APP Editors’ Note: i.e. kantgoldman lives in a driftwood shanty on a beach in the Pacific Northwest, where s/he creates practical philosophy, channels Immanuel Kant and Emma Goldman, and dances like nobody’s business.

Dear i.e.,

Time is running out to submit proposals for the APA’s small grant fund and diversity and inclusiveness funding programs. Proposals must be submitted by June 30. The APA board of officers will consider applications at its fall meeting in November, and funding will be provided in early 2018.

Small Grant Fund

Each year, the APA’s small grant fund, financed by the Eastern Division, awards up to $25,000 in grants for projects that benefit the profession. For this program, proposals for grants of up to $5,000 are welcome.

Learn more about the small grant fund and how to apply.

See past projects supported by the small grant fund.

2017–2018 Diversity and Inclusiveness Funding

In keeping with the APA’s mission and goals and the association’s longstanding commitment to addressing philosophy’s serious lack of demographic diversity, the APA board of officers has committed up to $20,000 in the 2017–2018 academic year to fund initiatives focused on this important issue. The board anticipates awarding either one $20,000 grant or two $10,000 grants through this program.

Learn more about diversity and inclusiveness funding and how to apply.

Please note that a project proposal may only be submitted once for either small grant funding or for diversity and inclusiveness funding.

We look forward to receiving your funding requests.

All the best,

Amy E. Ferrer
Executive Director

***

Monday 26 June 2017

Dear APA,

The project for which I am requesting APA Diversity and Inclusiveness funding is called Kantian Social Anarchists R Us, and its primary aim is to develop a radically new approach to diversity and inclusiveness, which says:

if you’re a Kantian social anarchist, then questions of diversity and inclusiveness are almost completely irrelevant to what really matters to people, their lives, and practical philosophy, since all genuine moral, social, and political problems are essentially either individual or structural problems about sufficient respect for human autonomy and dignity under conditions of advanced capitalism and coercive authoritarianism in contemporary neoliberal democratic states and state-like institutions, and not — except accidentally — problems about group identity or equality.

My proposal has five components.

First, the project is a six-day summer seminar — Monday through Saturday— for 12–15 people other than the instructor, consisting of philosophical presentations and discussions by all the participants.

Second, applications for admission to the seminar are open to any adult human being of any race, any nationality, any social or economic class, any religious affiliation, any political belief, any gender, and any sexual orientation, but especially open to young or not-so-young philosophers, whether in the USA or elsewhere in the world, who are trying to eke out a miserable living as contingent faculty wage-slaves, provided that s/he:

(i) is reasonably fluent in English, (ii) loves philosophy, (iii) thinks it’s really, really important to respect human autonomy and dignity, and resist human oppression, (iv) has a good sense of humor, and and (v) thinks that there is a surprisingly large number of assholes in professional academic philosophy.

Third, the $20,000.00 grant would be used to fund the domestic or international air travel, hotel accommodation, and food expenses for all of the participants, as well as the cost of renting an appropriate venue for the meetings of the seminar.

Fourth, the specific topic of the seminar is:

practical philosophy that critically investigates individual and structural problems of human oppression, especially in advanced capitalist social and political systems, and, in particular, problems of systematic worker exploitation and alienation, and other individual and structural violations of human autonomy and dignity in coercive, authoritarian states and state-like institutions, especially neoliberal democratic ones, and tries to develop really possible solutions to these problems.

And as a special case-study, we’ll consider:

problems of systematic worker-exploitation and alienation, and other individual and structural violations of human autonomy and dignity due to coercive authoritarianism, in the social institution of contemporary professional academic philosophy.

Fifth, and finally, here are the day-by-day topics and readings —

MONDAY

Topic: Classical Kantian ethics and moral theology

Readings: Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals, sections I-II; Religion Within the Bounds of Mere Reason, aka Religion Within the Limits of Reason Alone, part 3, division 1, sections I-III.

TUESDAY

Topic: Classical Marxist socialism

Readings: K. Marx, Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts ; K. Marx and F. Engels, The Communist Manifesto.

WEDNESDAY

Topic: Classical Social Anarchism

Readings: P. Kropotkin, “Anarchism” ; P. Kropotkin, “Anarchist Morality”; E. Goldman, “Anarchism: What It Really Stands For” 

THURSDAY

Topic: Neo-Socialism

Reading: Jacobin Magazine/B. Sunkara (ed.), The ABCs of Socialism.

FRIDAY

Topic: Neo-Anarchism

Readings: M. Bookchin, “Social Anarchism or Lifestyle Anarchism: An Unbridgeable Chasm”; J.C. Scott, Two Cheers for Anarchism.

Saturday

Topic: Pulling It All Together By Applying it to a Case-Study: Professional Academic Philosophy

Readings: J. Schmidt, Disciplined Minds; W, X, Y, and Z et al., Against Professional Philosophy. 

Saturday Night

Wrap-Up Dance, With Music by Stak5 Feat, Young Thug, and Mazi

***

I am so amazingly confident that this project will be fully funded, and thank you so amazingly much for your consideration.

I await your funding, and in the meantime, all best wishes,

i.e. kantgoldman

***

Against Professional Philosophy is a sub-project of the online mega-project Philosophy Without Borders, which is home-based on Patreon here.