• The Philosophical Legacy of Jorge J. E. Gracia
    6/28/22
    About the book: Fleeing Cuba in 1961, Jorge J. E. Gracia arrived in the USA at the age of nineteen without family and unable to speak English. Ten years later he was assistant professor of philosophy at the State University of New York at Buffalo. Over the next 50 years Gracia published dozens of books and hundreds of articles, making major contributions to numerous areas of philosophy: Latin American philosophy, race and ethnicity, Medieval philosophy, philosophical historiography, metaphysics and ontology, and theory of interpretation. This book is a critical response to Gracia’s work and a tribute to his legacy. It includes a comprehensive bibliography of Gracia’s philosophical works. Learn more.

Race and Ethnicity

Hispanics/Latinos

The topics related to race and ethnicity include philosophy, art, and literature. The foci are the philosophy of race, ethnicity, nationality, and the particular issues that come up in the context of Hispanics/Latinos in the United States and Latin America.

Publications>

Art and Literature

Interpretation

A particularly significant topic for the Capen Chair within art and literature is interpretation, that is, the understanding of art through literature, and vice versa, and their implications for the philosophy of race, ethnicity, and Hispanic/Latino identity.

Art Exhibitions>

Art Exhibition

Visions and Imagination: Cuban American and Argentinian Art.

On January 31, 2019, the Binghamton University Art Museum opened the exhibition, Visions and Imagination: Cuban American and Argentinian Art. Many pieces in this collection were donated by Jorge and Norma Gracia, each of whom spoke to the audience about some of the works they permanently gifted to the museum. Learn more.

2020 Publication

Cuba Before Castro: A Century of Family Memoirs by Jorge J. E. Gracia

 In this partly biographical and partly philosophical work, Jorge Gracia, who is the current Samuel P. Capen Chair and SUNY Distinguished Professor of Philosophy and Comparative Literature University at Buffalo, provides us with an autobiographical account of his youth in Cuba prior and right after the Cuban Revolution. His is an unmatching riveting and revealing account of his life that can explain his love with philosophy, history and Hispanic/Latino culture in general. Gracia applies his personal experiences to shed light on the emerging field of Latin American philosophy broadly construed in the USA. I do not know of any other living philosopher who has contributed as much and who has helped as many young philosophers in the said field. With his broad background in the history of philosophy, especially Medieval and Latin American philosophy, Gracia has given us an exemplary account of how relevant philosophy could be for exploring challenging issues related to culture, ethnicity, and race. In sum, I think that unquestionably Jorge Gracia can be considered the living dean of Latin American philosophy in North America. -- Vicente Medina, professor of philosophy, Seton Hall University. The book is available on Amazon.