Social and Political Philosophy

Many of our faculty and the courses they teach reflect a strong interest in social and political philosophy. We are thus interested in a wide array of issues, including agency, freedom, and subjectivity; art, the aesthetic, and the political; civil rights and discrimination; community; conflict resolution; cultural criticism; environmental policy; liberalism; the state and legitimation; and violence and war.

Given the make-up of our faculty, we approach such matters from a variety of perspectives, such as deconstruction, environmental philosophy, feminism, Marxism and critical theory, peace studies, the philosophy of law, post-colonial thought, pragmatism, and race theory. Moreover, such inquiries are often pursued in dialogue with the history of philosophy (e.g. Plato, Aristotle, Locke, and Hegel) and across disciplinary boundaries (e.g. ethnic studies, legal and social theory, and women’s studies).

Recent and Prospective Courses:

Aristotle’s Politics
Derrida and Nancy
Feminist Political Theory
Law and Society
Topics in Critical Theory
Rawls and Rawlsiana

Faculty:

John Lysaker
Cheyney Ryan
Peter Warnek
Naomi Zack