Allen Porter
Allen Porter is a philosopher from New Orleans with interests in phenomenology, ethics, politics, the philosophy of technology, and the history of philosophy. He will assume the position of Assistant Professor of Philosophy in the Center for Arts and Letters at the University of Austin in the summer of 2025.
Dr. Porter is a postdoctoral associate at the University of Florida’s Hamilton Center for Classical and Civic Education. Before that, he was a John and Daria Barry Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Princeton University’s James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions. He received his Ph.D. in Philosophy from Rice University in 2021. His dissertation, Social Justice Leftism as Deconstructive Postmodernism, analyzed the philosophical foundations of the political ideology nowadays known as “wokeism” or “woke leftism.” He holds a M.A. in Philosophy from Tulane University and a B.A. in German from Princeton University.
Dr. Porter is most known for his work on transhumanism and posthumanism. He is currently producing an edited volume, Phenomenology & Posthumanism(s), for Springer’s Philosophical Studies in Contemporary Culture book series, and he will contribute the chapter “The Future of Transhumanism” for the new edition of Michel Tibayrenc’s On Human Nature. Dr. Porter’s other lines of research and publication projects are united by his concern to elaborate and apply the Heideggerian existential
phenomenology which provides the primary philosophical and methodological ground for all his work.
Dr. Porter has been published in peer-reviewed journals including Interpretation: A Journal of Political Philosophy, The Journal of Medicine and Philosophy, and the International Journal of Philosophical Studies, as well as in The Wall Street Journal, Law & Liberty, and RealClearPolitics, among others. He is a member of the Editorial Advisory Board of The Journal of Medicine and Philosophy. When not preoccupied with philosophy, professional matters, politics, or the mundane necessities of everyday life, he enjoys powerlifting, videogaming, IPAs, and watching Red Letter Media.
Address: Houston, Texas, United States
Dr. Porter is a postdoctoral associate at the University of Florida’s Hamilton Center for Classical and Civic Education. Before that, he was a John and Daria Barry Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Princeton University’s James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions. He received his Ph.D. in Philosophy from Rice University in 2021. His dissertation, Social Justice Leftism as Deconstructive Postmodernism, analyzed the philosophical foundations of the political ideology nowadays known as “wokeism” or “woke leftism.” He holds a M.A. in Philosophy from Tulane University and a B.A. in German from Princeton University.
Dr. Porter is most known for his work on transhumanism and posthumanism. He is currently producing an edited volume, Phenomenology & Posthumanism(s), for Springer’s Philosophical Studies in Contemporary Culture book series, and he will contribute the chapter “The Future of Transhumanism” for the new edition of Michel Tibayrenc’s On Human Nature. Dr. Porter’s other lines of research and publication projects are united by his concern to elaborate and apply the Heideggerian existential
phenomenology which provides the primary philosophical and methodological ground for all his work.
Dr. Porter has been published in peer-reviewed journals including Interpretation: A Journal of Political Philosophy, The Journal of Medicine and Philosophy, and the International Journal of Philosophical Studies, as well as in The Wall Street Journal, Law & Liberty, and RealClearPolitics, among others. He is a member of the Editorial Advisory Board of The Journal of Medicine and Philosophy. When not preoccupied with philosophy, professional matters, politics, or the mundane necessities of everyday life, he enjoys powerlifting, videogaming, IPAs, and watching Red Letter Media.
Address: Houston, Texas, United States
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Dissertation
In Chapter 2, I explain Derridean deconstruction for the uninitiated, since it is perhaps the most uncompromising and exemplary form of deconstructive postmodernism. In doing so, I intervene in an ongoing debate about the relation between deconstruction and normative theory. My goal here was to explicate the “D” in “DPL” and to give readers an “insider’s” understanding of deconstruction and its logic, so as to provide a basis for understanding DPL. Chapter 3 is something of an interlude, in which I provide a more detailed sketch of the logic of DPL in light of Chapter 2’s explication of deconstruction. Specifically, I talk about the “P” and “L” in “DPL”, I examine the status of leftist theory in academia today—including the meaning of “critical theory” and related terms—and I explain why I chose a “case study” approach for Chapter 4.
In Chapter 4, I conduct a case study of Laclau & Mouffe’s (1985) Hegemony and Socialist Strategy. Intended as a postmodernist intervention in the (Marxist) foundations of leftist theory, this work exemplifies in remarkably honest fashion the nature and limits of DPL. I build on this in Chapter 5 to explain what I mean by CCEIP (“coalitional, common-enemy identity politics”) and why any DPL politics, such as SJL, must be a form of CCEIP. I also explain why DPL CCEIP entails what I call the “Core Practical Paradox of identity politics”—which in turn is explanatory for the SJL phenomena covered in the next chapter. In Chapter 6, I explore various aspects of SJL in light of it being a form of DPL CCEIP, resolving any remaining puzzles. In particular, I examine in detail SJL’s necessary features (grouped under “identitarian politicization”) and its contingent features (grouped under “silencing”) as following from DPL.
Finally, in Chapter 7, I provide some personal context for this project and its origins, and I explore the question of the relation between DPL/SJL and political violence. I do this primarily by way of a mini case study of Giorgio Agamben’s 1970 essay “On the Limits of Violence”, which is an exemplarily DPL treatment of the topic of political violence. I then conclude with a comparison between political liberalism and contemporary political leftism and a clarification of the choice confronting liberals and leftists in this historical moment.
Papers
In Chapter 2, I explain Derridean deconstruction for the uninitiated, since it is perhaps the most uncompromising and exemplary form of deconstructive postmodernism. In doing so, I intervene in an ongoing debate about the relation between deconstruction and normative theory. My goal here was to explicate the “D” in “DPL” and to give readers an “insider’s” understanding of deconstruction and its logic, so as to provide a basis for understanding DPL. Chapter 3 is something of an interlude, in which I provide a more detailed sketch of the logic of DPL in light of Chapter 2’s explication of deconstruction. Specifically, I talk about the “P” and “L” in “DPL”, I examine the status of leftist theory in academia today—including the meaning of “critical theory” and related terms—and I explain why I chose a “case study” approach for Chapter 4.
In Chapter 4, I conduct a case study of Laclau & Mouffe’s (1985) Hegemony and Socialist Strategy. Intended as a postmodernist intervention in the (Marxist) foundations of leftist theory, this work exemplifies in remarkably honest fashion the nature and limits of DPL. I build on this in Chapter 5 to explain what I mean by CCEIP (“coalitional, common-enemy identity politics”) and why any DPL politics, such as SJL, must be a form of CCEIP. I also explain why DPL CCEIP entails what I call the “Core Practical Paradox of identity politics”—which in turn is explanatory for the SJL phenomena covered in the next chapter. In Chapter 6, I explore various aspects of SJL in light of it being a form of DPL CCEIP, resolving any remaining puzzles. In particular, I examine in detail SJL’s necessary features (grouped under “identitarian politicization”) and its contingent features (grouped under “silencing”) as following from DPL.
Finally, in Chapter 7, I provide some personal context for this project and its origins, and I explore the question of the relation between DPL/SJL and political violence. I do this primarily by way of a mini case study of Giorgio Agamben’s 1970 essay “On the Limits of Violence”, which is an exemplarily DPL treatment of the topic of political violence. I then conclude with a comparison between political liberalism and contemporary political leftism and a clarification of the choice confronting liberals and leftists in this historical moment.