Philosophy
Faculty
Bill Martin, Professor
M.A., University of South Carolina
Ph.D., University of Kansas
Bill earned his Ph.D. at the University of Kansas, where he worked on continental philosophy, analytic philosophy, and social and political philosophy, and also on literary theory in the Departments of English and French. Bill wrote his dissertation with Gary Shapiro, on Derrida’s philosophy in relation to social theory. This became Bill’s first book, Matrix and line (SUNY, 1992). He has now published nine books, most recently Ethical Marxism: the categorical imperative of liberation (Open Court, 2008). Much of his work is motivated by an ongoing conversation between Kantian and Marxist themes, and he does extensive work in twentieth-century Marxism, including especially Benjamin, Adorno, and Marcuse, Sartre, Althusser, and Derrida, and, more recently, the work of Alain Badiou. He continues to engage with themes and figures in analytic philosophy, including Wittgenstein, the Vienna Circle, Quine, and especially Donald Davidson.
Bill has also written extensively on creative currents in rock music, and to a lesser extent in jazz and Western classical music. He is a musician himself, having played the bass guitar for more than thirty-five years, as well as writing music.
Bill’s current projects include a book on the post-Maoist current of Badiou’s philosophy, and a book taking account of Harry Frankfurt’s concept of “bullshit” in a social-political context. At some point he hopes to pull back momentarily from all of the political stuff to turn his attention toward writing a book on Wittgenstein and chess.
In addition to his vocations as a writer and musician, Bill is an avid bicyclist and chess player.
Office: 2352 N. Clifton, Suite 150, Office 7
Telephone: 773.325.1148
E-mail: woodbug1@aol.com