Rae Langton

Rae Helen Langton, FBA (born 14 February 1961) is an Australian and British professor of philosophy. She is currently the Knightbridge Professor of Philosophy at the University of Cambridge. She has published widely on Immanuel Kant's philosophy, moral philosophy, political philosophy, metaphysics, and feminist philosophy. She is also well known for her work on pornography and objectification.

Rae Helen Langton
Born (1961-02-14) 14 February 1961
Ludhiana, India
Alma materUniversity of Sydney
Princeton University
Spouse(s)Richard Holton
EraContemporary philosophy
RegionWestern philosophy
SchoolAnalytic
Main interests
Kant, feminist philosophy, metaphysics
Notable ideas
Pornography as speech act

Life, education and career

Langton was born in 1961 in Ludhiana, India to David Langton and his wife Valda. A carpenter and a nurse, respectively, they were at the time lay missionaries. She attended Hebron School, Coonoor and Ootacamund, India. In 1980 she moved to Australia and attended the University of New England in Armidale, New South Wales. In 1981 she enrolled at the University of Sydney where she majored in philosophy.[1] There she became interested in Kant. Her Honours thesis argued that Kant's scientific realism did not fit with his idealism.[2] She graduated with First Class Honours in 1986. She was one of a group of women honours graduates at the time encouraged to continue their studies by applying to graduate school in the United States.[3] In 1986 Langton moved to the United States and began graduate work at Princeton University in the philosophy department.[1] While studying social philosophy at Princeton she became interested in the philosophical debates on free speech and pornography.[2]

In 1990, before writing her PhD thesis, Langton moved back to Australia. From 1990–98 she was a Lecturer and Senior Lecturer in the Philosophy department of Monash University in Melbourne.[2]

Langton received her PhD in 1995 from Princeton.[1] Her thesis advisor was Margaret Dauler Wilson;[2] and her thesis topic was Kantian Humility.[4]

In 1998 Langton was a Fellow in the Research School of Social Sciences at the Australian National University. She moved to the United Kingdom in 1998. From 1998 to 1999 she was a lecturer at Sheffield University. From 1999 to 2004 she was Professor of Moral Philosophy at the University of Edinburgh. From 2004 to 2013 she was back in the United States as a Professor in the Department of Linguistics and Philosophy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.[1]

In 2012 she was one of several philosophers who submitted evidence to the Leveson Inquiry into press ethics.[5]

She was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in October 2013.[6]

In 2013 she joined the Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Cambridge and became a Fellow of Newnham College, Cambridge. In 2014, she was elected a Fellow of the British Academy, the United Kingdom's national academy for the humanities and social sciences.[7] She gave the John Locke Lectures on 'Accommodating Injustice' at Oxford University in 2015.[1]

In 2017 she was appointed to the Knightbridge Professor of Philosophy at Cambridge, the first woman to hold this professorship.[8]

She is married to fellow philosopher Richard Holton.[1]

Philosophical work

In 1990, in response to Ronald Dworkin's Is There a Right to Pornography?,[9] Langton published Whose right? Ronald Dworkin, Women, and Pornographers.[10] In it she argued that the positions Dworkin takes on segregation and affirmative action are not consistent with his position in defence of pornography.[11] The paper was voted one of the ten best articles in philosophy that year.[12] In 1993 she published her paper Speech Acts and Unspeakable Acts.[13]

According to Mary Kate McGowan, "Rather than focus on the harms allegedly caused, Langton explores the hypothesis that pornography actually constitutes harm."[14]

Her first book, Kantian Humility: Our Ignorance of Things in Themselves,[15] is based on her thesis. According to one reviewer, "In this perspective there is no idealism in Kant, rather what Langton calls epistemic humility."[16] Another reviewer described the book as "one of the most original and thought-provoking books on Kant to have appeared for quite some time."[17]

Many of the papers she published from 1990–99 were collected in her 2009 book, Sexual Solipsism: Philosophical Essays on Pornography and Objectification, along with her responses to some of her critics.[18] Regarding this book, Wellesley College philosophy professor Mary Kate McGowan wrote in Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews that "...Langton's crisp, clear, and careful argumentation proves that philosophy has much to offer the socially, politically and even legally charged issues addressed here... This is feminist scholarship at its very best. It's first-rate philosophy."[14] Langton has written more than fifty articles about subjects ranging from feminist approaches to pornography, to animal ethics, to hate speech.[1]

