Carlin Romano

Carlin Romano is an American writer and educator. Romano is a critic-at-large for The Chronicle of Higher Education. He teaches at Ursinus College and the University of Pennsylvania's Annenberg School for Communication part-time.

Carlin Romano at the 2012 Texas Book Festival

Career

Romano was a writer for The Philadelphia Inquirer.[1] He teaches at Ursinus College [2] and the University of Pennsylvania's Annenberg School for Communication.[3][4] He previously taught philosophy at Bennington College.[5][6][7]

In 1981, Romano reviewed books about philosophers for The Village Voice Literary Supplement[8] and one book for The New Yorker.[9] His writing has appeared in The Wall Street Journal,[10] The Nation,[11] The Weekly Standard,[12] Times Literary Supplement,[13] and elsewhere.

Romano contributed an article on Umberto Eco to Oxford University Press's Encyclopedia of Aesthetics. In 1993, Romano wrote an essay for Danto and His Critics entitled, "Looking Beyond the Visible: The Case of Arthur C. Danto," about art critic Arthur Danto.[14] In his essay, Romano sets up a dichotomy between "pragmatism" and "Hegelianism" and finds statements in Danto's books that he claims fit into one of these two schools of thought. The Institution of Philosophy: A Discipline in Crisis? (published 1989 by Open Court, edited by Avner Cohen and Marcelo Dascal), includes a proposal by Romano to set up a World Court of Philosophy in which appointed philosophers would stipulate philosophical conclusions.[15][16]

He wrote America the Philosophical, a book with the main claim that the current United States has the "most philosophical culture in the history of the world."[17][18][19]

In 2013 he was awarded a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation fellowship.[20]

In June 2020 Romano was at the center of a controversy within the board of the National Book Critics Circle (NBCC), on which Romano has served periodically since the 1990s.[21][22] In private communications between board members that were later leaked on social media, Romano objected to parts of the NBCC board's forthcoming statement in support of the Black Lives Matter movement and characterized the statement's overall message as "absolute nonsense".[23] The fallout from his comments, which some of his fellow NBCC board members viewed as racist, spurred waves of resignations by more than half of the NBCC board members, leaving the future of the institution and its leadership uncertain.[24][25][26]

Life

Romano was born in Brooklyn, New York. He received his Bachelor of Arts in philosophy from Princeton University.[27] He took an M.Phil. in philosophy from Yale University[28][29] and a J.D. from Columbia University.[30] One of the Fulbright Scholars in 2002, he lectured at Smolny State University, St. Petersburg.[31] He was a Joan Shorenstein Center fellow in 1993.[32] and a National Arts Journalism Program Fellow at Columbia University in 1998.[33] In 1989 Romano received an Eisenhower Fellowship; in his case to travel to Israel.[34] He is an ongoing elected Fellow of the New York Institute for the Humanities at New York University.[35]

Controversial critiques

Martin Heidegger

In the October 18, 2009 issue of The Chronicle in "Heil Heidegger!", citing Heidegger's well-known past Nazi affiliations, Romano was highly critical of Martin Heidegger's work and its continued acceptance amongst American academics and intellectuals.[36] The article was a review of the publication in English of French philosopher Emmanuel Faye's Heidegger: The Introduction of Nazism into Philosophy in Light of the Unpublished Seminars of 1933–1935 (first published in 2005, in France), highly critical of Heidegger for the same reason.[37] Romano called on librarians to stop stocking the collected works of the German philosopher, which appear under the term Heidegger Gesamtausgabe.[38] This controversial article renewed public dialogue about the relation between a person's politics and the merit of their work.[39][40]

Catharine MacKinnon

The publication of "the most controversial by far"[41] Only Words book review, written by Romano, provoked a strong reaction with his imagined description of himself raping the author, Catharine MacKinnon.[42] This performative counterexample to MacKinnon's apparent contention that a rape in words is equivalent to a rape in deeds intensified the debate about legal sanctions against pornography. The philosopher Nancy Bauer in How to Do Things With Pornography described it as "a shockingly clueless and callous review."[43] David Gates wrote, "Free-speech stalwart Nat Hentoff jumped in—on MacKinnon's side, claiming Romano 'set out to debase [her] person, along with her ideas.'"[44] Romano said in defense of this review, "The worst thing that can happen to a flamboyant claim is to be tested by a good example." [45][46]

