Oli Stephano

Colby College, Philosophy, Faculty Member

Vassar College, Philosophy, Department Member

SUNY: Stony Brook University, Philosophy, Alumnus

Bard College, Philosophy, Department Member

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Dr Stephano’s research & teaching interests span Spinoza, Continental philosophy, environmental ethics, & feminist & queer theory.

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Johannes Zachhuber

University of Oxford

Muqtedar Khan

University of Delaware

Galen Strawson

The University of Texas at Austin

Armando Salvatore

McGill University

Andrea Peto

Central European University

Benjamin Noys

University of Chichester

John Clark

Loyola University New Orleans

David Seamon

Kansas State University

Remo Caponi

University of Cologne

Shaun Gallagher

University of Memphis

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Papers by Oli Stephano

Chapter Ten. SEXUAL DIFFERENCE AS QUALITATIVE BECOMING

Columbia University Press eBooks, Dec 31, 2023

Spinoza, Ecology, and Immanent Ethics

Environmental Philosophy, 2017

Immanence and Differentiation in Spinoza

Síntesis, 2021

This paper argues that ontological immanence involves but is not reducible to substance monism. A... more This paper argues that ontological immanence involves but is not reducible to substance monism. Attending to immanence in Spinoza's ontology, I provide a creative exegesis of the defining features of Spinoza's immanent ontology, arguing that it recasts the concept of substance itself from a term of transcendence and totalization to one of immanence and differentiation. In critical conversation with Deleuze's influential reading, I identify five interconnected features which, taken together, elaborate Spinoza's ontology of immanence: substance monism, univocity of attributes, immanent causality, the identification between G-d and Nature, and the status of finite modes as explications of substance rather than its extrinsic effects.

I argue that, taken together, these features refashion the concept of substance, such that substance becomes not a term of totalization but rather one of ongoing production of diversity. Attending to the role of finite modes in this ontology, I emphasize the ways in which immanence can lend force to vital reconfigurations of ethical and political life: by defining beings and systems in terms of their capacities, which are augmented, diminished, or maintained depending on how they converge in relation.

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Human Power and Ecological Flourishing: Refiguring Right and Advantage with Spinoza

SubStance, 2019

Abstract:This paper argues for an interpretation of Spinoza's concept of human power that is ... more Abstract:This paper argues for an interpretation of Spinoza's concept of human power that is conducive to ecological flourishing. Acknowledging the elements in Spinoza that authorize human exceptionalism, I argue for a countervailing conception of human power as ecologically interdependent. This model accounts for an amoral natural order, while simultaneously offering practical normative guidelines for calibrating human power in accordance with the ecological flourishing in which human existence is embedded. Hence, the normativity of this ethical model derives from the striving that, for Spinoza, is inscribed at the heart of earthly existence.

Spinoza, Ecology, and Immanent Ethics in advance

Environmental Philosophy

Irreducibility and (Trans) Sexual Difference

Hypatia

This article illuminates a tension internal to Elizabeth Grosz's provocative theory of the ir... more This article illuminates a tension internal to Elizabeth Grosz's provocative theory of the irreducibility of sexual difference: while it establishes sexual difference as an ontological force of differentiation, it simultaneously delimits the forms sexual difference can take as fixed and uncrossable. This model thus privileges cissexual difference while invalidating trans modes of embodiment and identification, a move that perpetuates antitrans logic and practices while impoverishing feminist conceptions of the generativity of sexual difference. This article examines the uses of transsexuality throughout Grosz's work on sexual difference, evaluating her claim that sexual difference is irreducible alongside her insistence that transsexuality is an impossible attempt to assume a bodily sex other than that assigned at birth. Illustrating how Grosz's account narrows the generativity of sexual difference down to unchangeable dimorphic sex, this article argues that fixed dimorp...

Human Power and Ecological Flourishing: Refiguring Right and Advantage with Spinoza

SubStance, 2019

This paper argues for an interpretation of Spinoza's concept of human power that is conducive to ... more This paper argues for an interpretation of Spinoza's concept of human power that is conducive to ecological flourishing. Acknowledging the elements in Spinoza that authorize human exceptionalism, I argue for a countervailing conception of human power as ecologically interdependent. This model accounts for an amoral natural order, while simultaneously offering practical normative guidelines for calibrating human power in accordance with the ecological flourishing in which human existence is embedded. Hence, the normativity of this ethical model derives from the striving that, for Spinoza, is inscribed at the heart of earthly existence.

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Irreducibility and (Trans) Sexual Difference

Hypatia, 2019

This article illuminates a tension internal to Elizabeth Grosz's provocative theory of the irredu... more This article illuminates a tension internal to Elizabeth Grosz's provocative theory of the irreducibility of sexual difference: while it establishes sexual difference as an ontological force of differentiation, it simultaneously delimits the forms sexual difference can take as fixed and uncrossable. This model thus privileges cissexual difference while invalidating trans modes of embodiment and identification, a move that perpetuates antitrans logic and practices while impoverishing feminist conceptions of the generativity of sexual difference. This article examines the uses of transsexuality throughout Grosz's work on sexual difference, evaluating her claim that sexual difference is irreducible alongside her insistence that transsexuality is an impossible attempt to assume a bodily sex other than that assigned at birth. Illustrating how Grosz's account narrows the generativity of sexual difference down to unchangeable dimor-phic sex, this article argues that fixed dimorphic sex is not simply irreducibly given but is the effect of normative schemas. If the power of sexual difference lies in its capacity to generate difference, it need not be constrained to an immobile binary of sexually specific bodies whose morphological possibilities are fixed. This article thus argues for the capacity of sexual difference itself to become otherwise than solely cisgender.

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Spinoza, Ecology, and Immanent Ethics: Beside Moral Considerability

Environmental Philosophy, 2017

This paper develops an immanent ecological ethics that locates human flourishing within sustainin... more This paper develops an immanent ecological ethics that locates human flourishing within sustaining ecological relationships. I outline the features of an immanent ethics drawn from Spinoza, and indicate how this model addresses gaps left by approaches based in moral considerability. I argue that an immanent ecological ethics provides unique resources for contesting anthropogenic harm, by 1) shifting the focus from what qualifies as a moral subject to what bodies can or cannot do under particular relations, 2) emphasizing the constitutive role of interaction and interdependence in ecosystemic existence, and 3) extending ethical regard to ecologically-ramified scales.

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Chapter Ten. SEXUAL DIFFERENCE AS QUALITATIVE BECOMING

Columbia University Press eBooks, Dec 31, 2023