February 26, 2013

Note: This is the rough start to a larger treatment of this issue. In the works of Rawls, religion, as a concept is largely conceptualized as mainstream Western religion. This includes both Protestant and Catholic strands of Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. In particular, I think that Rawls primarily has mainline Protestantism, the faith of his youth, in mind when he thinks of people of faith accepting an overlapping consensus about a political conception of justice. The moral assumptions of mainline... Read more

February 25, 2013

This page will serve as a bibliography/works cited page for my dissertation project posts. It will be updated at sources are added. Bloom, Allan David. Giants and Dwarfs: Essays, 1960-1990. London: Simon and Schuster, 1991 Dombrowski, Daniel A. Rawlsian Explorations in Religion and Applied Philosophy. University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State Univ. Press, 2011. Freeman, Samuel. Justice and the Social Contract: Essays on Rawlsian Political Philosophy. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007. Galston, William. “Driven Up The Rawls.” The New Republic. April 7, 2009. URL: http://www.newrepublic.com/article/politics/driven-the-rawls... Read more

February 25, 2013

The treatment of religion in the philosophy of John Rawls has been a focus of much writing. This writings have generally fallen into two categories: 1. Religious thinkers looking to at the intersection of Rawls’ secular theory of justice and religious social teaching about justice. 2. Discussions the role Rawls gives to religious doctrines in his later arguments for political liberalism and public reason. There will be a substantial review of the above literature as the project proceeds. However, this... Read more

February 24, 2013

NOTE: This post was original post on President’s Day February 18, 2013. This is not meant to be a list of the five best presidents. It is not the five most effective presidents. It is surely neither of these. They are my five favorites. Abraham Lincoln: This may be an easy one for many. For me, as a political theorist, Lincoln is the most interesting. I love studying and contemplating how his views on slavery, always thoughtful and complex, changes... Read more

February 24, 2013

NOTE: This is the first installment in a series on my campaign for Congress. See the introduction to the series here. Why run? I asked myself this question before, during, and since the campaign. You have to be a little crazy. Maybe “crazy” is strong. But you do have to be a little bit crazy to run for office. There is much to be lost and a very small chance of gain. Yep, I am just crazy enough. I was... Read more

February 21, 2013

Dear friends, I am at a crossroads. After finishing the campaign, I left Casper College. I am shifting focus to a number of other projects. However, before I do any of those things…I must finish my dissertation. I have a ways to go. However, I am going to dedicate the rest of February and all of March to push this through. Once I am finished, I will turn my energies to Independence Rock Group: Center for Faith, Ethics, and Social... Read more

February 19, 2013

NOTE: This is the first installment in a series on my campaign for Congress. See the introduction to the series here. Why run? I asked myself this question before, during, and since the campaign. You have to be a little crazy. Maybe “crazy” is strong. But you do have to be a little bit crazy to run for office. There is much to be lost and a very small chance of gain. Yep, I am just crazy enough. I was... Read more

February 18, 2013

Judith Butler is an inspiration to me. She offers some of the most devastating critiques of our modernist approach to…pretty much anything, but particularly  to gender. I had hoped to use Butler a bit in my work on Mormon conceptions of gender. However, Taylor Petrey of Kalamazoo College has already done an amazing job along those lines with his article Toward a Post-Heterosexual Mormon Theology in the Winter 2011 Dialogue.  Today, I would like to share with you a segment from the documentary... Read more

February 16, 2013

Today, my family and I are going to Jackson, WY. We have done this drive a number of times since living in Wyoming. Initially, we made this drive regularly on our way to Rexburg, Idaho where we used to lived. We still own a house there and many of our dearest and closest friends are still there. During my congressional campaign, we went out to Jackson because it is the center of liberal money in Wyoming. It is a well-off... Read more

February 14, 2013

The legal and political philosopher Ronald Dworkin died today in London. He was 81. I must admit that I have never deeply immersed myself in Dworkin’s work. I have been intrigued by his legal philosophy, but I am not familiar with those debates well enough to fully follow them. I found Dworkin’s discussion of the Original Position in the work of John Rawls helpful in coming to my own view of that mechanism of Rawls (Dworkin, 1977). What I have... Read more




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