Judith Palmer

Biography
Judith Pamela Butler or Judith Butler in short was born in Cleveland, Ohio on February 24,
1956. She studied philosophy at Yale University, and has received B.A. (1978), M.A. (1982) and
Ph.D (1984) degrees. She taught at various Universities such as Wesleyan University, John
Hopkins University, and the University of California where she was named Maxine Elliot
Professor of Rhetoric and Comparative Literature in 1998. She served as Hannah Arendt
Professor of Philosophy at the European Graduate school in Switzerland. She is well known for
her theories of the performative nature of gender and sex which were influential within
francocentric philosophy, cultural theory, queer theory, and some school of philosophical
feminism from the late 20th century. She is active in several organizations for human rights,
currently serving on the board of the Center of Constitutional Rights in New York and the
advisory board of Jewish Voice for Peace. She is the recipient of various awards such as the
Adorno Prize from the City of Frankfurt (2012) and the Brudner Prize from Yale University for
lifetime achievement in gay and lesbian studies. She has received nine honorary degrees and is
also a member of the American Philosophical Society. Her works has also influenced ethics and
political philosophy. As of now, Butler is the author of several books with her latest, Senses of
the Subject and Notes Toward a Performative Theory of Assembly (2015). Her books have been
translated into more than twenty languages.

Contribution to Philosophy
One of her greatest contributions to philosophy are her theories about the performative nature of
gender and sex, which generated some schools about philosophical feminism. Her theory suggests that
gender is exhibited by someone’s actions and behavior. Furthermore she said that gender itself is the
expression and is said to be the results of the said expression. She stressed however that gender is
always an action or a doing, though the deed cannot preexist the doer thus making the doer variably
characterized through the action. According to Butler, sex is performatively constructed because it
presents a distinction between individuals, this is also under the law of heterosexual coherence.

Famous Works
Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity (1990),Bodies That Matter: On the Discursive
Limits of ‘Sex’ (1993), Excitable Speech: A Politics of the Performative (1996), The Psychic Life of Power:
Theories in Subjection (1997), Antigone’s Claim: Kinship Between Life and Death (2000), Frames of War:
When Is Life Grievable? (2009), and Parting Ways: Jewishness and the Critique of Zionism (2012). also
one of the founding texts of the queer theory.

Famous Quote/s
All of those who inhabit the world have a right to be here by virtue of their being here at all. To
be here means you have a right to be here - Judith Butler
We lose ourselves in what we read, only to return to ourselves, transformed and part of a more
expansive world. – Judith Butler
https://www.azquotes.com/author/2269-Judith_Butler
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Judith-Butler
https://www.giffordlectures.org/news/general/biography-posted-judith-butler

Thomas Nagel
Biography
Thomas Nagel was born in Belgrade, Yugoslavia know now as Serbia, to a Jewish family. Nagel
arrived in the United States of America in 1939, where he was raised in New York. He received
a B.A. from Cornell University (1958), then at Oxford, where he went on a Fulbright Scolarship
(B. Phil. 1960), and got his Ph.D at Harvard University (1963). His main areas of philosophical
interest are philosophy of mind, political philosophy, and ethics. He has also written extensively
about metaphysics, the theory of knowledge, the philosophy of mind, and the meaning of life. He
is one of the founding editors of the journal Philosophy & Public Affairs, which had an important
effect in bringing concerns into the philosophical main stream. He is an author of a number of
books such as The View From Nowhere and Equality and Partiality. Nagel is well known for his
critique of the reductionist accounts of the mind, specifically in his essay “What is it like to be a
Bat?” (1974). He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and is also a
member of the American Philosophical Society. He has also received numerous awards such as
the Rolf Schock Prize in Logic and Philosophy from the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences,
and the Balzan Prize in Moral Philosophy.

Contribution to Philosophy
Thomas Nagel was given the 2008 Balzan Prize for Moral Philosophy for his new and rudimentary
contributions to contemporary ethical theory. For a deeper understanding and symmetry with his
philosophical perspective that revolves around the essential tension between objective and subjective
points of view. For his philosophical approach to some of the most important philosophical questions
which is unique and creative.

He is one of the leading figures in contemporary philosophy. His research gave a lot of fundamental
contributions that gave light to a number of problems in important areas. The center of his philosophical
inquiry revolves around the essential tension between the different points of view present in our life:
objective point of view and subjective point of view.

Famous Works
His first book called The possibility of Altruism(1970), problems of the ethical theory wherin objectivity
plays a big part in decision making towards moral decisions. His book called Mortal Questions(1979), this
book revolves around the questions of life, its experiences, the dilemmas of life. The View from
Nowhere(1986) is an attempt to put his creativity to the test, he attempted to questions relating to the
relationship between the mind and the body, and he also tried to go deeper into the meaning of
freedom of value of the principles of right and good.

Famous Quote/s

Philosophy is the childhood of the intellect, and a culture that tries to skip it will never grow up.
– Thomas Nagel

Each of our lives is a part of the lengthy process of the universe gradually waking up and
becoming aware of itself. – Thomas Nagel

https://www.azquotes.com/author/10647-Thomas_Nagel\
https://its.law.nyu.edu/facultyprofiles/index.cfm?fuseaction=profile.biography&personid=20156
https://www.poemhunter.com/thomas-nagel/biography/
http://www.balzan.org/en/prizewinners/thomas-nagel