Nicholas Musings

I’m a writer, philosopher, social critic, and teacher. The social critic must use his writing and teaching to promote the ultimate goal of human society: the fullest development of the human person in all of her dimensions. Philosophy aids in highlighting the logic of thought and structures of oppression and domination that prevent the development of the human person. Speculative fiction aids this goal by shedding light on the human person and imagining the ultimate logic of the current social situation as well as the promise of freedom in that situation. I’m a convert to Roman Catholicism, but find in its social teachings much that illuminates principles of justice that can guide human beings as active designers of their local, national, and global world. This teaching begins with the understanding of natural law, based on the dignity of the human person, as aimed at human fulfillment in this life as preparation for blessed life in the next. Love underlies all. This site is dedicated to exploring the promise and peril in contemporary understandings of human nature, society, culture, and politics for the future development of the human person.

Philosophy, the final frontier. These are the musings of the philosopher.... Nicholas. His infinite telos: to seek out new conceptual systems, to discover new ideas, to boldly think what no one has thought before.

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ABOUT THIS SITE
This site has two groups of people in mind: academic philosophers and the lay person interested in philosophy and theology pop up in every day life and culture. You will find information about me and my teaching and research, a blog about social justice issues, information about my research projects (including outlines of current projects), and links to philosophers and websites I think relevant to the material presented here.

Philosophy

My work centers on questions of the good life, particularly questions relating to living the good life (ethics) and constructing a just society (social justice issues). My primary research consists in developing an Aristotelian-Thomistic Critical Theory of Society that brings together insights from Aristotle and Thomas Aquinas, Marx, Frankfurt School Critical Theory (Horkheimer, Marcuse, Fromm), and modern day Thomists such as Jacques Maritain, Alasdair MacIntyre, and Charles Taylor, and, finally, Catholic Social Teaching. I work on developing a theoretical account of the good life and applying Aristotelian-Thomistic principles to practical issues, like midwifery. I have written and presented on practical reason, individualism, egalitarianism, midwifery and technology, and natural law, among other things.

Teaching

My classroom combines lecture and active learning techniques, such as group debates, presentations, and discussion. I emphasize primary text in some courses, while using fiction and interdiscipinary texts in other courses. My goal is to help students grasp the material and articulate it in their words, to develop an understanding of the practice of philosophy and an appreciation of the Aristotelian and Thomistic traditions, and to come to a philosophical understanding of ideas about the good life and debates about social justice. The hope is that students become able to articulate philosophical ideas in their own words and to analyze and develop their own ideas about the good life and the good society from a more theoretically informed position.



My Curriculum Vitae

PHILOSOPHY LINKS

ISME
Center for Contemporary Aristotelian Studies
Ethics Updates
Catholic Social Teaching

Social Justice Links
Story of Stuff
Unnatural Causes

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