Article Projects and Working Papers
Below are the titles and abstracts for my article projects and working papers. If you are interested in reading an advanced version of any of these projects please reach out to me via email.
This article seeks to understand the possibility of moral improvement in human social history through a close interpretation of Kant’s A Renewed Attempt to Answer the Question: Is the Human Race Continually Improving? I examine the ways in which Kant’s arguments in this final piece, while often overlooked, complicate his philosophy of history as put forth in earlier works. Through this comparison, one sees important complications in Kant’s thoughts on the philosophy of history at the end of his career, conceding that rightful progress toward a global republicanism is the most we can be sure of. This concession is striking considering Kant’s ambitious goal at the outset to demonstrate the theoretical certainty of moral progress, going well beyond the practical optimism he advocates in earlier works. And yet, despite this concession, Kant is still optimistic about the possibility of moral progress at the end of the piece. This article suggests that Kant’s Renewed Attempt is best understood as a window into Kant’s grappling with the difficulties of constructing a philosophy of history that is consistent with his moral philosophy that reveals an underappreciated complexity of his practical thought.
“Sex, Love, and Violence: Eros and Ambition in Plato’s Republic” (Under Review)
This paper proposes a new approach to understanding political ambition by returning to one of the foundational texts on the subject: Plato’s Republic. It does so through a consideration of the role that eros plays in the psychology of tyranny and argues that erotic longing is an essential element of both tyrannical and philosophic ambition. In doing so, it elucidates a conceptualization of eros unique to the Republic, one that explains the universal and individualistic aspects of ambition and argues for a more central role of eros in Plato’s conception of political ambition than has been recognized within extant scholarship. The Republic shows that while a powerful eros motivates both the philosopher and the tyrant, the philosopher’s love of truth leads him to accept limitations that the tyrant continues to scorn. The very same force that leads to the tranquility and happiness of philosophic life leads the tyrant to dissatisfaction and misery.
“Reconsidering Fear and Trembling: Kierkegaard’s Revitalization of the Theological Problem” (Under Review)
This paper provides a new perspective on the intellectual legacy of one of history’s most controversial thinkers: Søren Kierkegaard. It is undeniable that Kierkegaard’s thought had a profound influence on leftwing political thinkers of the 20th century, most notably Hannah Arendt, Theodore Adorno, and Jean-Paul Sartre. Despite this influence, Kierkegaard himself is almost never seen as a political philosopher. This paper argues that one of his most enigmatic works, Fear and Trembling, must be understood with its social intention in mind. It provides a new interpretation of the text which integrates the work’s preface and epilogue, both of which focus explicitly on the broad impact Kierkegaard wishes to have on the “current generation” of European philosophy, into a wholistic understanding of the text as a social polemic meant to reinvigorate the question of the relationship between philosophy and faith for a European intellectual community that had become blind to its importance in light of the success of the Kantian and Hegelian System. Doing so brings to sight a more unified and successful view of the text than has previously been recognized.
Xenophon’s Authoritarian Personality (Under Review)
What motivates tyrants in their destructive ambition? This paper seeks to answer this question through a study of Xenophon’s Hiero, the only work of ancient political philosophy dedicated wholly to the subject of the tyrant and his psychology. This paper follows Xenophon in his psychological analysis, elucidating two interrelated motives that are fundamental to political tyrants: a desire for praise that is unconcerned with human excellence and a distinct pleasure in crushing personal enemies. It shows that these two seemingly disparate motives stem from a perverse orientation toward politics that forsakes principle in favor of personal allegiances. Through a novel interpretation of the dialogue’s final section, this article clarifies Xenophon’s fundamental critique of all forms of authoritarian rule, an aspect of ancient political theory that has been deeply misunderstood. In doing so, it draws guidance from the Hiero for resisting would-be tyrants and their supporters in our own time.
W.E.B. Du Bois and the Soul of American Higher Education (Working Paper)
What is the purpose of higher education? This question is not new, it has been asked since the beginnings of Western political thought, but in recent years it has taken on renewed urgency within the American academy and beyond it. Within the American tradition, this question was raised perhaps most powerfully by one of its most controversial thinkers: W.E.B. Du Bois. This article follows Du Bois’s thoughts on higher education throughout his career, focusing on the evolution of his thinking on the subject between his early book On the Souls of Black Folk and his later article Education and Work. While some have argued that Du Bois’s later essay represents a rejection of his earlier position based on his turn toward Marxist thought, I argue that there is greater continuity between the pieces than has been recognized. In both pieces, Du Bois sees the good of intellectual life as a combination of private theoretical activity and engagement in public life on the basis of the insights gained from such activity.
Tyranny and Ideology in Xenophon’s Cyropaedia (Working Paper)
The scholarship surrounding Xenophon’s Cyropaedia is generally divided between those who see Cyrus as a charismatic king and those who see him as a Machiavellian prince. The classical tradition of Xenophontic literature emphasizes Cyrus’s morality, his piety, and his selflessness while more recent Straussian interpretations have argued that Cyrus is little more than a shrewd tyrant. This paper strikes a middle ground by arguing that Cyrus is both a shrewd and calculating authoritarian and yet also has a serious concern with virtue and piety. Cyrus’s morality is not an accident of his character but is in fact essential to understanding his political project. That project, to use political rule as a vehicle for transforming the world into a just one in which the virtuous are always rewarded for their sacrifice, represents the most serious challenge that tyranny poses to both liberal politics and to philosophy. This paper elucidates the relationship between the moral side of Cyrus and the tyrannical side and argues that it is precisely this relationship that is the most important aspect of tyrannical psychology in Xenophontic thought. Further, I argue that the understanding of politics shown in the Cyropaedia represents a much deeper awareness of ideological tyranny in ancient thought than has previously been appreciated by scholars. I do so through a comparison of Cyrus’s political project to Hannah Arendt’s description of ideological rule in Origins of Totalitarianism.