Department of
Philosophy

Biography:

I teach courses regularly in Ethics, Social and Political philosophy, 19^th Century philosophy, and Existentialism.  In addition, I teach courses in Human Rights (IHON), Philosophy and Film and topics in European Philosophy.  I offer PHIL 125:  Ethics and the Good Life as a travel course in the J-term, which takes place in England, Germany and Greece.

My area of research and publication is social and political philosophy as it emerges from my interest in the European or Continental tradition of philosophy.  I have published articles in this area as well as a book, Elements of the Utopian (2011).  I am now underway with two projects.  First, I am developing my understanding of political ethics that extends the recent work in realism as it is understood by Raymond Geuss, Bernard Williams and others.  Among other things, this project considers as a practical embodiment of realist politics the work of Sergio Vieira de Mello, the UN official killed in Baghdad in 2003.   Second, I am working on a co-authored book tentatively titled “Wisdom and Vocation From Goethe and the Early German Romantics to W.G. Sebald.”   This book develops an alternative and philosophical (as opposed to theological) account of what it means to be called to one’s own life.  I am also the series co-editor of “Studies in the Thought of Paul Ricoeur,” of which my co-edited book, Paul Ricoeur and the Task of Philosophy, will be the first published in this series.

Education:

• B.A., Carson-Newman College, 1986
• M.Div, Southern Seminary, 1991
• Th.M, Southern Seminary, 1994
• Ph.D, The University of Oregon, 1999