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112Augustine and Aquinas on original sin and the function of political authorityJournal of the History of Philosophy 30 (3): 353-376. 1992.
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99Nicholas Wolterstorff's justice: Rights and wrongs: An introductionJournal of Religious Ethics 37 (2): 179-192. 2009.This introduction sets the stage for four papers on Nicholas Wolterstorff's Justice: Rights and Wrongs , written by Harold Attridge, Oliver O'Donovan, Richard Bernstein, and myself. In his book, Wolterstorff defends an account of human rights. The first section of this introduction distinguishes Wolterstorff's account of rights from the alternative account of rights against which he contends. The alternative account draws much of its power from a historical narrative according to which theory an…Read more
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75The separation of church and state: Some questions for professor AudiPhilosophy and Public Affairs 20 (1): 52-65. 1991.
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62God's velveteen rabbitJournal of Religious Ethics 37 (2): 243-260. 2009.This article lays out a central argument of Wolterstorff's book, which I call the Argument from Under-Respect . That argument, I contend, is central to Wolterstorff's thought about wrongs and human rights. Close attention to the argument raises questions about whether Wolterstorff's account of rights can explain what a theory of rights must include: why violating rights wrongs the rights-bearer
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58Why Political Liberalism?: On John Rawls's Political TurnOxford University Press. 2010.In this work, Paul Weithman offers a fresh, rigorous and compelling interpretation of John Rawls' reasons for taking his so-called 'political turn'.
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57The prospects for the disabled in liberal societyJournal of Medicine and Philosophy 27 (1). 2002.This Article does not have an abstract
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52Autonomy and Disagreement about Justice in Political LiberalismEthics 128 (1): 95-122. 2017.Rawls says in Political Liberalism that “the focus of an overlapping consensus is [more likely to be] a class of liberal conceptions” than a single one. In conceding that members of the well-ordered society are unlikely to live up to justice as fairness, Rawls would seem to have conceded that they are also unlikely to live autonomously. This is exactly the conclusion some commentators have drawn. I contend that the likelihood of “reasonable pluralism about justice” does not have the implication …Read more
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51Waldron on political legitimacy and the social minimumPhilosophical Quarterly 45 (179): 218-224. 1995.
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47St. Thomas Aquinas on Politics and Ethics (review)Review of Metaphysics 42 (3): 638-640. 1989.Teachers of Thomas Aquinas's ethical and political thought will welcome Paul Sigmund's St. Thomas Aquinas on Politics and Ethics. Sigmund's book includes an incisive introduction treating of St. Thomas's life, sources and influence, eighty densely packed pages of newly retranslated selections from Thomas's works, background texts from Aristotle, Augustine, and Pseudo-Dionysius, and over one hundred pages excerpted from the works of those whom St. Thomas has influenced and those who have interpre…Read more
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44Relational equality, inherent stability, and the reach of contractualismSocial Philosophy and Policy 31 (2): 92-113. 2015.
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39Contractualist Liberalism and Deliberative DemocracyPhilosophy and Public Affairs 24 (4): 314-343. 1995.
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39Review of Samuel Freeman, Justice and the Social Contract: Essays on Rawlsian Political Philosophy (review)Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews 2007 (7). 2007.
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39Natural Law, Property, and RedistributionJournal of Religious Ethics 21 (1). 1993.In his essay "Natural Law, Property, and Justice," B. Andrew Lustig argues for what he calls "significant correspondences" between John Locke's theory of property and scholastic theories of property on the one hand, and between Locke's theory and contemporary Catholic social teaching on the other. These correspondences, Lustig claims, establish an intellectual "tradition of property in common." I argue that linking Aquinas--even via Locke--to the redistributivism of contemporary Catholic social …Read more
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36On John Rawls's a Brief Inquiry Into the Meaning of Sin and FaithJournal of Religious Ethics 40 (4): 557-582. 2012.ABSTRACT This essay challenges the view that John Rawls's recently published undergraduate thesis A Brief Inquiry into the Meaning of Sin and Faith provides little help in understanding his mature work. Two crucial strands of Rawls's Theory of Justice are its critique of teleology and its claims about our moral nature and its expression. These strands are brought together in a set of arguments late in Theory which are important but have attracted little sustained attention. I argue that the targ…Read more
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36Rawlsian Liberalism and the Privatization of Religion: Three Theological Objections ConsideredJournal of Religious Ethics 22 (1). 1994.Liberal political theorists are often accused of "privatizing" religion; the work of philosopher John Rawls has been especially subject to this criticism. I begin by examining what is meant by "privatization." I then consider the criticisms of Rawls advanced by Timothy Jackson, David Hollenbach, and John Langan. I argue (1) that Rawls does not privatize religion to the extent that his critics believe and (2) that criticisms of what privatization of religion Rawls does defend cannot be sustained.
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35Citizenship, Reflective Endorsement and Political AutonomyModern Schoolman 78 (2-3): 135-149. 2001.
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31Comment: Reciprocity and the Rise of PopulismRes Publica 26 (3): 423-431. 2020.It has recently been contended that the rise of populism in the US, culminating in the election of Donald Trump, vindicates liberal political theory, and the liberal political theory of John Rawls in particular. For the election of someone like Trump is just what Rawls’s theory would lead us to expect. Rawls’s theory would lead us to expect it because Rawls thought that if a liberal democracy is to be stable, it must satisfy the demands of reciprocity. But there is ample evidence that the contem…Read more
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30Augustine's political philosophyIn Eleonore Stump & Norman Kretzmann (eds.), The Cambridge Companion to Augustine, Cambridge University Press. pp. 234--252. 2001.
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30Solidarity and the New InequalityJournal of Religious Ethics 47 (2): 311-336. 2019.Economists now have the data to generate a high‐resolution picture of the economic inequalities within the very top fractions of income and wealth and between the top‐most fractions and others that have emerged since the early 1980s. I shall refer to these inequalities collectively as “the new inequality.” I argue that the moral value of solidarity can be used to raise pointed moral questions about the new inequality. In most cases, however, I shall raise such questions without answering them. F…Read more
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29Inclusive Ends, Dominant Ends, and PoliticsProcess Studies 40 (2): 260-278. 2011.I have argued elsewhere that the overall method that is required in liberal political philosophy is that of reflective equilibrium and that this method can be best understood in processual terms. In the present article I try to show how neoclassical (and other) theists can bring their convictions to bear in a politically liberal society, within the confines of this method, in a rational (rather than irrational or mad) manner.
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29Politics and the Order of Love: An Augustinian Ethic of Democratic CitizenshipPhilosophical Review 120 (1): 130-134. 2011.
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28The Critical Pragmatism of Alain Locke: A Reader on Value Theory, Aesthetics, Community, Culture, Race, and Education (edited book)Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. 1999.In its comprehensive overview of Alain Locke's pragmatist philosophy this book captures the radical implications of Locke's approach within pragmatism, the critical temper embedded in Locke's works, the central role of power and empowerment of the oppressed and the concept of broad democracy Locke employed
Notre Dame, Indiana, United States of America
Areas of Specialization
Social and Political Philosophy |
Areas of Interest
Social and Political Philosophy |