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Curriculum Vitae

Current Research

Book Projects

• Aristotelian Liberalism (Based on my dissertation.)
• I also want to edit an anthology of essays on Aristotelian liberalism.

Working Papers

• “Aristotelian-Liberal Autonomy” (Also my philosophy M.A. thesis, see below; I plan on revising and shortening it for publication.)
• “Moral Legislation and Democracy: The Devlin-Hart-Dworkin Debate Revisited.”
• “Life, Death, and Harm: An Austro-Aristotelian Account.” (Last Updated: 08-19-05) (See here for my research proposal and annotated bibliography submitted to IHS in application for their summer research fellowship. Update: Unfortunately, I was not awarded the fellowship, but I did get to present the paper at their Social Change Workshop, June 2005.)
• “Ayn Rand, the Austrians, and Aristotelian Apriorism?” (I presented this paper at this year’s Austrian Scholars Conference in Auburn under the title “On Praxeology and the Question of Aristotelian Apriorism. So far it is sans Rand and work still needs to be done on the rest, but a healthy start has been made.)
• “On the Myth of the Founder-Legislator in Political Philosophy.”
• “On the Social Contract and the Persistence of Anarchy.”
• “Roman Virtue, Liberty, and Imperialism: The Murder-Suicide of Classical Civilization.”
• “On the Origin and Poverty of State-of-Nature Theorizing.”
• “Against Idealism: Rand and Daubert vs. Husserl’s Ideas I.”

Papers I want to write (when I get the time)

• “Is Libertarianism Only a Political Philosophy?”
• “The Speaker for the Dead: Narrator of the Search for Eudaimonia.”
• “On the Free Market and Eudaimonia: Nonexchangeable Goods, Praxeology, and Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs.”
• “In Defense of Crusoe and the ERE: Culture and Imaginary Constructions in Economic Theory.”
• “Rousseau and Marx Against Society: The Necessity of the Division of Labor.”
• “Enlightenment Constructivist Rationalism and Social Engineering.”
• “The Search for Something to Be.”
• “The Roots of the Totalitarian Impulse.”
• “Democracy, Gnosticism, and Political Religions.”
• “The Ethics of Nonviolence.” (Hint: It won’t be a defense of pacifism, but rather will be an attempt to lay out an Aristotelian framework for distinguishing when violent and nonviolent resistance are justified both politically (i.e., by justice and rights) and, in the broader context, morally (i.e., in terms of the virtues).)

Publications

Journal Articles

• 2007. “Atlas Shrugged and the Importance of Dramatizing Our Values.” Journal of Libertarian Studies Vol. 21, No. 4 (Winter): 25-36. Symposium Issue on the 50th Anniversary of Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged. (Invited)

Chapters in Books

1. 2009. “Freedom Is the Right of All Sentient Beings.” Transformers and Philosophy: More Than Meets the Mind. Popular Culture and Philosophy Series. Edited by John Shook and Liz Stillwaggon. Chicago: Open Court Publishing Company.

Book Reviews

1. 2007. “A Review of Mark A. Young’s Narrating the Good Life: Aristotle and the Civil Society (2005).” Journal of Value Inquiry Vol. 41, No. 2-4 (December): 387-393.

Ph.D. Dissertation in Political Science (May 2009)

• Aristotelian Liberalism: An Inquiry into the Foundations of a Free and Flourishing Society (It can also be found at LSU’s Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Library.)
  • Prospectus
  • Front Matter (Title page, acknowledgments, table of contents, abstract)
  • Chapter One: Introduction
  • Chapter Two: Eudaimonia and the Right to Liberty: Rights as Metanormative Principles
  • Chapter Three: Eudaimonia, Virtue and the Right to Liberty: Rights as Both Metanormative Principles and Interpersonal Normative Principles
  • Chapter Four: Eudaimonia and the Basic Goods and Virtues
  • Chapter Five: Liberal and Communitarian Conceptions of Society
  • Chapter Six: The New Left and Participatory Democracy
  • Chapter Seven: Immanent Politics and the Pursuit of Eudaimonia
  • Chapter Eight: Free Markets and Free Enterprise: Their Ethical and Cultural Principles and Foundations
  • Chapter Nine: Conclusion
  • Bibliopgraphy and Vita

M.A. Thesis in Philosophy (December 2006)

• “Aristotelian-Liberal Autonomy” (It can also be found at LSU’s Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Library.)

M.A. Thesis in Political Science (August 2004)

• “Tyranny, Natural Law, and Secession” (My manifesto!…er, I mean Master’s Thesis. It’s long as theses go, but virtually guaranteed to blow your socks off unless you are already a radical libertarian. Can be found at LSU’s Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Library.)

Other Essays

Reaction Papers

Written for in-class presentation, these were generally written in a rush the day before and/or late at night. I don’t necessarily agree with everything in these (anymore) but they are interesting.

• Machiavelli and Voegelin vs. “Machiavellianism”
• On John Milton’s Areopagitica
• On Algernon Sidney’s Discourses Concerning Government
• Feudal and Canon Law vs. Liberal Law
• On Liberty
• Platonic Idealism: Too High a Standard for Political Activity (Upon reflection, perhaps unrealistic standard would be more apt.)
• Roman Imperialism and the Murder-Suicide of Classical Civilization
• On Roman Liberty, Virtue, and Eudaimonia
• On Tyranny, Virtue, and Habituation to Subjection

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