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03/30/2015
By Julia Gavin

Carol Hay, an assistant professor in philosophy, earned the . The Kavka prize is regarded as the most prestigious prize in political philosophy and Hay is the first junior scholar to ever receive the award.聽

Hay's winning paper, "The Obligation to Resist Oppression," is a chapter from her book 鈥�.鈥澛犅燬he will present her research on oppression and resistance at the American Philosophical Association's Pacific Division Meeting. In it, she argues that people who are oppressed have a duty to resist their oppression. Her work has stirred debate in her field and beyond.

Hay shared her thoughts on taking philosophy from the ivory tower to the public and the role of resistance in oppressive societies.

Q. What does a modern philosopher do?

A. The role of a philosopher is, and always has been, to ask the questions that no one else is asking 鈥� because the questions are too big, or too abstract or even too uncomfortable. Our culture really needs philosophers鈥� ability to reflect on how we鈥檙e living our lives. But I think some philosophers tend to stay in the ivory tower and have discussions using so much jargon that other people can鈥檛 understand them. Many philosophers aren鈥檛 engaged with the public. Also, some people in the general public have become distrustful of academics and philosophical thinking. Fortunately, there鈥檚 a growing push for philosophers to go public.聽

Q. You鈥檙e the first junior scholar to win the Kavka Prize. What does this mean for you and for the field?

A. I was shocked when I heard I鈥檇 won the award. In the past, it鈥檚 usually gone to people who are very prominent in the field. I was also surprised because philosophy鈥檚 not generally known as a very progressive discipline. Unlike in other disciplines in the humanities and social sciences, topics like feminism and oppression have been relatively marginalized in philosophy. It鈥檚 heartening that philosophy鈥檚 moving to see itself as a discipline that can and should affect the world.

Q. Why do you think your research is considered controversial?

A. I have this tendency to use the philosophical canon in ways that we鈥檙e not supposed to. I argue that people who are oppressed have an obligation to themselves to resist oppression. Most philosophers think of obligations as the sorts of things we have to other people, not to ourselves. The exception to this is the 18th-century German philosopher Immanuel Kant, who argued that we do have obligations to ourselves, and that the most fundamental one is duty of self-respect. Self-respect, for Kant, involves doing everything we can to protect the thing that is most important about us 鈥� our rational capacities, or our ability to figure out what we want and how to get it. In my work, I explore the ways that oppression can restrict or damage people鈥檚 rational capacities, and I argue that this Kantian way of looking at things can give us new ways to understand both why the harms of oppression are so bad and how we might avoid them.聽

But most feminist philosophers absolutely hate Kant. They rightly criticize the horrifically sexist things Kant actually said (there are some real doozies), and they argue that he and other Enlightenment thinkers mistakenly privilege our rationality over the social, interdependent, embodied and emotional aspects of our lives. So I鈥檝e spent a lot of time convincing my fellow feminist philosophers that there鈥檚 something worth holding on to in the Kantian moral framework.聽

My work is also controversial because there鈥檚 a concern that by arguing for an obligation to resist one鈥檚 own oppression, I鈥檓 burdening those who can鈥檛 or don鈥檛 resist 鈥� in effect, that I鈥檓 blaming the victim. I take this charge very seriously, but I think I can get around it if we understand this duty of resistance in the right way.

Q. Why are oppressed people obligated to resist? How can they do it, especially in potentially violent situations?

A. Our world is never going to get better if we don鈥檛 resist the things that are evil in it. But the last thing someone needs when they鈥檙e already oppressed is to be told, 鈥淥h, by the way, you鈥檙e also harming yourself by not speaking up.鈥� As if they don鈥檛 have enough on their plate already.聽

Fortunately, there are a lot of different ways that people can resist oppression. Some forms of resistance are external 鈥� activism, direct confrontation, donating time or money, opting out of or working to reform institutions. But in some situations external resistance is too risky or dangerous. Still, even in such cases I think you have an obligation to say to yourself that what you鈥檙e going through isn鈥檛 ok and you deserve better 鈥� this counts as a kind of internal resistance, and it maintains your self-respect.

Q. Why do you teach philosophy?

A. You become a professor because you can鈥檛 conceive of doing anything else. I鈥檓 the sort of person who鈥檇 be reading and thinking about these sorts of things anyway, so that it鈥檚 my job feels like I鈥檝e won the lottery.聽

My favorite part of the job is the variety. If I was only able to teach, or only able to write, I think I鈥檇 go a bit bonkers. But the combination of such different kinds of work is really wonderful. Being in the classroom conveying this knowledge to my students is very different from writing about it, but there鈥檚 actually a lot of crossover. Things that come up in class discussions inform my research all the time.聽

Philosophy classes teach students to develop clear, rigorous and precise thinking, which is helpful in any major. Philosophy majors routinely have the highest LSAT and GRE scores and routinely out-earn people with more 鈥減ractical鈥� majors 10 years after graduation. This isn鈥檛 just because our students are smarter; it鈥檚 because they鈥檝e had this training in how to approach topics clearly and in detail.

I really believe studying philosophy helps create a properly mature mind and it鈥檚 gratifying to teach people those skills.

Hay has also published work in the and Aeon Magazine.