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Thomas A Spragens, Professor

Thomas A Spragens
Contact Info:
Office Location:  313 Perkins Library
Office Phone:  +1 919 660 4313
Email Address:  

Teaching (Fall 2008):

Education:

PhD, Duke University, 1968
A.B. with High Honors and Distinction, Wesleyan University, 1963
Specialties:

Political Theory
Research Interests: 17th, 18th, 19th, and 20th Century

Professor of Political Science, specializes in modern political theory and the contemporary theory of liberal democracy. He has written The Dilemma of Contemporary Political Theory: Toward a Post-Behavioral Science of Politics, The Politics of Motion: The World of Thomas Hobbes, and Understanding Political Theory. His book, The Irony of Liberal Reason, published by the University of Chicago Press, examines the impact of changing conceptions of rationality upon the liberal tradition. A sequel to that volume, entitled Reason and Democracy provides a constructive account of the relationship between rational practices and democratic institutions. His most recent book, Civic Liberalism: Reflections on Our Democratic Ideals, which was awarded the Elaine and David Spitz Book Prize for 2001, argues for a more complex and ambitious set of democratic aspirations than those found in the most prominent alternative theories. His current research examines changes in American liberalism over the past several decades. Professor Spragens has received fellowship awards from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Rockefeller Foundation. He has served on the editorial board of The Journal of Politics and is a co-editor of The Responsive Community.

Curriculum Vitae
Recent Publications   (More Publications)

  1. T.A. Spragens, Beyond Bigotry and Nihilism: Moral Judgment in Pluralist Democracies, in Naming Evil, Judging Evil, edited by Ruth Grant (2006), University of Chicago Press .
  2. T.A. Spragens, Populist Perfectionism: The Other American Liberalism, Social Philosophy and Policy (forthcoming Spring 2007) .
  3. T.A. Spragens, Democratic Reasonableness, Contemporary Review of International Social and Political Philosophy (forthcoming Fall 2007/Spring 2008) .
  4. T.A. Spragens, The Transformation and Decline of American Liberalism (forthcoming) .
  5. T.A. Spragens, Theories of Justice, Rights, and Duties: Negotiating the Interface Between Normative and Empirical Theory, in Human Rights and Duties: Psychology's Contributions, the Law's Commentary, edited by Norman J. Finkel and Fathali M. Moghaddam (2005), Washington, D.C.: American Psychological Association .