Jeffery Nicholas
Providence College, Philosophy, Faculty Member
- Philosophy of Anthropology, Critical Social Theory, Science Fiction, Philosophical Anthropology, Midwifery (Archaeology), Pop Culture and philosophy, and 26 moreCritical Theory, Political Philosophy, Catholic Social Teaching, Ideology, Ethics, Alasdair MacIntyre, Social and Cultural Anthropology, Political Theory, Hermeneutics, Indigenous Archaeololgy, Philosophy, Meaning of Life, Evolutionary Anthropology, Philosophy of Social Science, Mesoamerican Archaeology, Feminist Philosophy, Identity Politics (Political Science), Thomistic Philosophical Anthropology, Continental Philosophy, Indigenous Studies, Paleoanthropology, Law and Politics, North American (Archaeology), Theodore Schatzki, Ethnology, and Frankfurt Schooledit
- I am working on three projects: 1. A paper and book proposal on Catholic social thought and the common good. 2. A p... moreI am working on three projects:
1. A paper and book proposal on Catholic social thought and the common good.
2. A paper arguing that Midwifery is a MacIntyrean practice.
3. A paper setting an agenda for critical theory that brings Alasdair MacIntyre into the discussion.
I have many other ideas on the back-burners but have forced myself to concentrate on these three projects for 2014.edit
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Stephen Toulmin , Return to Reason Reviewed by.
Research Interests:
Lenore Langsdorf, Stephen H. Watson, and Karen A. Smith, eds. , Reinterpreting the Political: Continental Philosophy and Political Theory Reviewed by.
Research Interests:
O livro que ora apresentamos aos leitores é um esforço de registrar parte importante da produção vigente no Brasil1 em torno da obra filosófica de MacIntyre, bem como o diálogo acadêmico que mantemos com diversos pesquisadores da Europa,... more
O livro que ora apresentamos aos leitores é um esforço de
registrar parte importante da produção vigente no Brasil1 em torno
da obra filosófica de MacIntyre, bem como o diálogo acadêmico que
mantemos com diversos pesquisadores da Europa, América do Sul
e América do Norte. Assim, conta com a participação de autores
brasileiros, norte-americano, argentino, espanhóis e italianos,
caracterizando-se como uma publicação marcada pela cooperação
acadêmica internacional, mas voltado essencialmente para o leitor e o estudante brasileiro não profícuos em línguas d´alhures,
disponibilizando todos os textos em nossa língua pátria – e aqui
agradecemos a preciosa ajuda dos colegas brasileiros que
traduziram voluntária e gratuitamente os textos e que também nos
auxiliaram nas revisões técnica e textual de cada uma delas, algo que
felizmente ainda conseguimos contrastar com o perverso espírito
não-comunitário e acumulador do capitalismo que nos cerca.
Esperamos que o livro possa ser ferramenta útil para a
pesquisa entre aqueles que se interessam sistematicamente pela
obra de MacIntyre, bem como aqueles que querem se aproximar
dela sem qualquer pretensão de um estudo verticalizado. O livro
será bastante proveitoso para ambos os tipos de leitores, pois inclui
trabalhos resultantes de estudo sistemático, bem como provê uma
visada de diversos problemas filosóficos que a obra macintyriana
alcança em sua reflexão. E, como o subtítulo o expressa, é um
esforço também de não apenas apresentar ou reproduzir as teses
existentes no pensamento do próprio MacIntyre, mas de dialogar
com ele e sua filosofia, demarcando a interlocução que este mantém
com diferentes filósofos – Aristóteles, Tomás de Aquino, Gadamer,
Horkheimer, Charles Taylor, Nietzsche, Marx –, e também
pensando junto com ele e em diálogo com outros autores que
MacIntyre originalmente não tratou direta ou indiretamente em sua
obra – Hannah Arendt, Éric Weil, Waldenfels, M. Midgley, Paul
Feyerabend e Emannuel Mounier.
registrar parte importante da produção vigente no Brasil1 em torno
da obra filosófica de MacIntyre, bem como o diálogo acadêmico que
mantemos com diversos pesquisadores da Europa, América do Sul
e América do Norte. Assim, conta com a participação de autores
brasileiros, norte-americano, argentino, espanhóis e italianos,
caracterizando-se como uma publicação marcada pela cooperação
acadêmica internacional, mas voltado essencialmente para o leitor e o estudante brasileiro não profícuos em línguas d´alhures,
disponibilizando todos os textos em nossa língua pátria – e aqui
agradecemos a preciosa ajuda dos colegas brasileiros que
traduziram voluntária e gratuitamente os textos e que também nos
auxiliaram nas revisões técnica e textual de cada uma delas, algo que
felizmente ainda conseguimos contrastar com o perverso espírito
não-comunitário e acumulador do capitalismo que nos cerca.
