Dr. Jeremy Barris

Dr. Barris is mainly interested in the nature of thinking and dialogue. By their “nature” he means the most basic truth of what they are. Thinking and dialogue are our means of seeking the truth of anything, and he is therefore also interested in the nature of truth itself. Truth includes the truth of ourselves and others, and here he is most especially interested in the nature of justice. In more traditional language, he is interested in the connection between rhetoric (the styles in which we say and think things), metaphysics (the most basic nature of things, including the nature of persons and of the relations between persons), and epistemology (the philosophical study of knowledge). In ways related to these fascinations, he is also strongly interested in the philosophy of sexual orientation and gender. He is currently working on a “logic of different logics” (the sense of different ways of making sense), and on the types of insight given in dreams and in humour. His favourite philosophers include Wittgenstein, Plato, Kant, Spinoza, Derrida, Chuang Tzu, Lyotard, Gaita, and Agamben, and he has also specialised in Marx, Freud, and Freudians.

Selected Publications

Deep Perception: The Direct Awareness of Individual Being and the Practice of Being Who We Are. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, forthcoming.

The Depth of Humor: Humor’s Privileged Access to Truth, Meaning, and Goodness. London: Palgrave Macmillan.

Sometimes Always True: Undogmatic Pluralism in Politics, Metaphysics, and Epistemology. New York: Fordham University Press, 2015.

The Crane’s Walk; Plato, Pluralism, and the Inconstancy of Truth. New York: Fordham University Press, 2009.

Paradox and the Possibility of Knowledge: The Example of Psychoanalysis. Selinsgrove, PA: Susquehanna University Press, 2003.

God and Plastic Surgery: Marx, Nietzsche, Freud and the Obvious; A Book. New York: Autonomedia, 1990.