Books by Eric Thomas Weber
Columbia University Press, 2021
I t is hard to find a basis for hope in the world today. Gains in the struggle for women's histor... more I t is hard to find a basis for hope in the world today. Gains in the struggle for women's historic equality are eroded when politicians' demeaning stances toward women and dismissal of their testimony about sexual assault become commonplace and accepted. 1 Progress in civil rights is met with explosive growth in privatized prisons disproportionately populated by minority citizens, police brutality commonly resulting in no indictments of officers, and even angry white mobs bearing torches in defense of Confederate monuments. 2 The United States elected a champion of anti-intellectualism and unfettered capitalism who raises concerns of fascism. 3 And his challengers are charged with being in the pockets of finance capitalism and having rigged primary elections. 4 The potential for war is heightened at a time when the most powerful politician in the world speaks loosely about the use of nuclear weapons. 5 The national organization of public education is also under threat, and the head of the U.S. Department of Education is rolling back regulations intended to protect and address the interests of students with educational-accessibility needs and vulnerabilities. 6 Nearly a third of American voters polled genuinely believe today in the potential for another civil war, all while favoring protectionist economic policies that are hurting the very people they were intended to help. 7 And Americans have elected a president who has fought to hide the findings and release of a national climate assessment in which more than a dozen federal agencies warn of "substantial damages" and climate effects that are "intensifying across the country." 8 Americans today desperately need guidance in intellectual and moral leadership. As I hope that this book will make clear, John Dewey was an exemplary public philosopher who sought to provide Americans and lovers of democracy Introduction Democratic Faith and Education in Unstable Times dewe19894_1st_pp.indb 1 14/08/20 3:57 PM dewe19894_1st_pp.indb 2 14/08/20 3:57 PM Democratic Faith and Education in Unstable Times m 3-1-0-+1 difficult today to imagine that the general public might know American philosophers by name: Highly educated circles often know Peter Singer, Martha Nussbaum, or Michael Sandel. And some philosophers have local followings or are rising stars, but Dewey became well known all while being generally a mildmannered and humble professor of philosophy, one who nevertheless often addressed the public in writings and speeches. Dewey's soft-spoken good character was familiar, but the relation between his philosophical ideas and his consequent motivation to be publicly engaged as a writer and speaker has gone underappreciated, including by prominent, self-proclaimed Deweyans like Richard Rorty. 11 While general audiences will benefit from a return to Dewey's wisdom and example, scholars in the academy stand to learn a great deal, including about a possible path forward for a new movement of engaged public scholarship that is still only burgeoning, even now. It would be especially valuable if this volume were to inspire administrators and leaders in higher education to make meaningful in reality, practice, and policy their generally empty statements and vague allusions to valuing publicly engaged scholarship. 12 John Dewey was born in Burlington, Vermont, on October 20, 1859, to Archibald and Lucina Dewey. He studied at the University of Vermont, graduating in 1879, and then taught for three years, first at the high school level in Oil City, Pennsylvania, until 1881, and then at the elementary level in Charlotte, Vermont, until 1882. His time in Oil City left some lasting impressions on him, given that it was an industrial-age town at its prime. In addition, he had a vague but powerful "mystic experience," a "supremely blissful feeling" that led him to abandon his earlier worries about the need for adequate prayer to a supernatural being and to focus on experience and his relation to other people. 13 Dewey attended Johns Hopkins University, where he earned his Ph.D. in 1884. As a student, he participated in and gave presentations before the Metaphysical Club, the subject of Louis Menand's 2002 Pulitzer prize-winning book on American philosophers. 14 Upon earning his doctorate, he accepted a position as instructor at the University of Michigan, where two years later he was appointed assistant professor of philosophy in 1886. That year, he married Harriet Alice Chipman, and the next year he published his Psychology, which gained little academic attention. In 1888, he accepted an offer from the University of Minnesota, only to be courted back to the University of Michigan in 1889 to become chair and professor of philosophy. The same year, he published "The Value of Historical Christianity," included in this volume. In that essay, he noted the moral benefits of certain Christian principles and teachings, which he saw as residing in human beings' concerns for one another, as well as the joining of the divine in humanity, which Jesus embodied. In this essay, we find an early expression of Dewey's
