Authored Books

22. Cuba Before Castro: A Century of Family Memoirs by Jorge J. E. Gracia. This enterprise is neither history nor fiction, but memories written by a Cuban who left Cuba when he was eighteen years old and has become a distinguished philosopher in the United States.

21. With a Diamond in My Shoe: A Philosopher’s Search for Identity in America. The intellectual memoir by Jorge J. E. Gracia is in the SUNY Press Series in Latin American and Iberian Thought and Culture.  SUNY Press, 2019.

20. La Interpretacion de la Literatura, el Arte, y la Filosofia. Chapters on literature, art, and philosophy; interpretation; prpoblems and strategies; limits of interpretation; and definitive interpretations. Universidad Panamericana, Mexico City, 2016.

19. (with others) Debating Race, Ethnicity, and Nationality: Philosophical Dialogues Between Jorge J. E. Gracia and His Critics, edited by Ivan Jaksic, fifteen philosophers: Gracia, Alcoff, Appiah, Bernstein, Bloom, Garcia, Gonzalez, Gooding-Williams, Llorente, Mendieta, Nuccetelli, Outlaw, Pappas, Stavans, and Stigol. Columbia University Press, in press. Critical articles with Gracia's responses. Expected in June, 2015. APA Eastern Division session, Jan, 2016.

18. (With Ilan Stavans) Thirteen Ways of Looking at Latino Art.  Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2014. A conversation between Gracia and Ilan Stavans on a number of topics, such as race, ethnicity, identity, art, literature, philosophy, and politics based on 13 works of Latino art.

      18a. Reprint of ch 3, "On Desecration," in Michigan Quarterly Review 52, 4 (2013), 583-594

17. Painting Borges: Philosophy Interpreting Art Interpreting Literature. Albany, NY: SUNY Press, 2012. Discussion issues raised in the context of the artistic interpretation of literature using the work of 17 Argentinean and Cuban artists and twelve of Jorge Luis Borges's stories.

16. Images of Thought: Philosophical Interpretations of Carlos Estévez's Art. Albany, NY: SUNY Press, 2009, xvi, 264. Systematic discussion of the nature and possibility of the philosophical interpretation of art. It includes interpretations of 17 of the artist's works.

15. Latinos in America: Philosophy and Social Identity. Oxford: Blackwell, 2008, xvi, 252. Systematic discussion of social issues that affect Latinos/Hispanics in American society. Eastern Division APA book session in 2008.

14. Surviving Race, Ethnicity, and Nationality in the Twenty-First Century. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2005, xxviii, 205 pp. Systematic discussion of the notions of race, ethnicity, and nationality. Easter Division APA book session in 2006. 

13. Old Wine in New Skins: The Role of Tradition in Communication, Knowledge, and Group Identity. Milwaukee, WI: Marquette University Press, 2003, 134 pp. This is the written version of the 67th Marquette University's Aquinas Lecture delivered on Feb. 23, 2003. The book examines the nature of tradition and how a proper metaphysical understanding of this notion as a kind of action clarifies its various uses and helps us understand in turn how communication, the preservation of knowledge, and group identity take place. 
 

12. ¿Qué son las categorías? Trans. into Spanish by Emma Ingala Gómez. In Series "Opuscula philosophica." Madrid: Ediciones Encuentro, 2002, 87 pp. This deals primarily with the metaphysical/ontological issues posed by categories and defends an ontologically neutral theory of categories that doess not reduce categories to realities, concepts, or words..  

11. How Can We Know What God Means? The Interpretation of Revelation. New York: Palgrave of St. Martin's Press, 2001, xiv, 229 pp. Book sessions of Society for Christian Philosophers at the American Academy of Religion meetings and of the American Catholic Philosophical Association meetings. This book presents a philosophical understanding of the conditions that must be satisfied by the interpretation of texts which are regarded as revealed by religious communities. It has chapters on revelation, interpretation, various kinds of hermeneutical views (authorial, audiencial, literary, sociological, and theological), definitive interpretations, and the relativity of interpretations. It argues for the preeminence of theological interpretations, for the logical possibility but the factual difficulty of definitive interpretations of revelation, and for the relativity of, but not relativism in, these interpretations.  

10. Hispanic/Latino Identity: A Philosophical Perspective. Oxford: Blackwell, 2000, rep. 2000, 2001, smf 2006, xx, 236 pp. Session of Eastern Division APA, session of the Inter American Society Congress, and issue of Philosophy and Social Criticism devoted to this book. This book presents a familial/relational theory of Hispanic/Latino identity. In addition it discusses such topics as the nature of ethnicity, the proper name for Hispanics/Latinos, the origin of Hispanic/Latino identity, the role of mestizaje in Hispanic/Latino identity, the history of discussions of Latin American identity in Latin America, and the situation of Hispanics/Latinos in American philosophy today. The book is interdisciplinary, although it has a philosophical slant. It takes into account recent research in various disciplines: anthropology, sociology, history, philosophy, literature, and Latino studies. 

    10A. Reprinted, 2000, 2001, 2006.

    10B. Revised and expanded trans. into Spanish of Hispanic/Latino Identity: Identidad hispana/latina: Una perspectiva filosófica. Mexico City:   Paidós, 2006, 242 pp.

    10C.  Section of chapter 7, in Susana Nuccetelli and Gary Seay, eds., Latin American Philosophy. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2004, pp. 302-307.

    10D.  Section of chapter 3, in Jorge J. E. Gracia and Elizabeth Millán-Zaibert, eds., Latin American Philosophy for the 21st Century. Buffalo, NY: Prometheus, 2004), pp. 287-310.

