Canadian Philosophical Association Announces Book Prize Winners
HALIFAX, NS — The Canadian Philosophical Association (CPA) is pleased to announce the recipients of its triennial Book Prize, recognized at the Association’s Annual Congress at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, on 9 June 2026.
The CPA Book Prize recognizes up to three outstanding books in philosophy published by members of the Association. The prize celebrates philosophical research of the highest quality in both English and French — work that reflects the remarkable dynamism of philosophical life in Canada and its international reputation. Eligible books must make a significant contribution to philosophical research; textbooks, edited collections, and conference proceedings are not eligible.
Our Honourees
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| Jonathan Ichikawa University of British Columbia |
Pierre-Alexandre Fradet Cégep de Saint-Laurent |
William Paris University of Toronto |
The Titles
Epistemic Courage
Oxford University Press, 2024
Epistemic Courage argues that mainstream epistemology has focused too heavily on the danger of believing without sufficient evidence, while neglecting an equally serious failure: failing to believe when one should. Ichikawa shows how this skeptical bias has real moral and political consequences, reinforcing complacency and entrenching unjust social norms.
Jonathan Ichikawa is a Professor of Philosophy at the University of British Columbia. His research spans epistemology, philosophy of language, feminist philosophy, and ethics, with a particular focus on connecting theoretical questions about knowledge to moral and political questions around structural oppression and rape culture. He is the recipient of the 2024 UBC Killam Research Prize.
Race, Time, and Utopia
Oxford University Press, 2024
Race, Time, and Utopia argues that deeply entrenched social arrangements — not merely individual attitudes — make racial hierarchy a near-inevitable consequence of how we organize collective life. The book calls for new habits of knowing and new forms of life, pushing beyond the pessimism of incremental reform toward a genuine vision of freedom.
William Paris is an Assistant Professor of Philosophy at the University of Toronto and associate editor of Critical Philosophy of Race. A scholar of Africana philosophy working in the tradition of W.E.B. Du Bois and Frantz Fanon, his research asks why the project of racial justice has proven so difficult to complete in Western democracies. He is also co-host of the podcast What’s Left of Philosophy.
Le désir du réel dans la philosophie québécoise
Éditions Nota bene, 2022
Le désir du réel dans la philosophie québécoise shines a spotlight on five major Québec philosophers — Charles De Koninck, Thomas De Koninck, Jacques Lavigne, Charles Taylor, and Jean Grondin — tracing the thread that runs through their work: a sustained desire to know the real, maintained against the deconstructive currents of the 20th century. The book is an important contribution to the visibility of French-language philosophical scholarship in Canada.
Pierre-Alexandre Fradet holds a doctorate in philosophy from a joint program at the École Normale Supérieure de Lyon and Université Laval, and teaches philosophy at the Cégep de Saint-Laurent in Montréal. He is the director of the “Territoires philosophiques” collection at Éditions Nota bene and the author of several books at the intersection of philosophy, Québec thought, and cinema.
Honourable Mentions
The jury also recognized the following works with Honourable Mentions:
Tarek Dika, Descartes’s Method: The Formulation of the Subject of Science, Oxford University Press, 2023
James Young, A History of Western Philosophy of Music, Cambridge University Press, 2023
This year's recipients and honourable mentions were selected from an initial long list of 28 books, which was then narrowed to a short list before the jury made its final selections.
Media Contact
Brenda Sanderson
Executive Director,
administration@acpcpa.ca