Uniting Mississippi is a short book which considers Mississippi as a prime context for testing ou... more Uniting Mississippi is a short book which considers Mississippi as a prime context for testing out a philosophically informed theory of democratic leadership. Governor William Winter has agreed to write a foreword for the book. The book begins with an examination of Mississippi’s apparent Catch-22, which the author believes can be overcome. First, in chapter 1, the problem of poverty is reconsidered, since the approach to addressing poverty has for so long been unsuccessful. Next, in chapter 2, the challenges of educational failure are explored to reveal the extent to which there appears to be a caste system of schooling, in which certain groups of people are educated in schools that are underfunded and failing. The ideals of democracy reject hierarchical citizenship, and thus are tested in Mississippi. In chapter 3, therefore, theories of good leadership in general and of democratic leadership in particular are introduced to show how Mississippi’s challenges could be addressed for the sake of democratic values. The book draws on insights from classical and contemporary philosophical outlooks on leadership, which highlight four key social virtues: wisdom, courage, moderation, and justice. Within this framework, Mississippi’s problems of poverty and educational frustration are approached in a novel way that is applicable in and beyond the rural South. In chapters 4, 5, 6, and 7, each of the virtues of democratic leadership is emphasized with application to particular problems and areas of public policy. The book concludes with some overarching lessons to draw and values to advance in addressing Mississippi’s problems and opportunities for progress. Finally, a set of 7 of the author’s editorial essays are included in the appendix as examples of engagement in public inquiry for the sake of democratic leadership.
"'Democracy and Leadership: On Pragmatism and Virtue' presents a theory of leadership drawing on ... more "'Democracy and Leadership: On Pragmatism and Virtue' presents a theory of leadership drawing on insights from Plato’s Republic, while abandoning his authoritarianism in favor of John Dewey’s democratic thought. The book continues the democratic turn for the study of leadership beyond the incorporation of democratic values into old-fashioned views about leading. The completed democratic turn leaves behind the traditional focus on a class of special people. Instead, leadership is understood as a process of judicious yet courageous guidance, infused with democratic values and open to all people.
The book proceeds in three parts, beginning with definitions and an understanding of the nature of leadership in general and of democratic leadership in particular. Then, Part II examines four challenges for a democratic theory of leadership. Finally, in Part III, the book tests the theory of democratic leadership in addressing problems of poverty, educational frustration, and racial divides, particularly aggravated in Mississippi.""
The goal of this book is to present an experimentalist approach to the problems of ethics in publ... more The goal of this book is to present an experimentalist approach to the problems of ethics in public policy grounded on John Dewey’s philosophy. Leaders in public policy face some unique challenges regarding the framing of problems, policy prioritization or agenda setting, as well as challenges of addressing the concerns of citizens who hold to conflicting religious and moral doctrines. This book is intended for students and leaders in public policy and for philosophers interested in how leaders in public matters can fuse the many important moral considerations that must be addressed in public settings concerning policy.
In Rawls, Dewey, and Constructivism, Eric Weber examines and critiques John Rawls' epistemology a... more In Rawls, Dewey, and Constructivism, Eric Weber examines and critiques John Rawls' epistemology and the unresolved tension - inherited from Kant - between Representationalism and Constructivism in Rawls' work. Weber argues that, despite Rawls' claims to be a constructivist, his unexplored Kantian influences cause several problems. In particular, Weber criticises Rawls' failure to explain the origins of conceptions of justice, his understanding of "persons" and his revival of Social Contract Theory. Drawing on the work of John Dewey to resolve these problems, the book argues for a rigorously constructivist approach to the concept of justice and explores the practical implications of such an approach for Education.
A Culture of Justice is a fusion of the insights of John Dewey and Richard Rorty to address chall... more A Culture of Justice is a fusion of the insights of John Dewey and Richard Rorty to address challenges for John Rawls's work, regarding the extent to which culture can inhibit or enable the pursuit of justice. I argue that institutions are empowered or frustrated by culture, but institutions can also help reshape cultures for the better. The book will address the challenges in the way of Rawls's theory of justice with help from the Pragmatists' ideas about shaping culture democratically and with democratic values.