9. Metaphysics and Its Task: The Search for the Categorial Foundation of Knowledge. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1999, xx, 247 pp. Session of AMA and a book edited by R. Delfino devoted to this book. This book provides an answer to why metaphysics always recovers from the many attacks to which it has been subjected throughout its history by offering the first systematic analysis of the nature of the discipline. This is done by examining its object, method, aim, and the kind of propositions of which it is composed. Apart from a new conception of metaphysics and an explanation of the resilience of the discipline, the book presents an understanding of the nature and ontological status of categories, an analysis of the nature of reductionism and its role in philosophy, and a discussion and criticism of the main views concerning the nature of metaphysics developed in the history of philosophy.

    9A. Trans. into Chinese by Tao Xiuhao. Jinan: Shandong's People Publishing Press, 2009, 289 pp.   

8. Filosofía hispánica: Concepto, origen y foco historiográfico. Pamplona: Universidad de Navarra, 1998, 135 pp. This book examines the concept of Hispanic philosophy and presents a historico-relational understanding of it. In addition, it describes the origin of Hispanic philosophy in the sixteenth century; it presents a historical account of discussions concerning the controversy about the nature of Latin-American philosophy; and it develops a historiographical model for the understanding of Hispanic thought. 
 

7. Texts: Ontological Status, Identity, Author, Audience. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1996, 225 pp. Session of Canadian Society for Hermeneutics devoted to this book. This book completes the theory of textuality whose logical and epistemological elements are presented in A Theory of Textuality: The Logic and Epistemology. It provides an ontological characterization of texts; it explores the issues raised by the identity of various texts; and it presents a view of the identity and function of authors and audiences and of their relations to texts.

    7A. Trans into Chinese by Wang Xinyan and Li Zhi. Beijing: People's Press, forthcoming
 

6. A Theory of Textuality: The Logic and Epistemology. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1995, 327 pp. Session of Canadian Society for Hermeneutics devoted to this book. This book presents the logical and epistemological dimensions of a theory of textuality which takes into account the relevant views of both analytic and Continental thinkers and also of some major historical figures. It begins with a logical analysis of the notion of text resulting from a definition that serves as the basis for the distinctions subsequently drawn between texts on the one hand and language, artifacts, art objects, and works on the other; and for the classification of texts according to modality and function. The second part of the book uses the conclusions of the first part to solve the various epistemological issues which have been raised about texts by philosophers of language, semioticians, hermeneuticists, literary critics, semanticists, aestheticians, and historiographers.

     6A. Trans. into Chinese by Wang Xinyan and Li Zhi. Beijing: People's Press, 2009

5. Philosophy and Its History: Issues in Philosophical Historiography. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1992, 409 pp. 1994 Eastern Division APA Meetings book session devoted to it; UB Conference centered on it; book session of Congreso Latinoamericano de filosofia devoted to it.  This book is a systematic treatment of the main issues involved in philosophical historiography. It deals with such topics as the relation of philosophy to its history, the role of value judgments in historical accounts, the value of the history of philosophy for philosophy, the nature and role of texts and their interpretation in the history of philosophy, historiographical method, and the stages of development and progress of philosophical ideas.

    5A. Trans. into Spanish by Juan José Sánchez, Filosofía y su historia: Cuestiones de historiografía filosófica. Mexico City: Universidad National Autónoma de México, 1998, 536 pp.

    5B. Trans. into Serbo-Croatian by Svetozar Sindelic, Filozofija i Njena Istorija: Sporna Pitanja u Filozofskoj istoriografiji. Belgrade: Filip Visnjic, 2002, 335 pp. An Introduction by the author added for this edition.

4. With Douglas Davis, The Metaphysics of Good and Evil According to Suárez: Disputations X and XI. Munich and Vienna: Philosophia Verlag, 1989, 294 pp. Translation of Suárez's Disputations X and XI with introduction, notes, bibliography, indexes, and extensive glossary of technical terms.

3. Individuality: An Essay on the Foundations of Metaphysics. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1988; xx, 315 pp., 1992 John N. Findlay Prize in Metaphysics. This book begins, in the Introduction, by distinguishing six fundamental issues in the metaphysics of individuality: intension, extension, ontological status, the principle of individuation, discernibility, and reference. Each of the subsequent chapters addresses one of these issues, presenting original views on them. The book closes with a general assessment.

  
2. Introduction to the Problem of Individuation in the Early Middle Ages, in Analytica Series, Munich and Washington, DC: Philosophia Verlag and Catholic University of America Press, 1984. This book begins with a systematic chapter on the problem of individuation. Chapter 2 discusses Boethius and the metaphysical and logical approaches to the problem he introduces to the Middle Ages. Chapter 3 deals with the metaphysical views of Thierry of Chartres, Gilbert of Potiers and others of his contempoiraries. Chapter 4 takes up the logical view of Peter Abailard. The last chapter summarizes the book’s findings.

    2A. 2nd revised ed. Philosophia Verlag, 1988, 303 pp. 

    2B. Trans. into Spanish by Benjamín Valdivia, rev. by Mauricio Beuchot, Introducción al problema de la individuación en la alta edad media. Mexico City: Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, 1987, 382 pp.  

1. Suárez on Individuation. Milwaukee: Marquette University. Press 1982, 302 pp. Translation of Suárez's Disputation V: Individual Unity and Its Principle, with introduction, notes, bibliography, indexes, and extensive glossary of technical terms. 

    1A. Reprinted 2000.