In Games: Agency As Art, Thi Nguyen offers a careful articulation and defense of the thesis that games are the art form of agency. The book offers a comprehensive account and analysis of how playing games involves a project of developing ourselves as agents, such that our agency and capacities are formed and sculpted within given parameters much the same way that an artist makes a work of art. This analysis opens up a critique of the gamification of life—from social media likes, to receiving badges for finishing tasks, to the self-checkout at the grocery store, to weight loss apps—wherein our agency itself becomes gamified, manipulated toward ends that appear to compromise our agency. Nguyen accomplishes the task of developing a compelling, detailed philosophical argument which will be a rewarding read for philosophers and non-philosophers alike. In doing so, he expands the reach of his call for caution about how gamification limits our agency, even as he develops an original framework for understanding the role and significance of games in our lives—in particular, how they prompt us to take care for making ourselves.
Anna Alexandrova (University of Cambridge) for A Philosophy for the Science of Wellbeing (OUP, 2017)
From Dominic McIver Lopes, chair of the APA board of officers:
2021 Book Prize
Eastern: Christine Korsgaard (Harvard University)
From the selection committee:
The National High School Ethics Bowl (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill)
Margaret Gilbert, Abraham I. Melden Chair in Moral Philosophy and Distinguished Professor at University of California Irvine, has an exemplary record of contributions to scholarship in social, political, and moral philosophy. She is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and was a recipient of the Dr. Martin R. Lebowitz and Eve Lewellis Lebowitz Prize from the APA. Through her many books and articles, Professor Gilbert is well-known for illuminating the nature of social relations and the manner in which joint commitments between people provide foundations for rights and obligations. Her work has had a remarkable impact on our understanding of fundamental philosophical issues about the nature of agreements, promises, and moral rights and also influenced research in other disciplines such as the history of science, psychology and anthropology. Professor Gilbert has also played a very active role in the life of the profession and to the work of the APA specifically.
Margaret Gilbert, Abraham I. Melden Chair in Moral Philosophy and Distinguished Professor at University of California Irvine, has an exemplary record of contributions to scholarship in social, political, and moral philosophy. She is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and was a recipient of the Dr. Martin R. Lebowitz and Eve Lewellis Lebowitz Prize from the APA. Through her many books and articles, Professor Gilbert is well-known for illuminating the nature of social relations and the manner in which joint commitments between people provide foundations for rights and obligations. Her work has had a remarkable impact on our understanding of fundamental philosophical issues about the nature of agreements, promises, and moral rights and also influenced research in other disciplines such as the history of science, psychology and anthropology. Professor Gilbert has also played a very active role in the life of the profession and to the work of the APA specifically.
Margaret Gilbert, Abraham I. Melden Chair in Moral Philosophy and Distinguished Professor at University of California Irvine, has an exemplary record of contributions to scholarship in social, political, and moral philosophy. She is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and was a recipient of the Dr. Martin R. Lebowitz and Eve Lewellis Lebowitz Prize from the APA. Through her many books and articles, Professor Gilbert is well-known for illuminating the nature of social relations and the manner in which joint commitments between people provide foundations for rights and obligations. Her work has had a remarkable impact on our understanding of fundamental philosophical issues about the nature of agreements, promises, and moral rights and also influenced research in other disciplines such as the history of science, psychology and anthropology. Professor Gilbert has also played a very active role in the life of the profession and to the work of the APA specifically.
Margaret Gilbert, Abraham I. Melden Chair in Moral Philosophy and Distinguished Professor at University of California Irvine, has an exemplary record of contributions to scholarship in social, political, and moral philosophy. She is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and was a recipient of the Dr. Martin R. Lebowitz and Eve Lewellis Lebowitz Prize from the APA. Through her many books and articles, Professor Gilbert is well-known for illuminating the nature of social relations and the manner in which joint commitments between people provide foundations for rights and obligations. Her work has had a remarkable impact on our understanding of fundamental philosophical issues about the nature of agreements, promises, and moral rights and also influenced research in other disciplines such as the history of science, psychology and anthropology. Professor Gilbert has also played a very active role in the life of the profession and to the work of the APA specifically.
Margaret Gilbert, Abraham I. Melden Chair in Moral Philosophy and Distinguished Professor at University of California Irvine, has an exemplary record of contributions to scholarship in social, political, and moral philosophy. She is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and was a recipient of the Dr. Martin R. Lebowitz and Eve Lewellis Lebowitz Prize from the APA. Through her many books and articles, Professor Gilbert is well-known for illuminating the nature of social relations and the manner in which joint commitments between people provide foundations for rights and obligations. Her work has had a remarkable impact on our understanding of fundamental philosophical issues about the nature of agreements, promises, and moral rights and also influenced research in other disciplines such as the history of science, psychology and anthropology. Professor Gilbert has also played a very active role in the life of the profession and to the work of the APA specifically.
Margaret Gilbert, Abraham I. Melden Chair in Moral Philosophy and Distinguished Professor at University of California Irvine, has an exemplary record of contributions to scholarship in social, political, and moral philosophy. She is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and was a recipient of the Dr. Martin R. Lebowitz and Eve Lewellis Lebowitz Prize from the APA. Through her many books and articles, Professor Gilbert is well-known for illuminating the nature of social relations and the manner in which joint commitments between people provide foundations for rights and obligations. Her work has had a remarkable impact on our understanding of fundamental philosophical issues about the nature of agreements, promises, and moral rights and also influenced research in other disciplines such as the history of science, psychology and anthropology. Professor Gilbert has also played a very active role in the life of the profession and to the work of the APA specifically.
Margaret Gilbert, Abraham I. Melden Chair in Moral Philosophy and Distinguished Professor at University of California Irvine, has an exemplary record of contributions to scholarship in social, political, and moral philosophy. She is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and was a recipient of the Dr. Martin R. Lebowitz and Eve Lewellis Lebowitz Prize from the APA. Through her many books and articles, Professor Gilbert is well-known for illuminating the nature of social relations and the manner in which joint commitments between people provide foundations for rights and obligations. Her work has had a remarkable impact on our understanding of fundamental philosophical issues about the nature of agreements, promises, and moral rights and also influenced research in other disciplines such as the history of science, psychology and anthropology. Professor Gilbert has also played a very active role in the life of the profession and to the work of the APA specifically.
Margaret Gilbert, Abraham I. Melden Chair in Moral Philosophy and Distinguished Professor at University of California Irvine, has an exemplary record of contributions to scholarship in social, political, and moral philosophy. She is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and was a recipient of the Dr. Martin R. Lebowitz and Eve Lewellis Lebowitz Prize from the APA. Through her many books and articles, Professor Gilbert is well-known for illuminating the nature of social relations and the manner in which joint commitments between people provide foundations for rights and obligations. Her work has had a remarkable impact on our understanding of fundamental philosophical issues about the nature of agreements, promises, and moral rights and also influenced research in other disciplines such as the history of science, psychology and anthropology. Professor Gilbert has also played a very active role in the life of the profession and to the work of the APA specifically.
Caleb Ward (University of Hamburg) for “Pursuing Self-Preservation over Security: Audre Lorde and the Thick Necessity of Survival”
Honorable Mention: Julia Staffel (University of Colorado) for Unsettled Thoughts: A Theory of Degrees of Rationality (OUP 2019)
Prize Details: 00 to each of the winners. Awarded for the three best papers in mind, metaphysics, epistemology, or ethics submitted for the annual APA Eastern Division meeting by graduate students, as chosen by the Eastern Division program committee. This prize is funded by the Marc Sanders Foundation.