Papers by Eric Thomas Weber
Transactions of the Charles S. Peirce Society, 2023
This essay explores key values of John Lachs’s work, especially freedom, diversity, and human flo... more This essay explores key values of John Lachs’s work, especially freedom, diversity, and human flourishing, when applied to the history of the philosophy of education as well as to the practical problems of policy
and implementation today in American schools. I consider the importance and tensions involved in these values in the thinking of Plato, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and John Dewey. Next, I examine necessary and then avoidable challenges of operationalizing freedom and diversity in schools,
especially in tensions with recent policy initiatives that threaten freedom and diversity for human flourishing. The aim here is to note the central importance of the values that Lachs has long championed, while attending also to the risks and dangers that misunderstanding and narrow thinking pose about them when applied to American public schools. Ultimately, I argue that while advocacy for liberty sometimes raises profound problems in the sphere of public education, democratic education is enriched immeasurably when it enables and empowers freedom to pursue diverse forms of flourishing.
Contemporary Pragmatism, 2023
This paper examines Larry A. Hickman’s warnings about the dangers of algorithmic technologies for... more This paper examines Larry A. Hickman’s warnings about the dangers of algorithmic technologies for democracy and then considers educational policy initiatives that are important for combatting such threats over the long term. John Dewey’s philosophy is considered both in Hickman’s work and in this paper’s review of what Dewey called the “Supreme Intellectual Obligation.” Dewey’s insights highlight crucial tasks necessary and called for with respect to education to value and appreciate the sciences and what they can do to serve humanity. At the same time, a significant cultural effort is needed to ensure that schools are empowered to do this vital work and that the public is informed and enabled to demand the leadership and initiatives that democracy needs to safeguard against threats to it.
Education and Culture, 2022
John Dewey argued that for education to be democratic, it is important
for students to be not mer... more John Dewey argued that for education to be democratic, it is important
for students to be not merely spectators but also participants in learning. Teachers sometimes find personal computing devices to be distracting or to contribute to passivity rather than activity in the classroom. In this essay we examine the question of whether a student’s Google search on a subject matter discussed in class is participatory or passive. We argue that with proper guidance students’ use of online searches and related tools can empower students democratically as sources of ideas, conceptualizations, information, and insight while emphasizing
participation in deliberation and judgment in the classroom. We begin with a look at the criticisms and then defenses of using online tools in the classroom. Finally, we examine Dewey’s distinction between the spectator versus the participant models of learning to apply his insights to the use of online tools in the classroom.
Disability and American Philosophies, 2022
In this essay, I will explain challenges I see in three philosophical norms commonly held -- 1) w... more In this essay, I will explain challenges I see in three philosophical norms commonly held -- 1) wanting a life for our children better than our own; 2) the idea that human beings are the rational animals; and 3) that the unexamined life is not worth living -- and then argue that an outlook like stoic pragmatism represents a most promising point of view from which parents of children with disabilities might pursue happy lives for themselves, their families, and their society. This outlook additionally suggests principles and implications for practice and policy relevant to the work of teachers, administrators, and policymakers.
Essays in Philosophy, 2020
This essay defends the Pragmatist’s call to activism in higher education, understanding it as a n... more This essay defends the Pragmatist’s call to activism in higher education, understanding it as a necessary development of good democratic inquiry. Some criticisms of activism have merit, but I distinguish crass or uncritical activism from judicious activism. I then argue that judicious activism in higher education and in philosophy is not only defensible, but both called for implicitly in the task of democratic education as well as an aspect of what John Dewey has articulated as the supreme intellectual obligation, namely to ensure that inquiry is put to use for the benefit of life.
Preface Acknowledgments Part I The Nature of Leadership and the Democratic Turn Chapter 1 Leaders... more Preface Acknowledgments Part I The Nature of Leadership and the Democratic Turn Chapter 1 Leadership, Old and New: Aims and Definitions Chapter 2 Lessons from Plato Chapter 3 Dewey on Democratic Leadership Chapter 4 Democratic Political Leadership Part II Intellectual, Moral, and Cultural Challenges for Leadership Chapter 5 Wisdom in Pragmatic Humanism Chapter 6 How Is Leadership Learned? Chapter 7 Democratic Leadership, East and West Chapter 8 Ethics and Justice for Democratic Leadership Part III A Test for Democratic Leadership Chapter 9 Democracy and Leadership in Mississippi Chapter 10 Conclusion Appendixes
Essays in Philosophy, 2020
This essay defends the Pragmatist's call to activism in higher education, understanding it as a n... more This essay defends the Pragmatist's call to activism in higher education, understanding it as a necessary development of good democratic inquiry. Some criticisms of activism have merit, but I distinguish crass or uncritical activism from judicious activism. I then argue that judicious activism in higher education and in philosophy is not only defensible, but both called for implicitly in the task of democratic education as well as an aspect of what John Dewey has articulated as the supreme intellectual obligation, namely to ensure that inquiry is put to use for the benefit of life.
