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A New Collection of Essays on Character and the University

A couple of months ago, Marc and I recorded a Legal Spirits episode in which we disagreed a bit about our role as law professors. I think it’s fair to say that Marc believes more than I do that law professors have an obligation to inculcate moral virtues in our students–or at least address moral virtues in our teaching expressly, as occasion allows. By contrast, although I don’t think we should be blind to moral concerns, I view my role in the classroom more as teaching a professional skill. Moral critique is incidental; for character formation, my students will mostly have to look elsewhere (which is no doubt a good thing!). Marc and I each have our reasons, which we explain in the podcast, and anyway we differ only in degree.

A new collection of essays from Pepperdine University Press on the work of the late James Q. Wilson, Character and the Future of the American University, addresses the issue of character formation and university teaching. The editor is scholar James R. Wilburn (also of Pepperdine). Here is the description from the publisher’s website:

One of the most influential social scientists of the past century, James Q. Wilson was best known for his “broken windows” theory of crime. But Wilson considered the study of moral character to be his true life’s work. In Character and the Future of the American University, thirteen eminent thinkers examine the growing significance of Wilson’s seminal work, The Moral Sense, through lenses ranging from political science and public policy to the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences.

Wilson believed that human beings’ innate moral sense holds profound promise for dispelling the darkness that threatens our democracy. Including essays by Wilson, his colleagues, and other distinguished scholars, this book expands on that idea, exploring how reintegrating discussions of morality and character into university curricula could help shape the next generation.

Today, America’s universities face historic challenges and critical decisions. The development of tomorrow’s public leadership—and the very survival of a free society—are at stake. Can a renewed emphasis on character offer the solution? More timely today than ever, Wilson’s thought-provoking message will challenge and inspire readers both inside and outside academia.

Posted on by Jason Mansmann

“Religion and the Morality of the Market” (Rudnyckyj & Osella, eds.)

In April, Cambridge University Press will release Religion and the Morality of the Market edited by Daromir Rudnyckyj (University of Victoria, British Columbia) and Filippo Osella (University of Sussex). The publisher’s description follows:

Religion and the Morality of the MarketSince the collapse of the Berlin Wall, there has been a widespread affirmation of economic ideologies that conceive the market as an autonomous sphere of human practice, holding that market principles should be applied to human action at large. In the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, the ascendance of market reason has been countered by calls for reforms of financial markets and for the consideration of moral values in economic practice. This book intervenes in these debates by showing how neoliberal market practices engender new forms of religiosity, and how religiosity shapes economic actions. It reveals how religious movements and organizations have reacted to the increasing prominence of market reason in unpredictable, and sometimes counterintuitive, ways. Using a range of examples from different countries and religious traditions, the book illustrates the myriad ways in which religious and market moralities are closely imbricated in diverse global contexts.

  • Allows for an exploration and theorization of economic practice through the lenses of the cultures and social relations in which it is embedded
  • Furthers the theorization and comparative analysis of the relations of distinct forms of morality and religion to economies
  • Provides a comparative framework for understanding how market practices and ideologies articulate with specific forms of religiosity or religious traditions
Posted on by Jason Mansmann

“Christianity and the Roots of Morality” (Luomanen et al, eds.)

In May, Brill Publishers will release Christianity and the Roots of Morality: Philosophical, Early Christian and Empirical Perspectives edited by Petri Luomanen (University of Helsinki), Anne Birgitta Pessi (University of Helsinki), and Ilkka Pyysiäinen (University of Helsinki). The publisher’s description follows:

Christianity and the Roots of MoralityWhat is the role of religion, especially Christianity, in morality, pro-social behavior and altruism? Are there innate human moral capacities in the human mind? When and how did they appear in the history of evolution? What is the real significance of Jesus’ teaching in the Sermon on the Mount — does it set up unique moral standards or only crystallize humans’ innate moral intuitions? What is the role of religious teachings and religious communities in pro-social behavior? Christianity and the Roots of Morality: Philosophical, Early Christian and Empirical Perspectives casts light on these questions through interdisciplinary articles by scholars from social sciences, cognitive science, social psychology, sociology of religion, philosophy, systematic theology, comparative religion and biblical studies.

Contributors include: Nancy T. Ammerman, Grace Davie, Jutta Jokiranta, Simo Knuuttila, Kristen Renwick Monroe, Mika Ojakangas, Sami Pihlström, Antti Raunio, Heikki Räisänen (✝), Risto Saarinen, Kari Syreeni, Lauri Thurén, Petri Ylikoski.

Posted on by Christina Vlahos

Miller, “Friends and Other Strangers”

In July, Columbia University Press will release “Friends and Other Strangers: Studies in Religion, Ethics, and Culture,” by Richard B. Miller (University of Chicago Divinity School).  The publisher’s description follows:

Richard B. Miller aims to stimulate new work in religious ethics through discussions of ethnography, ethnocentrism, relativism, and moral criticism; the ethics of empathy; the meaning of moral responsibility in relation to children and friends; civic virtue, loyalty, war, and alterity; the normative and psychological dimensions of memory; and religion and democratic life.

