Alice Crary

Alice Crary (/ˈkrɛəri/; born 1967) is an American philosopher who currently holds the positions of University Distinguished Professor at the Graduate Faculty, The New School for Social Research in New York City and Visiting Fellow at Regent's Park College, University of Oxford, U.K. (where she was Professor of Philosophy 2018–19).

Alice Crary
Crary in 2017
Born	1967 (age 57–58)[1] Seattle, Washington, U.S.
Awards	Visiting Fellow, All Souls College, The University of Oxford (2021-22) Membership, Institute for Advanced Study School of Social Sciences (2017-18)
Education
Education	Harvard University (BA) University of Pittsburgh (PhD)
Doctoral advisor	John McDowell
Other advisors	Stanley Cavell, Hilary Putnam
Philosophical work
Era	Contemporary philosophy
Region	Western philosophy
School	Pittsburgh school Ordinary language philosophy[2]
Main interests	Moral philosophy, philosophy and literature, epistemology, feminist philosophy, feminist epistemology, conceptualism, animal ethics, disability studies, The Frankfurt School, objectivity
Notable works	The Good it Promises, the Harm it Does: Critical Essays on Effective Altruism (2023) Animal Crisis (2022) Inside Ethics (2016) Beyond Moral Judgment (2007) The New Wittgenstein (2000)
Notable ideas	Wider objectivity and rationality; critical animal theory; All human beings and animals are inside ethics
Website	www.alicecrary.com

Early Life and Education

Alice Marguerite Crary was born in 1967 in Seattle, Washington. During high school, she was a national champion rower at the Lakeside School (Seattle) in Seattle, Washington, and competed internationally and placed 6th in the Junior Women's Eight at the 1985 World Rowing Junior Championships in Brandenburg, Germany^[3], where she had been a 1983–4 exchange student with Youth for Understanding in the southern German town of Achern. Later in the 1980s, after studying liberation theology with Harvey Cox at Harvard Divinity School, Crary researched Christian base communities in southern Mexico and Guatemala. In the early 1990s, she was a teacher at the Collegio Americano in Quito, Ecuador. Crary earned her PhD in philosophy from the University of Pittsburgh.

Academic Career

Crary is University Distinguished Professor at the Graduate Faculty of The New School for Social Research in New York City. She has held visiting fellowships at Regent’s Park College, University of Oxford (2018–19), All Souls College, Oxford (2021–22), and the Institute for Advanced Study, School of Social Sciences (2017–18).

Philosophical work

Crary works in the fields of moral philosophy, feminism, animal ethics, and Wittgenstein scholarship. Crary’s work challenges narrow conceptions of rationality and ethics by incorporating moral imagination and ethical attention. Her first monograph, Beyond Moral Judgment (2007), critiques dominant moral paradigms through feminist and literary insights. In Inside Ethics (2016), she argues for broadening ethical inquiry to include disability and animal ethics, emphasizing non-anthropocentric moral concern. She has written about cognitive disability,^[4] critical theory,^[5] propaganda,^[6] nonhuman animal cognition,^[7] effective altruism,^[8] and the philosophy of literature and narrative.^[9] Her work is especially influenced by Cora Diamond,^[10] John McDowell, Stanley Cavell,^[11] Hilary Putnam, bell hooks,^[12] Kimberlé Crenshaw,^[12] Charles W. Mills, and Peter Winch.

Ethics and moral philosophy

Crary's first monograph, Beyond Moral Judgment,^[13] discusses how literature and feminism help to reframe moral presuppositions. Her Inside Ethics^[14] argues that ethics in disability studies and animal studies is stunted by a lack of moral imagination, caused by a narrow understanding of rationality and by a philosophy severed from literature and art.^[15][16][17]

Feminism and epistemology

Crary's work on feminism is critical of standard views of objectivity in analytic philosophy and post-structuralism. Drawing on Wittgenstein and feminist theory, Crary rejects the view that objectivity is value-neutral, and thus incompatible with ethical and political perspectives.^[12] . She argues that ethical and political perspectives enrich understanding, especially regarding marginalized groups. Her feminist epistemology promotes “wide objectivity,” recognizing affective responses as valid knowledge sources. According to Crary, these "ethically-loaded perspectives" invite both cognitive and ethical appreciation for the lives of women, in ways that count as objective knowledge.^[18] Like her moral philosophy, her feminist conception of objectivity is informed by Wittgenstein, who she understands as proposing a "wide" view of objectivity: one in which affective responses are not merely non-cognitive persuasive manipulations but reveal real forms of suffering that give us a more objective understanding of the world.^[19]