Awards and honours

Bibliography
  • Langton, Rae (2001). Kantian humility : our ignorance of things in themselves. Oxford: Clarendon Press. ISBN 978-0199243174.
  • Langton, Rae (2009). Sexual solipsism : philosophical essays on pornography and objectification. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0199247066.
  • Langton, Rae (Autumn 1993). "Speech acts and unspeakable acts". Philosophy & Public Affairs. Wiley. 22 (4): 293–330. JSTOR 2265469. Pdf.
  • Langton, Rae (January 1999). "Pornography: a liberal's unfinished business". The Canadian Journal of Law and Jurisprudence. 12 (1): 109–33. doi:10.1017/S0841820900002162. Pdf.
  • Langton, Rae; West, Caroline (September 1999). "Scorekeeping in a pornographic language game". Australasian Journal of Philosophy. 77 (3): 303–19. doi:10.1080/00048409912349061. Pdf.

References
  1. "Curriculum vitae – Rae Helen Langton". Academia.edu. Retrieved 20 December 2013.
  2. Gardner, Steve (2011). "Rae Langton". In Graham Oppy; N. N. Trakakis (eds.). The Antipodean Philosopher: Volume 2. Interviews on Philosophy in Australia and New Zealand. Lexington Books. pp. 85–104, 254–55. ISBN 978-0739166567.
  3. Green, Karen (2011). "Australian Women Philosophers". In Graham Robert Oppy; Nick Trakakis (eds.). The Antipodean Philosopher, Volume 1. Lexington Books. pp. 67–79. ISBN 978-0739127339.
  4. "Alumni PhDs by Last Name" (PDF). Princeton University Department of Philosophy. Retrieved 9 March 2014.
  5. Langton, Rae. "Submission from Prof. Rae Langton to the Leveson Inquiry" (PDF). Retrieved 20 December 2013.
  6. Staff (24 April 2014). "Nine MIT faculty members elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Among 198 elected this year to the prestigious honorary society" (Press release). Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Retrieved 8 March 2014.
  7. "Professor Rae Langton".
  8. "Rae Langton will be the next Knightbridge Professor – Faculty of Philosophy".
  9. Dworkin, Ronald (1981). "Is There a Right to Pornography?". Oxford Journal of Legal Studies. 1 (2): 177–212. doi:10.1093/ojls/1.2.177. JSTOR 764457.
  10. Langton, Rae (1990). "Whose Right? Ronald Dworkin, Women, and Pornographers". Philosophy and Public Affairs. 19 (4): 311–59. JSTOR 2265317.
  11. Langton, Rae (1990). "Whose right? Ronald Dworkin, Women, and Pornographers". Philosophy and Public Affairs. 19 (4): 311–59. doi:10.1023/A:1010619209334. S2CID 141072264.
  12. "Past Volumes". The Philosopher's Annual. Retrieved 9 March 2014.
  13. Langton, Rae (1993). "Speech Acts and Unspeakable Acts". Philosophy & Public Affairs. 22 (4): 293–330. JSTOR 2265469.
  14. McGowan, Mary Kate (June 2009). "Review: Sexual Solipsism: Philosophical Essays on Pornography and Objectification". Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews.
  15. Rae, Langton (2004). Kantian humility our ignorance of things in themselves. Oxford Univ. Press. ISBN 978-0198236535. OCLC 177345495.
  16. Esfeld, Michael (2001). "Rae Langton, Kantian Humility. Our Ignorance of Things in Themselves". Erkenntnis. 54 (3): 399–403. doi:10.1023/A:1010619209334. S2CID 141072264.
  17. Walker, Ralph (2002). "Review: Kantian Humility: Our Ignorance of Things in Themselves". Mind. 111 (441): 136–43. doi:10.1093/mind/111.441.136.
  18. Rae, Langton (2009). Sexual solipsism philosophical essays on pornography and objectification. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0199247066. OCLC 902008049.
  19. Kutchinsky, Serena (23 April 2014). "World thinkers 2014: The results". Prospect Magazine.
  20. "British Academy announces 42 new fellows". Times Higher Education. 18 July 2014. Retrieved 18 July 2014.
  21. Uppsala University. "Hägerström Lectures 2015". Retrieved 3 December 2015.


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