Esperamos que o livro possa ser ferramenta útil para a
pesquisa entre aqueles que se interessam sistematicamente pela
obra de MacIntyre, bem como aqueles que querem se aproximar
dela sem qualquer pretensão de um estudo verticalizado. O livro
será bastante proveitoso para ambos os tipos de leitores, pois inclui
trabalhos resultantes de estudo sistemático, bem como provê uma
visada de diversos problemas filosóficos que a obra macintyriana
alcança em sua reflexão. E, como o subtítulo o expressa, é um
esforço também de não apenas apresentar ou reproduzir as teses
existentes no pensamento do próprio MacIntyre, mas de dialogar
com ele e sua filosofia, demarcando a interlocução que este mantém
com diferentes filósofos – Aristóteles, Tomás de Aquino, Gadamer,
Horkheimer, Charles Taylor, Nietzsche, Marx –, e também
pensando junto com ele e em diálogo com outros autores que
MacIntyre originalmente não tratou direta ou indiretamente em sua
obra – Hannah Arendt, Éric Weil, Waldenfels, M. Midgley, Paul
Feyerabend e Emannuel Mounier.
Research Interests:
From the enslavement of blacks and the enslavement and genocide of fifty-seven million First Nation Peoples, to the genocide of Jews in Nazi Germany, Muslims and Bosnians in Bosnia-Herzegovina, of Tutsis in Rwanda, Cambodians by Pol Pot,... more
From the enslavement of blacks and the enslavement and genocide of fifty-seven million First Nation Peoples, to the genocide of Jews in Nazi Germany, Muslims and Bosnians in Bosnia-Herzegovina, of Tutsis in Rwanda, Cambodians by Pol Pot, Russians by Stalin, and Armenians in Turkey, combined with the rape of the Earth and peoples in resource rich countries through post-colonialism, the 19th and 20th centuries taught us to fear community and a state adoption of the good. Today, this fear causes us to tremble when we see women earn 76 cents for every dollar men earn, when we see women subjected to a rape-culture in which 1 in 3 are raped during their college years, when we see our black brother Eric Garner choked to death on video and discover our black brothers and sisters incarcerated at rates higher than any other group in a country with the highest incarceration rate in the world, when we see that 1 in 3 First Nation women are raped typically by non-First Nation brothers or discover that 1 in 6 First Nation brothers commit suicide due to the horribly oppressive conditions they live in, when we see our Hispanic brothers and sisters shot on sight when crossing into the US or witness them lose fingers as they work for slave-wages in chicken-processing plants, when we see our Muslim brothers and sisters subject to harassment, unjustified search, and murder, when we hear the stories of or see the nets to prevent our Asian brothers and sisters from throwing themselves out of buildings where they work in hot, dirty, and restrictive environments to build our batteries and our computers, and when we see our sisters sold into sexual slavery so that masturbating men can direct women over the internet to shove various objects into their vaginas and anuses. Our human task, and the task of practical philosophy, is to alleviate suffering especially when caused by oppression and domination like that listed above.
The fundamental category of practical philosophy (human life) is human agency. All humans exercise agency for some good. We seek the good both individually and socially. The good the individual seeks is only known once the goods the community seeks are discovered, as I shall argue below. Thus, individual agency rests on social agency. If correct, then this analysis means that the fundamental category of human agency is the common good and the fundamental category of human action is the community. Does the prioritization of the common good and the community before the individual stand in contrast with our need to fight against oppression? Does it not support that oppression rather than provide a means for relieving it? Does it not in fact require a rejection of diversity?
I shall argue that, in fact, diversity is necessary for understanding the common good and for achieving the common good. We can only conceive of the common good by conceiving of diversity, and we can only achieve the common good when we live in diverse communities.
I shall begin by presenting the strongest arguments against diversity. Before I can reply to these objections, I will first need to define diversity. Many arguments rest on a poor understanding of how we use the concept of diversity when thinking about social justice. Because human agency is the fundamental category of human life, then diversity in the relevant political sense is a category of human agency. Even more than diversity, the concept of the common good is contested. To defend my conception of the common good as common goods of a community, I shall show that other conceptions of the common good—the good of the whole, the greatest good for the greatest number, public goods, and Maritain’s conception of the common good—fail to uplift human agency. Rather, human agency rests on the communal discovery of common goods. Such discovery entails theoretically and practically the inclusion of difference, sometimes necessarily and some times instrumentally depending on whether the difference is essential or accidental to human agency and identity.
The fundamental category of practical philosophy (human life) is human agency. All humans exercise agency for some good. We seek the good both individually and socially. The good the individual seeks is only known once the goods the community seeks are discovered, as I shall argue below. Thus, individual agency rests on social agency. If correct, then this analysis means that the fundamental category of human agency is the common good and the fundamental category of human action is the community. Does the prioritization of the common good and the community before the individual stand in contrast with our need to fight against oppression? Does it not support that oppression rather than provide a means for relieving it? Does it not in fact require a rejection of diversity?
I shall argue that, in fact, diversity is necessary for understanding the common good and for achieving the common good. We can only conceive of the common good by conceiving of diversity, and we can only achieve the common good when we live in diverse communities.
I shall begin by presenting the strongest arguments against diversity. Before I can reply to these objections, I will first need to define diversity. Many arguments rest on a poor understanding of how we use the concept of diversity when thinking about social justice. Because human agency is the fundamental category of human life, then diversity in the relevant political sense is a category of human agency. Even more than diversity, the concept of the common good is contested. To defend my conception of the common good as common goods of a community, I shall show that other conceptions of the common good—the good of the whole, the greatest good for the greatest number, public goods, and Maritain’s conception of the common good—fail to uplift human agency. Rather, human agency rests on the communal discovery of common goods. Such discovery entails theoretically and practically the inclusion of difference, sometimes necessarily and some times instrumentally depending on whether the difference is essential or accidental to human agency and identity.