Wittgenstein

Crary is associated with the so-called "therapeutic"^[20] or "resolute"^[21] reading of Wittgenstein. In her co-edited collection of essays of such readings, The New Wittgenstein, her own contribution argues against the standard use-theory readings of Wittgenstein that often render his thought as politically conservative and implausible.^[22] Since then, she has contributed to numerous collections of Wittgenstein scholarship, including Emotions and Understanding^[23] and interpretations of Wittgenstein's On Certainty.^[24]

Animals in Ethics and Politics

Crary has promoted (e.g., in her 2024 Cambridge Union opposition^[25]) the view that humans and animals have moral worth above and beyond any quantitative valuation.^[26] This view is further expounded in the 2022 monograph Animal Crisis: A New Critical Theory co-written with Lori Gruen.

Philosophical Contributions and Influence

Alice Crary’s philosophical work significantly advances contemporary moral philosophy by challenging narrow conceptions of rationality and objectivity. Central to her contributions is the expansion of ethical consideration to include both humans and nonhuman animals, grounding her arguments in a rich integration of feminist philosophy, disability studies, and Wittgensteinian thought. Crary emphasizes the importance of moral imagination and ethical attention beyond calculative or instrumental frameworks, particularly in addressing animal ethics and cognitive disability. Her development of critical animal theory offers a new paradigm that situates animals within the ethical community, resisting traditional speciesist distinctions.

Secondary scholarship recognizes Crary as a pioneering figure in bridging analytic philosophy with feminist and critical theory approaches, notably influencing debates on objectivity and rationality. Her work has been cited as foundational in emerging discussions on non-anthropocentric ethics and the moral status of cognitively marginalized beings (see Bauer, 2015; Gruen, 2023; Smith, 2021). Furthermore, her critique of effective altruism has spurred renewed ethical reflection on prioritization and justice within animal advocacy movements (Adams & Gruen, 2023).

Selected Publications

• Animal Crisis: A New Critical Theory (2022, with Lori Gruen)

This monograph presents a comprehensive ethical framework that challenges speciesism and advocates for the moral inclusion of animals. It combines critical theory with analytic rigor to confront social, political, and philosophical assumptions underpinning animal exploitation.

• Inside Ethics: On the Demands of Moral Thought (2016)

Crary argues for a broader conception of ethics, highlighting the limitations of traditional rationalist accounts. She stresses the role of literature, art, and moral imagination in expanding ethical understanding, particularly in disability and animal ethics.

• Beyond Moral Judgment (2007)

This early work critiques the dominant paradigms of moral philosophy, arguing that feminist perspectives and literary insights reveal deeper ethical dimensions often overlooked in analytic philosophy.

• The Good It Promises, the Harm It Does: Critical Essays on Effective Altruism (2023, co-edited with Carol J. Adams and Lori Gruen)

This edited volume critically examines the influence of effective altruism on animal and social justice movements, questioning its assumptions and practical effects.

• The New Wittgenstein (2000, co-edited with Rupert Read)

A collection advancing the "resolute" reading of Wittgenstein, offering fresh insights into his philosophy with implications for ethics and political thought.

Public philosophy

Crary frequently participates in and organizes events for public discussion,^[27][28][29] such as public debates on the valuation of life^[30] and the treatment of animals and the cognitively disabled.^[31][32][33] She has also written for the New York Times.^[34][35]

Awards and Honors (chronological)

