Keith Douglas' Web Page

About me Find out who I am and what I do.
My resumé A copy of my resumé and other documentation about my education and work experience for employers and the curious.
Reviews, theses, articles, presentations A collection of papers from my work, categorized and annotated.
Current research projects What I am currently working on, including some non-research material.
Interesting people People professionally "connected" to me in some way.
Interesting organizations Organizations I am "connected" to. (Some rather loosely.)
Intellectual/professional influences Influences on my work, including an organization chart. Here you can also buy many good books on philosophy and other subjects via amazon.com. I have included brief reviews of hundreds of books.
Professional resources Research sources, amazon.com associates programs, etc.
What is the philosophy of computing? A brief introduction to my primary professional interest.
My intellectual heroes A partial list of important people. Limited to the dead.
My educational philosophy As a sometime teacher I've developed one. Includes book resources.

Book Influences - Political Philosophy

Title
Author
Purchase / Enjoy Cover
Comment
A Theory of Justice Rawls The most famous work of 20th century political philosophy.
Anarchism: Arguments For and Against Meltzer This is a tiny book about (left wing) anarchism. Answers objections posed in the mouths of communists, fascists, liberal democrats, trade unionists, etc. (It also repeats, alas, the stupid notion that Einstein designed the atomic bomb.)
De l'Esprit des Lois, I Montesquieu One of the first modern books of political science and a work in political philosophy, after a fashion.
De l'Esprit des Lois, II Montesquieu One of the first modern books of political science and a work in political philosophy, after a fashion.
Democracy and Education Dewey Dewey defends the importance of education for functioning democracies.
Escape from Leviathan: Liberty, Welfare and Anarchy Reconciled Lester A rather sloppy book of political philosophy in the right libertarian tradition. Does not even attempt to engage his critics fairly or the social science which refutes his thesis. Also continues the tradition of turning Popper into Ayn Rand, a thesis which is also utterly ridiculous.
Evolution of the Social Contract Skyrms A brief primer on evolutionary game theory.
Justice and Equality Macleod (ed.) This is CJP Supplementary Volume 36 which seems to be almost a commemoration of the work the recently (then - it was put together in 2010) deceased Gerry Cohen. Clear enough as content goes, but the topic does seem a bit "narrow" - it isn't, really, but everything seems so circumscribed. I do like having different forms of egalitarianism explained, and some "practical topics" of immigration reform and education policy are addressed. This is good, because there's a tendency to think of political philosophy at the sort of A Theory of Justice level where the consequences are hard to see.
Post-Scarcity Anarchism Bookchin Bookchin's most useful thesis is that traditional notions of sociopolitical organization are obselete, or at least should be, since the conditions under which they developed are far from present now. Unfortunately, it is not clear that "we" will be in a post-scarcity situation for very long, as well.
Readings in Social and Political Philosophy Stewart (ed.) I bought this used when a colleague challenged me to read social and political philosophy. I agreed on the condition that he read some philosophy of science. Unfortunately, he did not live up to his end of the bargain. I have had the book ever since, which is a collection of writings: exerpts and papers from a variety of authors (Rawls, Nozick, Locke, Scanlon, etc.).

 

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