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156Neutrality, Pluralism, and Education: Civic Education as Learning About the OtherStudies in Philosophy and Education 23 (4): 235-263. 2004.The purpose of this article is to investigate appropriate methods for educating students into citizenship within a pluralistic state and to explain why civic education is itself important. In this discussion, I will offer suggestions as to how students might be best prepared for their future political roles as participants in a democracy, and how we, as theorists, ought to structure institutions and curricula in order to ensure that students are adequately trained for political decision making. …Read more
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80Sympathy, difference, and education: Social unity in the work of Adam SmithEconomics and Philosophy 22 (1): 79-111. 2006.In this article, I examine Adam Smith's theory of the ways individuals in society bridge social and biological difference. In doing so, I emphasize the divisive effects of gender, race, and class to see if Smith's account of social unity can overcome such fractious forces. My discussion uses the metaphor of “proximity” to mean both physical and psychological distance between moral actors and spectators. I suggest that education – both formal and informal in means – can assist moral judgment by h…Read more
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77Overlapping Consensus or Marketplace of Religions? Rawls and SmithPhilosophia 40 (2): 223-236. 2012.In this paper, I examine the claim that Rawls’s overlapping consensus is too narrow to allow most mainstream religions’ participation in political discourse. I do so by asking whether religious exclusion is a consequence of belief or action, using conversion as a paradigm case. After concluding that this objection to Rawls is, in fact, defensible, and that the overlapping consensus excludes both religious belief and action, I examine an alternative approach to managing religious pluralism as pre…Read more
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61Adam Smith and the Educative Critique: A response to my commentatorsStudies in Philosophy and Education 34 (5): 541-550. 2015.This paper is both a response to the four reviewers in a special symposium on my book Adam Smith’s Pluralism and a substantive discussion of philosophy of education. In it, I introduce what I call “the educative critique,” a mode of analysis similar to Marxist, feminist, or postcolonial critiques, but focusing on the educative role of a text. I argue that choosing education as a theme is itself a solution to interpretive difficulties, not an add-on that only concerns pedagogues and policy-makers
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53What Does Public Philosophy Do?Essays in Philosophy 15 (1): 33-57. 2014.In this article, I examine the purpose of public philosophy, challenging the claim that its goal is to create better citizens. I define public philosophy narrowly as the act of professional philosophers engaging with non-professionals, in a non-academic setting, with the specific aim of exploring issues philosophically. The paper is divided into three sections. The first contrasts professional and public philosophy with special attention to the assessment mechanism in each. The second examines t…Read more
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49Public Philosophy: IntroductionEssays in Philosophy 15 (1): 1-4. 2014.In this article, I examine the purpose of public philosophy, challenging the claim that its goal is to create better citizens. I define public philosophy narrowly as the act of professional philosophers engaging with nonprofessionals, in a non-academic setting, with the specific aim of exploring issues philosophically. The paper is divided into three sections. The first contrasts professional and public philosophy with special attention to the assessment mechanism in each. The second examines th…Read more
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45Review: Adam Smith's Theory of Moral Sentiments (review)Journal of Scottish Philosophy 1 (2): 181-184. 2003.
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44Critical Thinking and the Moral SentimentsInquiry: Critical Thinking Across the Disciplines 16 (3): 76-91. 1997.
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42In the midst of a long and unpredictable rules are in alignment with those set forth by the election season, American voters find themselves divine. Martin Luther King, Jr. made this exact asking very difficult questions: How is the..
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32Three ConversationsTeaching Philosophy 26 (1): 3-20. 2003.Students sometimes leave introductory courses in philosophy with no deep sense of the connection between the work of Plato and contemporary philosophy, with a view of Plato’s dialogues as a kind of literature, or with a somewhat shallow sense of the thrust of Plato’s philosophy. This paper proposes a pedagogical method that offers students a highly sophisticated understanding of Plato’s philosophy that is both applicable to lower-level survey courses and capable of being delivered in a limited a…Read more
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32Three Types of Critical Thinking About ReligionInquiry: Critical Thinking Across the Disciplines 15 (3): 79-88. 1996.
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31Our children need ethical skills as much as they need and wisdom, and substitutes regurgitation for any others, and if we wish our children to grow up to judgment. It presumes, for example, that if we can be good people and good citizens, we must allow for..