Posted on by Marc O. DeGirolami

Classic Revisited: Hamburger, John Stuart Mill on Liberty and Control

The historian of political ideas, Joseph Hamburger, who spent nearly all of his long and distinguished professional career in the Yale Department of Political Science, was an expert in 18th, but particularly 19th, century British intellectual history.  My little essays on Sir James Fitzjames Stephen as well as some book-related research on Edmund Burke have brought with them the great good luck of an introduction to the writing of this immensely thoughtful and erudite scholar.  Fairly recently, I picked up Professor Hamburger’s book on John Stuart Mill: John Stuart Mill on Liberty and Control (1999).

The thesis of the book is that the strong and unqualified libertarian understanding of Mill — the view that Mill was an unadulterated champion of freedom for its own sake — is very much mistaken.  Relying on the major works (the Logic, On Liberty, Utilitarianism, The Subjection of Women, etc.) as well as on many less well-known writings and letters, Hamburger argues that what interested Mill was liberty and control, and fairly substantial and intrusive types of state and social control at that:

[A]n explanation of Mill’s overarching argument in On Liberty must explain the coexistence of these two apparently opposite positions.  This is made necessary because the provisions for controls were not small exceptions to a general presumption that in most circumstances an expansive liberty ought to prevail . . . . [T]he range of cases in which [Mill] would punish, his approval of punishments for mere dispositions toward conduct that would injure others, and above all, his explanation of his purposes to [his friend] George Grote indicate that his rationale for liberty in combination with control  requires a different explanation.  It is also necessary to explain how, for Mill, the provisions for both control and liberty were not contradictory, but in fact were compatible means of implementing a coherent plan of moral reform.  (18-19)

Professor Hamburger proceeds in the following chapter to discuss the movement of Mill away from an interest in institutional reform (something which always greatly interested Bentham) toward a more ambitious plan for cultural and moral reform (in tandem with and inspired by his wife, Harriet).  He then spends several very interesting chapters discussing Mill’s aim to vanquish Christianity as the de facto social morality and replace it with a “religion of humanity” — the new moral system which would strike the balance between liberty and control properly:

The real task of religion was to direct emotions and desires away from low objects and to be “paramount over all selfish objects of desire.”  Moreover, it ought to make us disinterested: “It carries the thoughts and feelings out of self, and fixes them on an unselfish object, loved and pursued as an end for its own sake.”  Christianity, however, in Mill’s view, did anything but this:

The religions which deal in promises and threats regarding a future life, do exactly the contrary: they fasten down the thoughts to the person’s own posthumous interests; they tempt him to regard the performance of his duties to others mainly as  a means to his personal salvation; and are one of the most serious obstacles to the great purpose of moral culture, the strengthening of the unselfish and the weakening of the selfish element in our nature.  (43, quoting “Utility of Religion”)

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Vischer, “Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Morality of Legal Practice”

Next month, Cambridge University Press will publish Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Morality of Legal Practice: Lessons in Love and Justice by Robert K. Vischer (U. of St. Thomas School of Law). The publisher’s description follows.

This book seeks to reframe our understanding of the lawyer’s work by exploring how Martin Luther King Jr. built his advocacy on a coherent set of moral claims regarding the demands of love and justice in light of human nature. King never shirked from staking out challenging claims of moral truth, even while remaining open to working with those who rejected those truths. His example should inspire the legal profession as a reminder that truth-telling, even in a society that often appears morally balkanized, has the capacity to move hearts and minds. At the same time, his example should give the profession pause, for King’s success would have been impossible absent his substantive views about human nature and the ends of justice. This book is an effort to reframe our conception of morality’s relevance to professionalism through the lens provided by the public and prophetic advocacy of Dr. King.

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Kaveny, “Law’s Virtues: Fostering Autonomy and Solidarity in American Society”

This October, Georgetown University Press will publish Law’s Virtues: Fostering Autonomy and Solidarity in American Society by Cathleen Kaveny (University of Notre Dame). Kaveny will present her book on September 20 at a lunchtime seminar at the Berkley Center. The publisher’s description follows.

Can the law promote moral values even in pluralistic societies such as the United States? Drawing upon important federal legislation such as the Americans with Disabilities Act, legal scholar and moral theologian Cathleen Kaveny argues that it can. In conversation with thinkers as diverse as Thomas Aquinas, Pope John Paul II, and Joseph Raz, she argues that the law rightly promotes the values of autonomy and solidarity. At the same time, she cautions that wise lawmakers will not enact mandates that are too far out of step with the lived moral values of the actual community.

According to Kaveny, the law is best understood as a moral teacher encouraging people to act virtuously, rather than a police officer requiring them to do so. In Law’s Virtues Kaveny expertly applies this theoretical framework to the controversial moral-legal issues of abortion, genetics, and euthanasia. In addition, she proposes a moral analysis of the act of voting, in dialogue with the election guides issued by the US bishops. Moving beyond the culture wars, this bold and provocative volume proposes a vision of the relationship of law and morality that is realistic without being relativistic and optimistic without being utopian.

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Bradley, “Essays on Law, Religion, and Morality”

This month, St. Augustine’s Press will publish Essays on Law, Religion, and Morality by Gerard V. Bradley (University of Notre Dame Law School). The publisher’s description follows.

The most controversial foundational issue today in both legal philosophy and constitutional law is the relationship between objective moral norms and the positive law. Is it possible for the state to be morally “neutral” about such matters as marriage, the family, religion, religious liberty, and – as the Supreme Court once famously phrased it – “the meaning of life”? If such neutrality is possible, is it desirable? Read more