Philip Roth

In a 2007 book review of Philip Roth's Exit Ghost, Romano revived the long-standing controversy over the extent that Roth's fiction is autobiographical. He used Claire Bloom's 1996 memoir Leaving a Doll's House as proof that Roth's books are "more autobiographical than imaginative."[47]

Richard Rorty

In a 2007 elegy of Richard Rorty, Romano's characterization of his subject's originality and creativity drew an extended refutation from the philosopher Brian Leiter.[48][49][50]

Books

He wrote America the Philosophical, a book with the main claim that the current United States has the "most philosophical culture in the history of the world."[51][52][53][54]

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References
  1. "Carlin Romano". philly.com.
  2. "Faculty". ursinus.edu.
  3. Teaching Adjuncts at Annenberg School for Communications U of P Archived September 20, 2011, at the Wayback Machine
  4. "University of Pennsylvania course registrar" (PDF). upenn.edu. Archived from the original (PDF) on October 21, 2012.
  5. Extensive report on Bennington firing
  6. Wilson, Robin. Bennington President Fires a Professor Who Criticized Her Fiercely and Openly, The Chronicle of Higher Education, April 28, 2000
  7. The New York Times on Bennington firing
  8. "The Wittgenstein Industry: Saving Ludwig from His Friends" by Carlin Romano, Voice Literary Supplement, August 1982
  9. Carlin Romano, Books, The New Yorker, March 13, 1995, p. 103
  10. The Dalai Lama, Marxist? The brave spiritual leader's unusual blind spot.
  11. Carlin Romano,The Troves of Academe, The Nation,6/12/2000.
  12. Romano, "Semite and Anti-Semite: Hatred of Jews in the Arab world", October 22, 2001
  13. Romano, Carlin (May 21, 2008). "Net libertarianism". The Times (London). Retrieved April 28, 2010.
  14. Rollins, Mark. Danto and His Critics Oxford, UK: Blackwell, 1993. ISBN 978-0631183389
  15. Ralph Dumain, review of Romano’s contribution to The Institution of Philosophy: A Discipline in Crisis? Archived June 15, 2009, at the Wayback Machine
  16. Ralph Dumain, Four-part extended review of The Institution of Philosophy: A Discipline in Crisis? Archived July 25, 2011, at the Wayback Machine
  17. "Eden of Clowns by William Giraldi" Archived November 14, 2012, at the Wayback MachineThe Los Angeles Review of Books, May 21, 2012
  18. "The Best of All Possible Worlds 'America the Philosophical,' by Carlin Romano". The New York Times. June 28, 2012. Retrieved October 17, 2012.
  19. Caws, Peter. "America the Philosophical by Carlin Romano". Philosophynow.org. Retrieved January 26, 2014.
  20. "John Simon Guggenheim Foundation – About". gf.org. Archived from the original on May 23, 2013. Retrieved May 9, 2013.
  21. https://www.vulture.com/2020/06/national-book-critics-circle-resignations.html
  22. https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/publisher-news/article/83592-fallout-continues-at-nbcc.html
  23. https://www.vulture.com/2020/06/national-book-critics-circle-resignations.html
  24. https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/publisher-news/article/83592-fallout-continues-at-nbcc.html
  25. https://www.npr.org/sections/live-updates-protests-for-racial-justice/2020/06/15/877385352/national-book-critics-circle-board-members-resign-over-racism-allegations
  26. Press, Associated (June 15, 2020). "National Book Critics Circle: president and five board members resign amid claims of racism". the Guardian. Retrieved June 18, 2020.
  27. Tomlinson, Brett (January 7, 2009). "Power 101 – Princeton Alumni Weekly | The Weekly Blog". Blogs.princeton.edu. Archived from the original on July 8, 2011. Retrieved June 13, 2012.
