Jorge J. E. Gracia

Who is Jorge J. E. Gracia?

Jorge J.E. Gracia is the Samuel P. Capen Chair, SUNY Distinguished Professor in the Department of Philosophy and Department of Comparative Literature in the State University of New York at Buffalo. Gracia was educated in Cuba, Canada and the United States and received his Ph.D. in Medieval Philosophy from the University of Toronto.

Gracia has authored and edited over forty books. His areas of specialization include Metaphysics/Ontology, Philosophical Historiography, Philosophy of Language/Hermeneutics, Ethnicity/Race/Nationality Issues, Hispanic/Latino Issues, Medieval/Scholastic Philosophy and Hispanic/Latino/Latin-American Philosophy. While Gracia’s earlier work was primarily in the areas of Medieval Philosophy and Metaphysics much of his recent work has focused on issues of race, ethnicity and identity. His contributions to the philosophical study of race and ethnicity have been groundbreaking. It is within this area that Gracia proposed his familial-historical view of ethnicity and his genetic common-bundle view of race. These views of race and ethnicity have helped to shape the field and addressed many issues that previous theories had left unanswered.