Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: The academic study of International Relations emerged in Britain in the wake of World War I, it was marked by a naïve idealism in its first years, but was later weaned of its idealist illusions in a first of several “Great Debates”. This is a myth, and recent scholarship has thrown doubt on whether such a “First Great Debate” really took place. The purpose of this paper is to throw doubt upon the rest of the mythical claims as well: The academic study of International Relations (IR) did not appear after World War I but well before it; it did not appear in Britain but in the USA; and it was certainly not marked by idealist scholarship.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: The paper addresses the roles of conquest and racism as principle explanations for long term inequality among ethnic/racial groups in the United States. It examines the fundamental consequences of nation-building in which Americans of European ancestry forcibly incorporated, subjugated, and expropriated the land and labor of certain peoples of color. It is about the maintenance of privileges won by conquest through the institutionalization of white power and prejudice, and the protracted subordination of native peoples of color, which has disadvantaged them relative both to European-Americans and more recent immigrants, including immigrants of color. The paper develops an incorporation theory of group inequality.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: This paper argues for the importance of Bernard Mandeville's state of nature teaching for our understanding of the development of modern politcal thought and the crisis of modernity begun by Rosseau. Mandeville’s historicizing of the state of nature prefigures Rousseau’s, while differing in critical respects. Thinking through these similarities and differences is useful for our understanding of historicism.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: The appeal to the social contract is supposed to provide a reason to obey the law: we obey because we have agreed to it. But this is a difficult view to make sense of, because it is difficult to explain the nature of this agreement without invoking a reason that goes beyond the contract itself. I argue that Kant's account of the original contract is original because it is structured to avoid just this difficulty.

Publication Type: Session Presentation
Abstract: A short presentation of words, idiomatic expressions and gestures commonly used today but whose origins reflect a rich historical and cultural past. We will explore such origins and the true meaning behind the most commonly used epressions and social gestures which, at one point or another, served to unite generations and also as a form of communication no different than what the "italiase" language did for past generations.