Experts at Empire State College

Bernard Flynn
Professor of philosophy
New York City, NY

Expertise

• Political philosophy
• Phenomenology
• History of Philosophy

Profile

Bernard Flynn specializes in political philosophy and in particular the political thought that emerges in Europe from the 17th century to the present. He focuses on the concept of modernity and its relation to pre- modern forms of political organization. He is interested in the form of philosophical reflection elaborated by the major thinkers of the tradition of phenomenology beginning with Husser and going through Heidegger to Merleau-Ponty and Derrida and in particular with the philosophy of Claude LeFort. He has published two books ,the first, Political Philosophy at the Closure of Metaphysics (1992 Humanities Press) and The Philosophyof Claude LeFort; Interpreting the Political (Northwestern University Press 2007) He is currently at work on a book provisionally titled, The Adventure of the Event,. He is also the editor of a collection of writings on the philosophy of Merleau -Ponty, titled Meleau-Ponty, and the Possibilities of Philosophy (State University of New York press 20O8). In addition, he has written extensively on the history of philosophy. He has served as visiting professor in France and Belgium. He has translated into French, German, Italian and Spanish. At the Metropolitan Center he teaches Cultural and Intellectual History of Western Society as well as Aesthetics and the History of Philosophy. He sits on the board of directors of two philosophical journals, Philosophy and Social Criticism and Constellations; a Journal of Democratic Theory.

He has often served in as an outside reader on dissertations within his field of expertise.

Flynn earned his PhD. in philosophy at Duquesne University, and has taught to at the University of Southern Illinois and Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs before coming to Empire State College.