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29Adam Smith: An Enlightened LifeJournal of the History of Philosophy 49 (4): 499-501. 2011.Nicholas Phillipson’s biography of Adam Smith was published just forty-five days before the second edition of Ian Simpson Ross’s definitive biography The Life of Adam Smith (Oxford, 2010).The contrast is telling. Ross’s is a book for scholars with ubiquitous in-text references to recent scholarship. Phillipson’s is a narrative intellectual biography for a wider audience that relegates recent work to the bibliography. Ross is reticent to make claims about Smith’s motivations, but Phillipson thriv…Read more
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27A. Twentieth Century Progressivism............................................ 4 B. Nineteenth Century Reforms................................................... 6 C. Historians on Progressivism................................................... 8 D. Contemporary Issues in Progressive Theory.............................. 9..
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27My intent in this discussion is to offer a glimpse into our popular and political culture and to unpack some of the values inherent in our university system. Educational institutions evolve because of changes in our cultural relationship to knowledge. Only by understanding this relationship can we respond coherently to criticism aimed at the university and its population.
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23D.d. Raphael, the impartial spectator. Oxford and new York: Oxford university press, 2007. 143 pp (review)Economics and Philosophy 24 (1): 129-137. 2008.
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21I’d like to begin my comments by reminding all necessary preconditions for finding a new us that democracy is not a good in itself. We..
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21Three ConversationsTeaching Philosophy 26 (1): 3-20. 2003.Students sometimes leave introductory courses in philosophy with no deep sense of the connection between the work of Plato and contemporary philosophy, with a view of Plato’s dialogues as a kind of literature, or with a somewhat shallow sense of the thrust of Plato’s philosophy. This paper proposes a pedagogical method that offers students a highly sophisticated understanding of Plato’s philosophy that is both applicable to lower-level survey courses and capable of being delivered in a limited a…Read more
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20Guest Editor’s IntroductionInquiry: Critical Thinking Across the Disciplines 18 (1): 4-21. 1998.
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19Reviews (review)to Mankind in general”. The same holds for the “Ties of Blood”, which let us prefer the interests of our close relatives. He realizes that such a denial of private desire may be strenuous, and he offers two ways out: On the one hand, he says that we have to cultivate public affections – which shows that not all customs and habits are bad and not all natural dispositions are good. On the other, he claims that those who are most benevolent to their relatives are, as an empirical fact, also most be…Read more
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19People who notice details might have observed I would like to take this point further to suggest that the description of this panel that appears on the that the terms communities of faith and people of Ten Percent Society literature is different than the faith are inapplicable in the Christian or any other one included on the Philosophy and Religion religious context as well. One does not have faith in Colloquium announcements. This is intentional; I..
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18John Rawls, the Harvard Professor, died rights open to any and all challenges, even stupid last month. He was, without question, the most ones. important political philosopher of the Twentieth What does a country do when faced century. It is a terrible time to lose him because with a person, group, or nation that claims that America, and the world, is faced with dire such rights are not obvious but dubious? What questions of justice, rights, and political stability. do we do when faced with an e…Read more
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18James Otteson’s Adam Smith’s Marketplace of Life is the latest instalment in a wave of new scholarship signalling a renewed interest in Adam Smith. These works share several characteristics. First, they present Smith as a philosopher and not an economist. Second, they take seriously The Theory of Moral Senti- ments (TMS), Smith’s first book, by suggesting that his moral theory holds..
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18There is a photo of George W. Bush circulating..
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17On Adam SmithWadsworth Publishing Company. 2001."This book does not treat Smith as an historical curiosity who has accomplished all that he was capable of. It treats Smith as someone with a contemporary message. That capitalism is the dominant political system in the contemporary world is almost without doubt. That capitalism is succeeding, however, is much more contentious. I will argue that Smith would challenge such claims of success. As the standard of living rises in most of the world, few could challenge the notion that vast numbers of …Read more
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16Adam SmithInternet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. 2008.entry for the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy at http://www.iep.utm.edu/s/smith.htm.
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University of North Dakota, Grand ForksDepartment of Philosophy and Religious StudiesRegular Faculty
Grand Forks, North Dakota, United States of America