In this paper, four leaders of the Society of Philosophers in America (SOPHIA) argue that there a... more In this paper, four leaders of the Society of Philosophers in America (SOPHIA) argue that there are public, shared needs and benefits for people to develop communities of philosophical conversation. We believe that there are seeds for philosophical community that need space to grow. We offer a plan and resources for starting, building, and maintaining such communities.
Public Philosophy Journal, 2019
In this paper, four leaders of the Society of Philosophers in America (SOPHIA) argue that there a... more In this paper, four leaders of the Society of Philosophers in America (SOPHIA) argue that there are public, shared needs and benefits for people to develop communities of philosophical conversation. We believe that there are seeds for philosophical community that need space to grow. We offer a plan and resources for starting, building, and maintaining such communities. Abstract
John Lachs's Practical Philosophy, 2018
In the liberal tradition, self-respect is most often associated with Kantian moral philosophy, wh... more In the liberal tradition, self-respect is most often associated with Kantian moral philosophy, which suggests a focus on individual responsibility. While the individual plays a part in the development of his or her self-respect, so, too, do his or her environmental and cultural conditions. In this essay, I distinguish between conceptions of self-respect, especially those that focus on it as a duty to oneself, and having a “sense of one’s own positive power,” a Deweyan educational ideal. A sense of positive power is partly directed by the individual but is also clearly conditioned by the ways in which one’s culture treats and reacts to one’s efforts. Thus, a sense of positive power, as a concept, reveals the powerful role of one’s wider culture in frustrating or enabling a vital element of personal growth necessary for justice. I test the distinction with respect to the difficult and harmful charge of “acting white,” which concerns self-respect and the role of oppressive forces conditioning people’s senses of their power in an unjust society.
This is a commentary essay written in response to John Lachs's keynote presentation, titled "The ... more This is a commentary essay written in response to John Lachs's keynote presentation, titled "The Costs of Comfort," delivered at the annual meeting of the Southwestern Philosophical Society meeting in 2015. Lachs argues that the comfort that modern life affords comes at costs inherent in our way of life. He also challenges advocates for reform, given that they sometimes fail to appreciate the benefits which come to yield the comforts that so many people enjoy. In this commentary essay I respond to Lachs about various forms of such costs, highlighting those which are avoidable and unnecessary, and especially those which arise intentionally for the sake of oppression and private benefit. Both are cause for concern and demonstrate the need for justice and reformers, however endless the pursuit of such justice may be.
In this paper, I argue that justice is best understood as an evolving regulative ideal. This fram... more In this paper, I argue that justice is best understood as an evolving regulative ideal. This framework avoids cynicism and apathy on the one hand as well as brash extremism on the other. I begin by highlighting the elusive quality of justice as an ideal always on the horizon, yet which is nevertheless meaningful. Next, I explain the ways in which it makes more sense to see justice as evolving, rather than as fixed. Finally, I demonstrate the value of Charles Sanders Peirce’s concept of a regulative ideal for framing a pragmatist outlook on justice. Peirce helps us at the same time to appreciate ideals yet to let go of outmoded understandings of their metaphysical status. Ideals are thus tools for regulating behavior. Each of these
qualifications demonstrates that justice is best conceived of as an evolving regulative ideal.
Uploads
Books by Eric Thomas Weber
The book proceeds in three parts, beginning with definitions and an understanding of the nature of leadership in general and of democratic leadership in particular. Then, Part II examines four challenges for a democratic theory of leadership. Finally, in Part III, the book tests the theory of democratic leadership in addressing problems of poverty, educational frustration, and racial divides, particularly aggravated in Mississippi.""
