David Thunder
Dr. David Thunder, hailing from Dublin, Ireland, is a political philosopher and a permanent Research Fellow at the University of Navarra’s Institute for Culture and Society in Pamplona, Spain. His research has been supported by two major grants awarded by the Spanish government in recognition of an outstanding research career: a Ramón y Cajal fellowship (2017-2021) and an I3 research consolidation grant (2022-24). David earned his BA and MA in philosophy at University College Dublin, and his Ph.D. in political science at the University of Notre Dame. He has held several research and teaching positions, including Visiting Assistant Professor in Political Theory at Bucknell University (2006-07) and Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Princeton University’s James Madison Program (2008-09), before joining the University of Navarra.
David's research, which aims to develop an ethically rich and psychologically plausible theory of politics and social organisation, exposes the limitations of top-down, Statist models of order and the advantages of bottom-up, community-based approaches to the governance of social life. His working hypothesis is that a federated political and social order granting generous leeway for self-regulation by local and municipal associations and communities, can provide a promising framework for solving social problems and living dignified, flourishing human lives.
David’s academic writings include The Polycentric Republic: A Theory of Civil Order for Free and Diverse Societies (forthcoming with Routledge in 2024), Citizenship and the Pursuit of the Worthy Life (Cambridge University Press, 2014), The Ethics of Citizenship in the 21st Century (edited volume, Springer, 2017), and numerous articles in leading academic journals such as the American Journal of Political Science, Political Theory, and Journal of Business Ethics. He is also co-editor (with Pablo Paniagua) of Polycentric Governance and the Good Society, forthcoming with Lexington Books.
David's passion for the study of freedom goes hand in hand with a passion for promoting a deeper understanding of freedom and its preconditions beyond the "ivory tower." He has given many talks to non-academic audiences, provided advice to elected politicians and political movements, published dozens of op eds on current affairs issues in newspapers such as The Irish Times and El Mundo and digital media platforms such as The Conversation, Mercatornet and the Clingendael Spectator, and conducted dozens of media interviews, including guest appearances on Newstalk (an Irish radio station), TV3's Tonight Show (in Ireland), and GB News. Last but not least, David runs a blog about issues affecting freedom in the West, called The Freedom Blog. For more information and to view a full list of David's publications, see davidthunder.com.
David's research, which aims to develop an ethically rich and psychologically plausible theory of politics and social organisation, exposes the limitations of top-down, Statist models of order and the advantages of bottom-up, community-based approaches to the governance of social life. His working hypothesis is that a federated political and social order granting generous leeway for self-regulation by local and municipal associations and communities, can provide a promising framework for solving social problems and living dignified, flourishing human lives.
David’s academic writings include The Polycentric Republic: A Theory of Civil Order for Free and Diverse Societies (forthcoming with Routledge in 2024), Citizenship and the Pursuit of the Worthy Life (Cambridge University Press, 2014), The Ethics of Citizenship in the 21st Century (edited volume, Springer, 2017), and numerous articles in leading academic journals such as the American Journal of Political Science, Political Theory, and Journal of Business Ethics. He is also co-editor (with Pablo Paniagua) of Polycentric Governance and the Good Society, forthcoming with Lexington Books.
David's passion for the study of freedom goes hand in hand with a passion for promoting a deeper understanding of freedom and its preconditions beyond the "ivory tower." He has given many talks to non-academic audiences, provided advice to elected politicians and political movements, published dozens of op eds on current affairs issues in newspapers such as The Irish Times and El Mundo and digital media platforms such as The Conversation, Mercatornet and the Clingendael Spectator, and conducted dozens of media interviews, including guest appearances on Newstalk (an Irish radio station), TV3's Tonight Show (in Ireland), and GB News. Last but not least, David runs a blog about issues affecting freedom in the West, called The Freedom Blog. For more information and to view a full list of David's publications, see davidthunder.com.
less
InterestsView All (8)
Uploads
Monographs by David Thunder
—Nicholas Wolterstorff, Noah Porter Professor Emeritus of Philosophical Theology, Yale University
Edited Volumes by David Thunder
Journal Articles by David Thunder
quite distinct from the moral judgments or "impositions" of his conscience. With this in mind, I aim in this essay to contribute towards a healing of the breach between the lawyer's reasoning and choices qua lawyer and his reasoning and choices qua human person, i.e. to contribute towards a restoration of the ethical integrity of legal practice, both in the academy and in the profession.
Book Chapters by David Thunder
of social and institutional complexity. I propose to tap into a broadly
neo-Aristotelian account of human flourishing along similar lines to Alasdair
MacIntyre’s, to illuminate the benefits of social complexity and differentiation for humans’ well-being, and infer from this account some fundamental
principles of sound social coordination and good governance. My argument on behalf of social complexity goes further than that of most other authors insofar as it shows, in an explicit way, how a highly differentiated social landscape configured by a plurality of independent normative orders provides an indispensable social infrastructure for free and flourishing human life, and how this ethical interpretation of complexity might shape our approach to social coordination and good governance.
—Nicholas Wolterstorff, Noah Porter Professor Emeritus of Philosophical Theology, Yale University
quite distinct from the moral judgments or "impositions" of his conscience. With this in mind, I aim in this essay to contribute towards a healing of the breach between the lawyer's reasoning and choices qua lawyer and his reasoning and choices qua human person, i.e. to contribute towards a restoration of the ethical integrity of legal practice, both in the academy and in the profession.
of social and institutional complexity. I propose to tap into a broadly
neo-Aristotelian account of human flourishing along similar lines to Alasdair
MacIntyre’s, to illuminate the benefits of social complexity and differentiation for humans’ well-being, and infer from this account some fundamental
principles of sound social coordination and good governance. My argument on behalf of social complexity goes further than that of most other authors insofar as it shows, in an explicit way, how a highly differentiated social landscape configured by a plurality of independent normative orders provides an indispensable social infrastructure for free and flourishing human life, and how this ethical interpretation of complexity might shape our approach to social coordination and good governance.