Sally Haslanger — LLMpedia

Sally Haslanger
Timothy Brown · CC BY 2.0 · source
Name	Sally Haslanger
Birth date	1955
Birth place	Boston, Massachusetts
Alma mater	Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Princeton University
Occupation	Philosopher
Institutions	Massachusetts Institute of Technology; University of Michigan; Columbia University
Notable works	"Resisting Reality"; "Gender and Race"

Contents

Sally Haslanger is an American philosopher noted for work in metaphysics, epistemology, feminist theory, and critical race theory. She is known for analytic approaches to social ontology, concepts of gender and race, and interventions in debates involving Judith Butler, bell hooks, Cornel West, Kwame Anthony Appiah, and Martha Nussbaum. Her career spans major appointments and visiting positions at institutions such as Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of Michigan, and Columbia University.

Early life and education

Haslanger was born in Boston and raised in a context that intersected with intellectual currents associated with Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the broader New England academic milieu. She completed undergraduate studies at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and earned a Ph.D. from Princeton University, where she studied alongside scholars engaged with work by Saul Kripke, Willard Van Orman Quine, Hilary Putnam, David Lewis, and Donald Davidson. During graduate training she engaged with debates influenced by Simone de Beauvoir, John Rawls, Philippa Foot, G. E. Moore, and Immanuel Kant.

Haslanger has held faculty positions at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Michigan, and Columbia University, and has been a visiting scholar at places including Oxford University, Harvard University, Stanford University, and Yale University. She served in leadership roles in organizations such as the American Philosophical Association and contributed to editorial boards for journals connected to Philosophy and Public Affairs, Ethics, Hypatia, and The Journal of Philosophy. Her supervision and mentorship intersected with work by scholars in analytic philosophy and feminist theory influenced by Angela Davis, Iris Marion Young, Nancy Fraser, and Alexandra O. Plocinic.

Haslanger developed influential accounts of social kinds, proposing analyses of gender and race as socially constructed yet reality-affecting categories; her approach dialogues with theories by Judith Butler, Charles Mills, Patricia Hill Collins, Frantz Fanon, and W. E. B. Du Bois. She defends a realist social ontology that draws on analytic metaphysics from figures like David Lewis and John Searle, while integrating critical perspectives from Michel Foucault, Pierre Bourdieu, and Simone de Beauvoir. In epistemology Haslanger advanced standpoint-inflected analyses resonant with Sandra Harding and Stephen Turner, focusing on social positions and epistemic injustice as discussed by Miranda Fricker and Charles Mills. Her work on concepts—what constitutes 'woman' and 'race'—engages with debates involving Martha Nussbaum, Susan Moller Okin, Elizabeth Anderson, Amartya Sen, and John Rawls. She has argued for corrective political and moral practices drawing on ideas from Thomas Nagel, Ronald Dworkin, John Stuart Mill, and Hannah Arendt.

Haslanger's major publications include monographs and essays that appear alongside works by Judith Butler's "Gender Trouble", bell hooks's "Ain't I a Woman?", Patricia Hill Collins's "Black Feminist Thought", and Charles Mills' "The Racial Contract". Key essays and books include "Resisting Reality" and the widely cited "What Is a Social Relation?" which engage debates with G. E. Moore, Ruth Barcan Marcus, Hilary Putnam, Saul Kripke, and Elizabeth Anscombe. Her collected essays feature in volumes alongside contributions from Iris Murdoch, Philippa Foot, Christine Korsgaard, and Derek Parfit. She has contributed chapters to edited collections with editors and contributors such as Amartya Sen, Martha Nussbaum, Susan Moller Okin, Nancy Fraser, and Charles W. Mills.

Haslanger's scholarship has been recognized by prizes and fellowships from institutions including MacArthur Foundation-style awards, fellowships at National Humanities Center, and honors from associations like the American Philosophical Association. She has been elected to scholarly societies comparable to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and has received honorary distinctions from universities including Harvard University, Princeton University, Yale University, and Cambridge University. Her influence is cited in curricula at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of Michigan, Columbia University, Oxford University, and Stanford University.

Outside academic publishing, Haslanger has participated in public scholarship and activism with organizations and movements related to civil rights and feminism, collaborating with actors in advocacy networks connected to NAACP, ACLU, National Organization for Women, Black Lives Matter, and local chapters of Students for a Democratic Society. She has engaged in public lectures and debates at venues like The New School, Brookings Institution, Council on Foreign Relations, Tanner Lectures series, and has participated in interdisciplinary projects involving scholars from Sociology, Political Science, Law School, and Gender Studies programs.

Category:20th-century philosophers Category:21st-century philosophers Category:Philosophers of social science