Larry Arnhart is Professor of Political Science in Northern Illinois University. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago and specialises in the history of political philosophy, ethics, philosophy of science, philosophy and history of biology, philosophy and history of the social sciences and biopolitical theory.
Darwinian Conservatism (UK: Imprint Academic, 2005)
Darwinian Natural Right: The Biological Ethics of Human Nature (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1998).
Political Questions: Political Philosophy from Plato to Rawls, first edition (New York: Macmillan Publishing Company, 1987), second edition (Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland Press, 1993).
Aristotle on Political Reasoning: A Commentary on the "Rhetoric" (DeKalb: Northern Illinois University Press, 1981; paperback edition, 1986).
1 comment:
I am just starting to become acquainted with Prof. Arnhart's thought, so please excuse my lack of sophistication in some matters. I am a Conservative of libertarian stripe. I am educated as a physicist and a naturalist, so I lean toward Darwinism. However, in skimming the discussions, I am troubled by one important issue: Determinism. It seems to me that underlying much of the argumentation is the assumption that one's behavior is determined by biological and/or cultural forces. If that is the case, then one's behavior ought to be predictable. Having taken courses and read in the philosophy of science, I know that such a deterministic claim is overreaching. In addition to problems of measurement, Hume's problem of induction and the theorems of Goedel and Tarski undermine any effort to support strict determinism. So, it seems to me that the discussion may need to turn in a different direction.
Post a Comment