"Natural Right and Biology"--A Book Project

This week, I have been celebrating my appointment as a "Presidential Research Professor" at Northern Illinois University, which will begin in July.

One of the benefits of this position is that it will allow me to take a year off from teaching in 2009-2010 to work on a new book. My thinking about this book project has been changing. But as of now, what I have in mind is a book that might be entitled Natural Right and Biology: A Darwinian History of Political Philosophy.

In Darwinian Natural Right and Darwinian Conservatism, I have defended the idea that an Aristotelian conception of natural right might be reformulated as rooted in a Darwinian understanding of human nature and human history. In this new book, I foresee elaborating this idea through a Darwinian account of natural right moving through the history of political philosophy.

My tentative sketch of chapters for this book looks like this:

1. DARWINIAN HUMAN NATURE

2. ANCIENT NATURAL RIGHT: ARISTOTLE

3. MEDIEVAL NATURAL LAW: AQUINAS

4. MODERN NATURAL RIGHTS: HOBBES, LOCKE, AND ROUSSEAU

5. THE NATURAL HISTORY OF HUMANITY: HUME, SMITH, AND WESTERMARCK

6. LIBERTY AND JUSTICE: HAYEK, RAWLS, AND NUSSBAUM

Yes, I know, it's ridiculously ambitious. But I'm going to give it a try.