role in the History of Racism?” Philosophy Today. vol. 61, no. 3, 2017, pp. 737-755.

  • “The Arab That Cannot Be Killed: Orientalism’s Genocidal Logic.” Radical Philosophy Review. vol. 20, no. 2, 2017, pp. 219-241.

  • “Kant’s Racial Mind-Body Unions.” Continental Philosophy Review. vol. 48, 2015, pp. 41-58.

  • “Descartes on the Disposition of the Blood and the Substantial Union of Mind and Body.” Studia UBB Philosophia: Descartes’ Scientific and Philosophical Disputes with his Contemporaries. vol. 58, no. 3, 2014, pp. 109.124.

  • “Arthur de Gobineau on Blood and Race.” Critical Philosophy of Race. vol. 2, no. 1, 2014, pp. 106-124.

  • The Cambridge Foucault Lexicon. Cambridge University Press, 2014. Co-edited with Leonard Lawlor.

  • “Divisions of Manet.” Philosophy Today. vol. 51, no.1, 2007, pp. 17-25.