  28. "A Bloom in springtime « 06520". Yalealumnimagazine.com. April 29, 2011. Archived from the original on July 8, 2011. Retrieved June 13, 2012.
  29. "Heidegger and hate « 06520". Yalealumnimagazine.com. November 10, 2009. Archived from the original on June 6, 2012. Retrieved June 13, 2012.
  30. 5 juni. "Twitter / ColumbiaLaw: Literary critic Carlin Rom". Twitter.com. Retrieved June 13, 2012.
  31. "One of 815 Fulbright Scholars in 2002". 2001–2002 U.S. Scholar Directory for the Fulbright Scholar Program, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. Archived from the original on November 8, 2009.
  32. "Former Fellows by Semester – Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy". Hks.harvard.edu. Retrieved April 22, 2012.
  33. "National Arts Journalism Program at Columbia University, past fellows". columbia.edu. Retrieved June 14, 2012.
  34. [One of 1900 Eisenhower Fellowships in 1989] "Eisenhower Fellowships". Efworld.org. Archived from the original on April 24, 2012. Retrieved April 22, 2012.
  35. "Fellows". The New York Institute for the Humanities at New York University.
  36. "Heil Heidegger!" The Chronicle of Higher Education, October 18, 2009
  37. Presentation of Emmanuel Faye's book Yale University Press, 2009
  38. https://web.archive.org/web/20121114140833/http://lareviewofbooks.org/article.php?id=651&fulltext=1 William Giraldi:"In a 2009 piece for The Chronicle Review he hollered support for the banning of Heidegger's books — the German philosopher was a Nazi — right after neglecting to understand that banning books is an exceedingly Nazi thing to do."
  39. In Slate, Stephen Metcalf addresses Romano’s argumentum ad hominem-inspired call to ban Heidegger's work as hate speech and to make fun of it, as Romano advocates in his essay
  40. "An Ethical Question: Does a Nazi Deserve a Place Among Philosophers?" The New York Times, November 8, 2009
  41. "L'Affaire MacKinnon" The Montana Professor, Vol.4, No.3, Fall 1994 by Paul Trout
  42. "Assault by Paragraph" Time, January 17, 1994 by Richard Lacayo & Bonnie Angelo
  43. How to Do Things with Pornography by Nancy Bauer, Harvard University Press (2015) page 193 See also page 192.
  44. "Free Speech—Or a Hostile Act?" Newsweek January 16, 1994 by David Gates
  45. https://web.archive.org/web/20121114140833/http://lareviewofbooks.org/article.php?id=651&fulltext=1 William Giraldi:"Romano defended his minatory spew by claiming it was a thought experiment prompted by the book, but it was really just a starved attempt to thieve attention by trivializing crimes against women."
  46. https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1994/01/04/rape-by-the-written-word/57bc68b5-864f-485a-b7d2-293d9fe23fac/
  47. "The Rake’s Progress Giving Up The Ghost" by David Gates, Newsweek, October 1, 2007.
  48. https://www.chronicle.com/article/richard-rorty-1931-2007-the-view-from-somewhere/
  49. https://www.chronicle.com/article/leiter-vs-romano-round-1/
  50. https://leiterreports.typepad.com/blog/2007/09/carlin-romano-t.html
  51. Caws, Peter. "America the Philosophical by Carlin Romano". Philosophynow.org. Retrieved January 26, 2014.
  52. "Eden of Clowns by William Giraldi" Archived November 14, 2012, at the Wayback MachineThe Los Angeles Review of Books, 21 May 2012
  53. By Jeff Simon (May 28, 2012). "Amid rancor of U.S. politics, philosopher offers surprising thesis - Book reviews". The Buffalo News. Archived from the original on June 1, 2012. Retrieved June 13, 2012.
  54. "The Best of All Possible Worlds 'America the Philosophical,' by Carlin Romano". The New York Times. June 28, 2012. Retrieved October 17, 2012.
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