Project Summary

I have not had a lot of opportunities to explain what exactly my research project is about. Here is a basic summary on what my topic is. There is more to say on these issues than just what I say here, but this is supposed to be a brief summary

Broadly speaking I will be writing on ethics and political philosophy. These are really parts of the same topic. Ethics is the study of human normative judgments. It is a normative study in the sense that it is not focused on what people actually believe or do, these descriptive matters are more topics of social science. Ethics as a philosophical discipline is concerned with how people should act and believe.

Political philosophy is a study of social political structures and practices. Again this is not a descriptive study, like political science. Political philosophy is a normative study, concerned with explicating justice. Justice is a normative concept, and a natural extension of ethics. Thus, political philosophy is usually considered to be a sub-discipline of ethics.

My project is, basically, to argue in favor of a alternate view of justice. My alternative is a rehashing of a very old idea, found at least as far back as Plato. I intend to argue that justice is a feature of societies that is analogous to virtue for the individual. So, a just society is not a function of specific laws or policies. Instead justice is a quality of the whole social system.

This is an ambitious argument. There are a number of controversial components. The first is a view of ethics called virtue ethics. This view holds that character traits are the most basic units of ethical evaluation. The more popular competitor to this view is an action based view that holds that human actions are the most basic unit of evaluation. In order to argue for my view I need to attempt to prove that character traits are theoretically basic.

I then plan to argue for a functional agency held by political states. This is an anti-atomistic view of political philosophy. Anatomists hold that individual interests, as opposed to collective interests are important to justice. Collectivism holds that collective interests are important to justice above and beyond mere collections of individual interest. I hold a collectivist view, and argue that the collective interests of the state can be understood to be a pseudo-ethical agent.

The pseudo-agency of the state, coupled with the virtue ethics view means that the most natural evaluation of a just collective agency is a virtuous one. The virtuous state is just due to its instantiation of specific qualities of the collective character. So, the just state will involve state character evaluations above and beyond the mere stewardship of individual concerns.

The practical fallout of this meta-ethical view I reject liberalism. Liberalism is a view of political philosophy that is atomistic, and sees the state as a protector of individual rights, traditionally life, liberty, and property. As well, liberalism has been married to a view of state-neutrality. This holds that the state should be neutral between competing conceptions of the good life, leaving individuals free to adopt their own conceptions of the good. Liberalism is a foundational view of western democracies, particularly the American system.

However I am driven to reject is based on problems with state-neutrality, conception of individual atomism, and negative freedom. Instead I adopt a modified republican view. Republicanism happens to coincide with what I hold to be the appropriate views of justice and ethics. Note: the common uses of liberalism and republicanism as used in our current American popular discussions on politics have very different meanings to the ways I am using the terms here.

Well here is a very basic summary of my project. I kno9w that this is an ambitious attempt, maybe too ambitious. I might need to scale it back at some point. Also there are a lot of holes in my description. Some of those holes are due to the quick treatment on this format, others are still holes in my argument that is not fully worked out.

My Re-Organization

Over the next few days I am going to be re-vamping how I work on my dissertation. It is clear to me that my past study and work habits are not going to be sufficient to accomplish the long term goal of completing this thing.

I have always been an active reader; however, my reading habits are somewhat sporadic. I am attempting to focus my schedule so that I will have a consistent time each day to read. My initial goal is to read one academic article or a book chapter on my dissertation topic each day. I then take less than 1/2 hour to write a short summary of what I have read. This will likely be an improvement over my one or two day a week marathon sessions, and before-bed reading.

I am also setting aside time to write each day. If I do not have any planned writing to work on I will be free writing. The way that I have approached writing in the past has been flawed flawed. I have for most of my academic career waited too long to start a writing project hoping for a lightning bolt of inspiration or an ingenious idea. When no superb insight occurs to me by the deadline I write in a marathon style, burning the midnight oil until I have a first draft. I then have just enough time to do some quick editing for obvious mistakes and turn it in. This method has been basically successful for me so far in my studies, although I am sure that alternative methods would have been superior. However, it will obviously not work for a dissertation. So I have to adapt.

I will be implementing so called SMART goals as I go along. Each week I will establish a worthwhile but attainable objective to meet in my writing and research. I will also be utilizing backward planning to achieve completion of this whole process in a timely and controlled manner.

Well, there you have some insight to the types of changes I am trying to implement. Most of it seems like common sense...that is because it is. However, I need to improve on these areas if I am ever to get where I want to go. Being disciplined and proactive with my time and efforts will hopefully allow me to tackle this project while balancing other obligations to my family, church, teaching, and household.

Welcome

This blog is intended to track my dissertation research and progress. There are a number of reasons why I am creating this journal.

The first is to give updates to my friends and family on just what it is that I am up to, and where I am at in my PhD studies. Every so often I am asked "how much more do you have to go?" etc. This blog will help to keep everyone who is interested just how much I do have to go.

The second has to do with generating discussion and ideas with respect to my views. I am interested in hearing criticism as well as insight and suggestions on how I should proceed. It is certain that many fellow philosophy buffs will disagree, sometimes adamantly with my views and speculations. I am interested in hearing why.

The third and most formative purpose for me to start this blog is a reorganization of my work plan. It has become clear to me that I have not been efficient so far in making progress on my dissertation work. I have been rather hodge-podge in my reading and sporadic in my writing. This blog is part of a conscious attempt on my part to change my work habits to be more effective at this daunting task I am undergoing. Part of my strategy is to publicly declare my goals for reading, writing, deadlines, etc. I am planning on updating this blog weekly, if not more, to update you all on my self-imposed deadlines and progress.

Thanks for your interest.

-Dan