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Todd Gifford May (born May 13, 1955) is a political philosopher who writes on topics of anarchism, poststructuralism, and post-structuralist anarchism. More recently he has published books on existentialism and moral philosophy.

Career

In 1989, May received a doctorate at Pennsylvania State University in continental philosophy. May has been teaching moral and political philosophy for over thirty years, beginning as a graduate instructor at Penn State before becoming a visiting assistant professor at the Indiana University of Pennsylvania. May taught at Clemson from 1991 to 2022, where he served as the Class of 1941 Memorial Professor of Philosophy. Since 2022, he has been a lecturer in philosophy at Warren Wilson College. May also teaches philosophy to incarcerated people.

Art academic Allan Antliff described May's 1994 The Political Philosophy of Poststructuralist Anarchism as "seminal,” and he credited the book with introducing "post-structuralist anarchism,” later abbreviated as "post-anarchism.” May has published works on major poststructuralist philosophers, including Gilles Deleuze and Michel Foucault. He also wrote books on more general topics accessible to the general reader, including Death, Our Practices, Our Selves, or, What It Means to Be Human, Friendship in an Age of Economics: Resisting the Forces of Neoliberalism, A Significant Life: Human Meaning in a Silent Universe, A Fragile Life: Accepting Our Vulnerability.

May, along with Pamela Hieronymi, was a philosophical advisor to the NBC television show The Good Place. They both had cameos in the final episode.

Personal life

May has three children, the youngest of whom majored in philosophy at university.

Bibliography

• Between Genealogy and Epistemology (1993). University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press. ISBN 978-0-271-00905-6.
• The Political Philosophy of Poststructuralist Anarchism (1994). University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press. ISBN 978-0-271-01046-5.
• Reconsidering Difference (1997). University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press. ISBN 978-0-271-01658-0.
• Our Practices, Our Selves, or, What It Means to Be Human (2001). University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press. ISBN 978-0-271-02086-0.
• Operation Defensive Shield (2003). Sydney: Pluto Press. ISBN 978-0-7453-2063-2. Written in collaboration with Muna Hamzeh.
• The Moral Theory of Poststructuralism (2004). University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press. ISBN 978-0-271-02585-8.
• Gilles Deleuze (2005). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-84309-6.
• Philosophy of Foucault (2006). Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press. ISBN 978-0-7735-3169-7.
• The Political Thought of Jacques Ranciere: Creating Equality (2008). Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. ISBN 978-0-7486-3586-3.
• Death (2008). Acumen Publishing. ISBN 1-84465-164-9.
• Friendship in an Age of Economics: Resisting the Forces of Neoliberalism (2014). New York: Lexington Books. ISBN 978-0-739-19284-9.
• A Significant Life: Human Meaning in a Silent Universe (2015). Chicago: University of Chicago Press. ISBN 978-0-226-23567-7.
• Nonviolent Resistance: A Philosophical Introduction (2015). Cambridge: Polity Books. ISBN 978-0-745-67118-5.
• A Fragile Life: Accepting Our Vulnerability (2017). Chicago: University of Chicago Press. ISBN 978-0-226-43995-2.
• A Decent Life: Morality for the Rest of Us (2019). Chicago: University of Chicago Press. ISBN 978-0-226-60974-4.
• Exploring the Philosophy of Death and Dying: Classical and Contemporary Perspectives, Chapter 21: Death, Mortality, and Meaning (December 31, 2020, 1st Edition). Publisher: Routledge.
• Should We Go Extinct?: A Philosophical Dilemma for Our Unbearable Times (2024). New York, Crown Publishing Group. ISBN 978-0-593-79872-0.

References

1. ^ May, Todd Gifford (2016). "Curriculum Vitae" (PDF). Clemson University. Archived (PDF) from the original on January 8, 2018. Retrieved December 10, 2024.
2. ^ May, Todd Gifford (March 2023). "Curriculum Vitae" (PDF). Warren Wilson College. Archived (PDF) from the original on July 15, 2024. Retrieved December 10, 2024.
3. "College of Architecture, Arts and Humanities | Faculty Bio". www.clemson.edu. Archived from the original on September 2, 2021. Retrieved September 2, 2021.
4. Bieber, Matt (February 16, 2023). "Todd May". The Believer. Archived from the original on January 8, 2018. Retrieved January 7, 2018.
5. "Todd May". Warren Wilson College. Archived from the original on June 8, 2023. Retrieved June 22, 2023.
6. ^ "The Philosopher Behind 'The Good Place' Explains How To Raise Good Kids". Fatherly. January 18, 2019. Archived from the original on September 2, 2021. Retrieved September 2, 2021.
7. Antliff, Allan (2007). "Anarchy, Power, and Poststructuralism". SubStance. 36 (2, issue 113: The Future of Anarchism): 56–66. doi:10.1353/sub.2007.0026. JSTOR 25195125. S2CID 146156609.
8. Pearson, Keith Ansell (June 2005). "Gilles Deleuze: An Introduction". Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews. Archived from the original on January 7, 2018. Retrieved January 7, 2018.
9. Anthony A. Defalco (August 14, 2008). "A Review of "Philosophy of Foucault (European Philosophy Series)". Educational Studies. 44: 77–82. doi:10.1080/00131940802225119. S2CID 218508263.
10. Cave, Stephen (September 12, 2009). "Better late than never". Financial Times. Archived from the original on October 27, 2019. Retrieved January 7, 2018.
11. Fillion, Réal (April 1, 2010). "Our Practices, Our Selves, or, What It Means to Be Human". Dialogue: Canadian Philosophical Review. 42 (1): 150–153. doi:10.1017/S0012217300004273. S2CID 170352140.
12. Weiskopf, Richard. "Friendship and counter-conduct in the neoliberal regime of truth". Ephemera. 13 (3): 683–693. Archived from the original on January 5, 2021. Retrieved January 7, 2018.
13. Metz, Thaddeus (August 19, 2015). "A Significant Life: Human Meaning in a Silent Universe". Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews.
14. Zaretsky, Robert (October 10, 2017). "Matters Large and Small: Reading Todd May's "A Fragile Life" in the Wake of Hurricane Harvey". Los Angeles Reviews of Books. Archived from the original on November 26, 2020. Retrieved January 7, 2018.
15. "Philosophy on TV: "The Good Place"". Blog of the APA. June 21, 2017. Archived from the original on January 31, 2018. Retrieved January 11, 2018.
16. VanDerWerff, Emily (January 31, 2020). "The Good Place was groundbreaking TV. Did its finale measure up?". Vox. Archived from the original on February 1, 2020. Retrieved February 1, 2020.
17. Widmer, Kingsley (1996). "Notes on Some Recent Anarchisms". Social Anarchism (21): 88–97. ISSN 0196-4801.

Further reading

• Marshall, Richard (July 12, 2013). "The poststructural anarchist". 3:AM Magazine.

External links

• "Gay Rights Outlook Improves in South", a letter to the editor by May published in The New York Times on 1998-07-07
• "Poststructuralist Anarchism:An Interview with Todd May" (PDF). Perspectives on Anarchist Theory. 4 (2). 2000.
• "Interview with Todd May by Jason Adams, discussing the impact of The Political Philosophy of Poststructuralist Anarchism". June 2012. Archived from the original on July 12, 2006.
• "May, Todd G." Clemson University.
• Yancy, George (October 20, 2020). "Opinion How Should An Atheist Think About Death?". The New York Times.

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