American political philosopher
Todd Gifford May[1] (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. He is currently a professor of philosophy at Warren Wilson College. [2]
Career
In 1989, May received a doctorate at Pennsylvania State University in continental philosophy.[3] For the first part of his career, he focused on French philosophy, before turning to moral and political 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.[1] May has been teaching at Clemson since 1991, and he currently teaches as the Class of 1941 Memorial Professor of Philosophy.[4] May also teaches philosophy to incarcerated people.[5]
Art academic Allan Antliff described May's 1994 The Political Philosophy of Poststructuralist Anarchism as "seminal", and credited the book with introducing "post-structuralist anarchism", later abbreviated as "post-anarchism".[6] May has published works on major poststructuralist philosophers, including Gilles Deleuze and Michel Foucault.[7][8] He also wrote books on more general topics accessible to the general reader, including Death,[9] Our Practices, Our Selves, or, What It Means to Be Human,[10] Friendship in an Age of Economics: Resisting the Forces of Neoliberalism,[11] A Significant Life: Human Meaning in a Silent Universe,[12] A Fragile Life: Accepting Our Vulnerability.[13]
May, along with Pamela Hieronymi, was a philosophical advisor to the NBC television show The Good Place.[14] Together they appeared as cameos in the final episode.[15]
Personal life
May has three children, the youngest of whom majored in philosophy at university.[5]
