https://orcid.org/ 0000-0002-7853-7452

About Professor Gray

Professor Gray joined the department in 2017. He received his PhD and MA from Harvard University and his BA from Columbia University. Gray’s areas of specialization include the philosophy of race and racism, the philosophy of cognitive science, the philosophy of language, AI ethics, the philosophy of mind, and African American philosophy. His current research focuses on the social ontology of race, racial epithets, philosophy of psychopathology, philosophy of artificial intelligence, and cognitive phenomenology. In addition to the above areas, Gray also has teachings interests in logic, philosophy of film, AI ethics, and philosophy of science (general, evolutionary biology, and cognitive psychology).

Journal Articles

Gray, David Miguel. 2024d. “How Quotation and Referential Intentions Modulate the Derogatory Force of Slur Utterances.” Frontiers in Communication 9 (November). https://doi.org/10.3389/fcomm.2024.1477055.

Gray, David Miguel. 2024c. “Distance Relativism and the Limits of Moral Assessment: Fricker and Williams.” Philosophia. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11406-024-00782-w.

Gray, David Miguel. 2024b. “Doxastic and Epistemic Sources of Offense for Slurring Terms.” Acta Analytica, September. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12136-024-00609-z.

Gray, David Miguel. 2024a. In Defense of Introspective Affordances. Review of Philosophy and Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13164-024-00734-z.

Gray, David Miguel. 2023. Aspiration and Self-Realization: The Ameliorative Projects of Steve Biko. Philosophy of the Social Sciences 53. Sage Journals: 142–162. https://doi.org/10.1177/00483931221150488.

Gray, David Miguel. 2022c. Social Ontologies of Race and their Development. The Southern Journal of Philosophy 60: 4–20. https://doi.org/10.1111/sjp.12481.

Jeffers, Chike, and David Miguel Gray. 2022b. Introduction to Charles Mills’s “The Wretched of Middle-Earth: An Orkish Manifesto.” The Southern Journal of Philosophy 60: 102–104. https://doi.org/10.1111/sjp.12476.

Varga, Somogy, and David Miguel Gray. 2022a. Naturalism, Disease, and Levels of Functional Description. The Journal of Medicine and Philosophy: A Forum for Bioethics and Philosophy of Medicine 47: 482–493. https://doi.org/10.1093/jmp/jhac005.

Gray, David Miguel, and Benjamin Lennertz. 2020. Linguistic Disobedience. Philosopher’s Imprint 20: 1-16. http://hdl.handle.net/2027/spo.3521354.0020.021.

Gray, David Miguel. 2014b. Counting-ish Creatures and Conceptual Content. Mind 123: 1141–1146. https://doi.org/10.1093/mind/fzu152.

Gray, David Miguel. 2014a. Failing to Self-Ascribe Thought and Motion: Towards a Three-Factor Account of Passivity Symptoms in Schizophrenia. Schizophrenia Research 152: 28–32. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.schres.2013.06.031.

Gray, David Miguel. 2013b. Racial Norms: A Reinterpretation of Du Bois’ “The Conservation of Races.” The Southern Journal of Philosophy 51: 465–487. https://doi.org/10.1111/sjp.12043.

Gray, David Miguel. 2013a. How Specific Can You Get?: Troubles for Cognitive Phenomenology. Southwest Philosophy Review 29: 163–172. https://doi.org/10.5840/swphilreview201329118.

Gray, David Miguel. 2012. HOT: Keeping up Appearances? Southwest Philosophy Review 28: 155–163. https://doi.org/10.5840/swphilreview201228116.

 

Edited Journal Issue

“New Ontologies of Race” 39^th Annual Spindel Supplement, The Southern Journal of Philosophy, September 2022. Volume 60: 1. 1-136. DOI: 10.1111/sjp.12419

 

Select Presentations

“Doxastic and Epistemic Sources of Offense for Slurring Terms.”
    -Symposium, Pacific APA, San Francisco, CA, April 16-20, 2025.

“AI in Memphis Panel Discussion”
    -Code Crew, Memphis, December 5, 2024

“Why Eliminating (Some) Guardrails ought to be an End-goal for Ethical AI.”
    -Global Harwell Forum: Collateral Damage: The Human Cost of Unethical AI. October 19, 2024

“LLMs and the Regulation of Truth-telling in the EU AI Act”
    -Institute for Intelligent Systems, The University of Memphis, September 8, 2024

“Conceptual Amelioration in Biko’s Emancipatory Theory of Race”
    -The University of Memphis, Department of Philosophy, September 8, 2023

“Conceptual Amelioration, Linguistic Disobedience, and the Emancipatory Goals of Normative Theories of Race”
    -13^th Annual Auburn Philosophy Conference: Language & Value, March 16-17, 2023.

“Digital Citizenship in the Age of AI”
    -STEM Professional Development series, West TN STEM Hub, Spring 2023

"Racial Objects"
    -Social Ontology and Collective Intentionality, University of Vienna, August 24, 2022
    -Social Ontology Conference, Tufts University, August 25, 2018

“Amelioration, Descriptivism, and Black Consciousness: Goal-oriented theories of race in Haslanger, Biko, and Du Bois”
    -Philosophy of Social Science Round Table, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, April 1, 2022

"Linguistic Disobedience"
    -Language: Uses and Misuses. Cave Hill Philosophy Symposium, June 18, 2021

“An Agentive Phenomenology that is a Cognitive Phenomenology”
    -Recent Work on Phenomenal Intentionality, Eastern APA, January 8, 2020

“Attempts to Appropriate Slurs and Grice’s First Maxim of Quality” (with Ben Lennertz)
    -Post-Truth Workshop, German Linguistic Society (DGfS), March 6, 2019

“Cognitive Architecture and Related Issues”
    -Fed Ex Institute of Intelligent Systems, The University of Memphis, November 14^th, 2017.

 

Public Facing Philosophy

“Critical Race Theory: What it is and What it isn’t”, The Conversation. June 30th, 2021.  https://theconversation.com/critical-race-theory-what-it-is-and-what-it-isnt-162752

“Racial Ontology: A guide for the Perplexed.  Part I:  General Problems”.  Video for WiPhi Open Access Philosophy.  http://www.wi-phi.com/video/racial-ontology

“Racial Ontology: A guide for the Perplexed.  Part II:  Naturalist Accounts of Race”.  Video for WiPhi Open Access Philosophy.  http://www.wi-phi.com/video/naturalist-theories-race

“Racial Ontology: A guide for the Perplexed.  Part IIIA:  Socio-historical Accounts of Race:  Artifacts and Naturally-based Kinds”.  Video for WiPhi Open Access Philosophy.  http://www.wi-phi.com/video/sociohistorical-theories-race

“Racial Ontology: A guide for the Perplexed.  Part IIIB:  Socio-historical Accounts of Race:  Socio-historical theories”.  http://www.wi-phi.com/

“Failing to Ascribe Thought and Motion: Part I” at Imperfect Cognitions  https://imperfectcognitions.blogspot.com.au/2016/06/failing-to-self-ascribe-thought-and.html

“Failing to Ascribe Thought and Motion: Part II” at Imperfect Cognitions https://imperfectcognitions.blogspot.com.au/2016/06/failing-to-self-ascribe-thought-and_88.html