Gustavus Adolphus College

Professor
Gender, Women and Sexuality Studies

I fell hard for Wittgenstein as an undergraduate philosophy major. I was simultaneously perplexed, charmed, befuddled, dubious, challenged, and so importantly, engaged by Wittgenstein’s writings. Who could resist someone who wrote “What is your aim in philosophy?—To shew the fly the way out of the fly-bottle.” Years later (how many I will not say), his philosophy still guides my philosophical pursuits. Wittgenstein is my intellectual companion in all my work.

My interest in Wittgenstein is happily and productively combined with ethical matters. I have published two books on Wittgenstein (Oppression and Responsibility and Feminist Interpretations of Ludwig Wittgenstein). I have a new book entitled, Morality and Our Complicated Form of Life forthcoming in June 2008. I regularly teach PHI 247: Applied Ethics, a course in which we explore the moral depth of many of our common ordinary practices and activities. I enjoy teaching this course so much because we focus on acquiring skills that enable us to engage in moral inquiry and transform moral disagreements in productive, useful, and respectful ways. Lisa Heldke and I each regularly teach PHI 102: Racism and Sexism. Over the course of more than ten years, we have developed an interlocking set of readings with a particular theoretical framework that resulted in our publishing Oppression, Privilege, and Resistance.

Margaret O'Connor's Schedule

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