I am primarily interested in topics in moral
and political philosophy, both as they emerge in the writings
of some of the great figures in the history of philosophy and as they are
discussed by contemporary philosophers.
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Some of the specific topics that interest me are: what is the nature of happiness and the best human life? What is involved in being morally good, and how does one become good? Is being good a matter of the sort of character one has, or is it a matter of the principles upon which one acts? Are morality and happiness opposed or compatible? |
What is the role
of reason and reflection in the best life? To what extent is one
responsible for one's own actions and one's own character? What political
communities are conducive to living well? What is a just political
association?
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Each of the courses I teach addresses some of these topics, whether the course is about the relationships between work, parenting, and friendship and love (Philosophy 235: Feminism and Philosophy); the democracy of ancient Athens (Philosophy 205: Introduction to Ancient Thought); |
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the nature of the just state (Philosophy 350: Contemporary Political Philosophy); the relationship between freedom and morality (Philosophy 345: Contemporary Moral Philosophy); or a study of the major traditions in western moral and political philosophy (Philosophy 300: Topics in Classical Philosophy, Philosophy 310: Hobbes to Kant, and Philosophy 312: Mill to Freud). |
(For more detailed description of the courses I regularly teach, see the Philosophy Department home page.)
If you are interested to see how I discuss
these questions in some published papers, you might want to look at the
following: (1) "Virtue and Self-Love in Aristotle's Ethics", The
Canadian Journal of Philosophy, December, 1981;
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(2) "The Pleasure of Virtue in Aristotle's Moral Theory", Pacific Philosophical Quarterly, January/April, 1985; (3) "Feminism and Aristotle's Rational Ideal", in A Mind of One's Own: Feminist Essays on Reason and Objectivity, eds. L. Antony and C. Witt, Westview Press, 1992; |
(4) "On the Malleability of Character," in On Feminist Ethics and Politics, ed. Claudia Card, Kansas University Press, 1999.
