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6Freedom in Education for Diversity of FlourishingTransactions of the Charles S. Peirce Society 59 (3): 332-347. 2024.Abstract:This essay explores key values of John Lachs's work, especially freedom, diversity, and human flourishing, when applied to the history of the philosophy of education as well as to the practical problems of policy and implementation today in American schools. I consider the importance and tensions involved in these values in the thinking of Plato, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and John Dewey. Next, I examine necessary and then avoidable challenges of operationalizing freedom and diversity in sc…Read more
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12Education for Technological Threats to DemocracyContemporary Pragmatism 20 (1-2): 38-52. 2023.This paper examines Larry A. Hickman’s warnings about the dangers of algorithmic technologies for democracy and then considers educational policy initiatives that are important for combatting such threats over the long term. John Dewey’s philosophy is considered both in Hickman’s work and in this paper’s review of what Dewey called the “Supreme Intellectual Obligation.” Dewey’s insights highlight crucial tasks necessary and called for with respect to education to value and appreciate the science…Read more
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11Don't "Just Google It": Deweyan Perspectives on Participatory Learning with Online ToolsEducation and Culture 38 (1): 64-81. 2023.Abstract:John Dewey argued that for education to be democratic, it is important for students to be not merely spectators but also participants in learning. Teachers sometimes find personal computing devices to be distracting or to contribute to passivity rather than activity in the classroom. In this essay we examine the question of whether a student’s Google search on a subject matter discussed in class is participatory or passive. We argue that with proper guidance students’ use of online sear…Read more
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8Communities Take RootsContemporary Pragmatism 17 (2-3): 124-145. 2020.This article draws on the past and present work of the Society of Philosophers in America, Inc. to consider eight challenges for growing communities of philosophical conversation in ways that pragmatism encourages and calls for, in terms of engaged public philosophy. The essay then proposes ways of addressing the eight challenges with solutions or outlooks for overcoming or diminishing obstacles to engaged, public philosophical and conversational community-building. The author argues that it is …Read more
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12The Pragmatist’s Call to Democratic Activism in Higher EducationEssays in Philosophy 21 (1): 29-45. 2020.This essay defends the Pragmatist’s call to activism in higher education, understanding it as a necessary development of good democratic inquiry. Some criticisms of activism have merit, but I distinguish crass or uncritical activism from judicious activism. I then argue that judicious activism in higher education and in philosophy is not only defensible, but both called for implicitly in the task of democratic education as well as an aspect of what John Dewey has articulated as the supreme intel…Read more
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27James's Critiques of the Freudian Unconscious- 25 years earlierWilliam James Studies 9 (1). 2012.In The Principles of Psychology, William James addressed ten justifications for the concept of the unconscious mind, each of which he refuted. Twenty – five years later in The Unconscious, Freud presented many of the same, original arguments to justify the unconscious, without any acknowledgement of James’s refutations. Some scholars in the last few decades have claimed that James was in fact a supporter of a Freudian unconscious, contrary to expectations. In this essay, I first summarize Freud’…Read more
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2J. Caleb Clanton, Religion And Democratic Citizenship: Inquiry And Conviction In The American Public Square (review)Transactions of the Charles S. Peirce Society 45 (3): 449-452. 2009.
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2The Responsibilities and Dangers of PragmatismPhilosophy in the Contemporary World 16 (1): 123-129. 2009.John Lachs has argued that the value of academic philosophers rests not in their scholarly writing, but fundamentally in their ability to educate minds to be critical and open. In this paper, I show the continuity of this outlook on the work of philosophers with Lachs's stoic pragmatism. Stoic pragmatism is the view that the pragmatic optimism of thinkers like James, Royce, and Dewey must be tempered by a stoic acceptance of our limitations as human beings. While I support Lachs's controversial …Read more
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13Lessons from America's Public PhilosopherJournal of Speculative Philosophy 29 (1): 118-135. 2015.This article argues for a definition of public philosophy inspired by John Dewey’s understanding of the “supreme intellectual obligation.” The first section examines five strong reasons why more public philosophy is needed and why the growing movement in public philosophy should be encouraged. The second section begins with a review of common understandings of public philosophy as well as some initial challenges that call for widening our conception of the practice. Then, it applies Dewey’s argu…Read more
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10Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., Legal Theory, and Judicial RestraintThe Pluralist 7 (3): 136-139. 2012.