• John Harvard Scholarships, Fall 1987, Spring 1989, 1989–1990
• Phi Beta Kappa, Harvard College, 1990
• Bechtel Prize, Harvard University prize for the best undergraduate or graduate essay in philosophy (awarded for her honors thesis, “I Know I’m in Pain”), 1990
• Mellon Fellowship in the Humanities, University of Pittsburgh, 1991–1992
• University of Pittsburgh Teaching Fellowship, Fall 1992
• Alan Ross Anderson Fellowship (study of logic), University of Pittsburgh, Spring 1993
• Harvard University Certificate of Distinction in Teaching (Bok Center), 1993–1994
• University of Pittsburgh Teaching Fellowships, 1994–1997
• Charlotte W. Newcombe Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship (study of ethical and religious values), University of Pittsburgh, 1997–1998
• Laurance S. Rockefeller Visiting Fellow, University Center for Human Values, Princeton University, 2003–2004
• Faculty Fellow, Heyman Center for the Humanities, Columbia University, 2004–2005
• University Distinguished Teaching Award, The New School, New York (awarded annually to one member of the Graduate Faculty), 2005
• Convocation Speaker, The New School, New York, 2008
• American Philosophical Society Sabbatical Fellowship, 2009–2010 (declined)
• Alexander von Humboldt Foundation Fellowship for Experienced Researchers, Goethe University, Frankfurt, Germany, 2009–2010
• Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, Grant for a Renewed Research Stay, Humboldt University, Berlin, Germany, 2014
• Fellow, Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics, 2016–present
• Member, Institute for Advanced Study, School of Social Sciences, Princeton, NJ, 2017–2018
• Honorary Guest Wittgenstein Professor, University of Innsbruck, Austria, Summer 2018
• Visiting Fellow, Regent’s Park College, Oxford, 2020–present
• Visiting Fellow, All Souls College, University of Oxford, 2021–2022

Bibliography

Books – monographs

• Animal Crisis (Polity, 2022 (co-written with Lori Gruen), translated into Spanish (Ediciones Catedra, 2023) and forthcoming in 2024 in French (Vrin). Discussed at/on Yale Law School, Living Philosophy, New Books Network, The Philosopher, Wild Connection, Knowing Animals Podcast, Factually Podcast, Storytelling Animals Podcast, The Animal Turn Podcast, Species United Podcast, The Annual Weissbourd Conference, University of Chicago (May 2023).
• Inside Ethics: On the Demands of Moral Thought (Cambridge, Harvard University Press, 2016). (Reviewed in Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews Archived 2016-08-07 at the Wayback Machine and Hypatia as well as Environmental Philosophy, the Nordic Wittgenstein Review, La Vie des Ideés, Choice, the Kennedy Institute of Ethics Journal, and The Journal of Animal Ethics). The book's philosophical content and linkage with liberal arts education are discussed in recent interviews at the APA blog and Social Research Matters as well as Il Sole 24 Ore (in Italian). Inside Ethics is also the subject of a 2018 Symposium at The Syndicate Network featuring commentary by Stanley Hauerwas, Anne-Marie Søndergaard Christensen, Aaron Klink, and Avner Baz, with extensive author responses (convened and edited by Sean Larson, Timothy J. Furry, and Ethan D. Smith).
• Beyond Moral Judgment (Cambridge, Harvard University Press, 2007). (Reviewed in Analytic Philosophy, Choice, The European Journal of Philosophy, Ethics (twice), Hypatia, Metapsychology Online Reviews, Mind, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews, Philo, and The Pluralist and discussed at a 2008 "Author Meets Critics" session at the Eastern Division Meeting of the APA.)

Books – edited volumes

• The Good it Promises, the Harm it Does: Critical Essays on Effective Altruism (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2023 (co-edited with Carol J. Adams and Lori Gruen)). Foreword by Amia Srinivasan, with contributions by animal activists and academics criticizing the impact of effective altruism on the pro-animal movement and overlapping social justice movements. Reviewed in Sciences Humaines, EcoLit Books, L’Amorce: Revue contre le spécisme, oxford public philosophy, and Mind)
• Here and There: Sites of Philosophy by Stanley Cavell (Harvard University Press, 2022, co-editor with Nancy Bauer and Sandra Laugier, forthcoming in Spanish translation (Prensas Universitarias de Zaragoza (PUZ)). Reviewed in The New York Review of Books, The Nation, The LA Review of Books, and The London Review of Books.
• Wittgenstein and the Moral Life: Essays in Honor of Cora Diamond (Cambridge, MIT Press, 2007).
• Reading Cavell (New York, Routledge, 2006 (co-edited with Sanford Shieh)).
• The New Wittgenstein (New York, Routledge, 2000 (co-edited with Rupert Read)).

See also

• American philosophy
• List of American philosophers
• List of female philosophers