Papers by Eric Thomas Weber
and implementation today in American schools. I consider the importance and tensions involved in these values in the thinking of Plato, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and John Dewey. Next, I examine necessary and then avoidable challenges of operationalizing freedom and diversity in schools,
especially in tensions with recent policy initiatives that threaten freedom and diversity for human flourishing. The aim here is to note the central importance of the values that Lachs has long championed, while attending also to the risks and dangers that misunderstanding and narrow thinking pose about them when applied to American public schools. Ultimately, I argue that while advocacy for liberty sometimes raises profound problems in the sphere of public education, democratic education is enriched immeasurably when it enables and empowers freedom to pursue diverse forms of flourishing.
for students to be not merely spectators but also participants in learning. Teachers sometimes find personal computing devices to be distracting or to contribute to passivity rather than activity in the classroom. In this essay we examine the question of whether a student’s Google search on a subject matter discussed in class is participatory or passive. We argue that with proper guidance students’ use of online searches and related tools can empower students democratically as sources of ideas, conceptualizations, information, and insight while emphasizing
participation in deliberation and judgment in the classroom. We begin with a look at the criticisms and then defenses of using online tools in the classroom. Finally, we examine Dewey’s distinction between the spectator versus the participant models of learning to apply his insights to the use of online tools in the classroom.
qualifications demonstrates that justice is best conceived of as an evolving regulative ideal.
The book proceeds in three parts, beginning with definitions and an understanding of the nature of leadership in general and of democratic leadership in particular. Then, Part II examines four challenges for a democratic theory of leadership. Finally, in Part III, the book tests the theory of democratic leadership in addressing problems of poverty, educational frustration, and racial divides, particularly aggravated in Mississippi.""
and implementation today in American schools. I consider the importance and tensions involved in these values in the thinking of Plato, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and John Dewey. Next, I examine necessary and then avoidable challenges of operationalizing freedom and diversity in schools,
especially in tensions with recent policy initiatives that threaten freedom and diversity for human flourishing. The aim here is to note the central importance of the values that Lachs has long championed, while attending also to the risks and dangers that misunderstanding and narrow thinking pose about them when applied to American public schools. Ultimately, I argue that while advocacy for liberty sometimes raises profound problems in the sphere of public education, democratic education is enriched immeasurably when it enables and empowers freedom to pursue diverse forms of flourishing.
for students to be not merely spectators but also participants in learning. Teachers sometimes find personal computing devices to be distracting or to contribute to passivity rather than activity in the classroom. In this essay we examine the question of whether a student’s Google search on a subject matter discussed in class is participatory or passive. We argue that with proper guidance students’ use of online searches and related tools can empower students democratically as sources of ideas, conceptualizations, information, and insight while emphasizing
participation in deliberation and judgment in the classroom. We begin with a look at the criticisms and then defenses of using online tools in the classroom. Finally, we examine Dewey’s distinction between the spectator versus the participant models of learning to apply his insights to the use of online tools in the classroom.
qualifications demonstrates that justice is best conceived of as an evolving regulative ideal.
Freud presented many of the same, original arguments to justify the unconscious, without any acknowledgement of James’s refutations. Some scholars in the last few decades have claimed
that James was in fact a supporter of a Freudian unconscious, contrary to expectations. In this essay, I first summarize Freud’s justification for the unconscious to highlight the arguments he
used in 1915, before then demonstrating how clearly James had undercut these same argument in the Principles, published in 1890. Interpreters of James’s thought should resist the claim that
he would or did support Freud’s idea of the unconscious, even if he at times spoke generously about other scholars. We also have reason to wonder about Freud’s inattention to James’s remarkable early work in psychology, especially given James’s critiques of the concept of the unconscious.
with the bad. In the wake of Charleston's mass murders, it could not be clearer that heritage is harming the country.
This piece calls for support for prison education as a means of treating inmates with respect and working sincerely with them on "correction," not only incarceration. Reduced recidivism alone makes the process economically worthwhile, but more important, I argue, is the need to take inmates seriously as human beings with intelligence and great potential for self-respect and positive power to lead meaningful lives upon release from prison.
free political discourse. Societies which repress political discourse thereby reveal a spreading crack in their governments' claims on legitimate authority.