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5James, Dewey, And DemocracyWilliam James Studies 4 90-110. 2009.In this paper I examine John Dewey's correspondence and selected writings to illuminate Dewey's understanding of and possible shaping of William James's work as it pertains to politics and democracy. I suggest a way of seeing a richer connection between the thinkers than has been portrayed and a picture of influence flowing from Dewey to James
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4The Unavoidable, the Avoidable, and the Viciously Intentional Costs of ComfortSouthwest Philosophy Review 32 (1): 19-24. 2016.
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6On Applying Ethics: Who’s Afraid of Plato’s Cave?Contemporary Pragmatism 7 (2): 91-103. 2010.The present paper is a response to Gerald Gaus, who has argued that philosophers should not apply ethics. After a critical evaluation of Gaus's arguments, I present several ways which Sidney Hook has outlined for philosophers to bring their skills to bear fruitfully on public policy matters. Following Hook's list, I offer three of my own suggestions for further ways in which philosophers can positively contribute to the application of ethics and of philosophy generally. Finally, I propose the ve…Read more
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5Converging on Culture: Rorty, Rawls, and Dewey on Culture’s Role in JusticeEssays in the Philosophy of Humanism 22 (2): 231-261. 2014.In this essay, I review the writings of three philosophers whose work converges on the insight that we must attend to and reconstruct culture for the sake of justice. John Rawls, John Dewey, and Richard Rorty help show some of the ways in which culture can enable or undermine the pursuit of justice. They also offer resources for identifying tools for addressing the cultural challenges impeding justice. I reveal insights and challenges in Rawls’s philosophy as well as tools and solutions for buil…Read more
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6Morality, Leadership, and Public Policy: On Experimentalism in EthicsBloomsbury Academic. 2010.In Morality, Leadership, and Public Policy, Eric Weber argues for an experimentalist approach to moral theory in addressing practical problems in public policy. The experimentalist approach begins moral inquiry by examining public problems and then makes use of the tools of philosophy and intelligent inquiry to alleviate them. Part I surveys the uses of practical philosophy and answers criticisms - including religious challenges - of the approach, presenting a number of areas in which philosophe…Read more
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5Religion, Public Reason, and Humanism: Paul Kurtz on Fallibilism and EthicsContemporary Pragmatism 5 (2): 131-147. 2008.I present a persistent religious moral theory, known as divine command theory, which conflicts with liberal political thought. John Rawls's notion of public reason offers a framework for thinking about this conflict, but it has been criticized for demanding great restrictions on religious considerations in public deliberation. I argue that although Paul Kurtz is critical of organized religion, his epistemological suggestions and ethical theory offer a feasible way to build common moral ground be…Read more
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Lessons for Leadership from Keping and DeweySkepsis: A Journal for Philosophy and Interdisciplinary Research 19 (1-2). 2008.
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4What experimentalism means in ethicsJournal of Speculative Philosophy 25 (1): 98-115. 2011.The factors which have brought society to its present pass and impasse contain forces which, when released and constructively utilized, form the positive basis of an educational philosophy and practice that will recover and will develop our original national ideals. The basic principle in that philosophy and practice is that we should use that method of experimental action called natural science to form a disposition which puts a supreme faith in the experimental use of intelligence in all situa…Read more
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6Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., Legal Theory, and Judicial Restraint (review)The Pluralist 7 (3): 136-139. 2012.
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4Rawls, Dewey, and Constructivism: On the Epistemology of JusticeContinuum International Publishing Group. 2010.Examines problems in Rawls' epistemology, approached from a Deweyan perspective, to argue for a thoroughly constructivist idea of justice and its practical implications for education. >
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7Self-Respect and a Sense of Positive Power: On Protection, Self-Affirmation, and Harm in the Charge of "Acting White"Journal of Speculative Philosophy 30 (1): 45-63. 2016.Education is among the forces with which oppressed people can become empowered. Nevertheless, the public policy nonprofit organization Demos has found that the median wealth of white high school dropouts in 2013 was higher than for black college graduates in the United States.1 The harsh realities of prejudice and limits on opportunity for historically disadvantaged communities motivate debates about how best to prepare, educate, and protect young people. The philosophical literature in the libe…Read more
Lexington, Kentucky, United States of America
Areas of Specialization
Applied Ethics |
Philosophy of Law |
Social and Political Philosophy |
Philosophy of Education, Misc |
Ethical Leadership |