David Reidy

See Also: Complete CV

My Ph.D. is from the University of Kansas, my J.D. from Indiana University, and I joined the department in 2000. I am also an Adjunct Associate Professor of Political Science and a Lindsay Young Professor in the College of Arts and Sciences.

Research Interests

Issues in contemporary political philosophy, especially those arising out of the work of John Rawls:  public reason, political constructivism, state neutrality, international justice, etc.; issues in applied political philosophy:  hate crimes legislation, compulsory education, living wage legislation, integrity and political office, reparations issues; and the philosophy of law, especially the Hart/Dworkin debate, the democratic legitimacy of judicial review, and critical legal theory.  Longer term I plan to undertake an intellectual biography of John Rawls.

Recent, representative publications

• Books
  • Coercion and the State. Springer Publishing. With Walter Riker, co-editor, 2008.
  • Rawls. Ashgate Publishing.  Edited collection, 2008.
  • On the Philosophy of Law. Monograph, “Philosophical Topics” series. Wadsworth, 2006. 224 pp.
  • Rawls's Law of Peoples: A Realistic Utopia? Blackwell, 2006. With Rex Martin, co-editor.
  • Universal Human Rights: Moral Order in a Divided World.  Rowman and Littlefield, 2005. With Mortimer Sellers, co-editor.
    
    
• Articles & Chapters
  • "John Rawls." IVR Encyclopedia of Philosophy of Jurisprudence, Legal Theory and Philosophy of Law, 2008, at http://www.ivr-enc.info/en/topics.php?what=listAll
  • "Three Human Rights Agendas."  Canadian Journal of Law and Jurisprudence, v. 19, n.2, pgs. 237-255, 2006.
  • "The Structural Variety of Historical Injustices." Journal of Social Philosophy, v. 37, n. 3, pgs. 360-376, 2006.  With Jeppe von Platz, co-author.
  • “A Just Global Economy: In Defense of Rawls.” The Journal of Ethics, v. 11.2, pgs. 193-236, 2007.
  • “Reciprocity and Reasonable Disagreement: From Liberal to Democratic Legitimacy.” Philosophical Studies, v. 132, pgs. 243-291, 2007.
  • “Relativism, Self-Determination and Human Rights,” Democracy in a Global World: Human Rights and Political Participation in the 21st Century, Deen Chatterjee, ed., Rowman and Littlefield. 2007. With James Nickel, co-author.
  • "An Internationalist Conception of Human Rights." The Philosophical Forum, v. 36, pgs. 367-397, 2005.
  • “Hate Crimes Laws: Progressive Politics or Balkanization?” Civility and its Discontents: Civic Virtue, Toleration and Social Fragmentation, Chris Sistare, ed., Univ. Press of Kansas, 2004.
  • “Rawls on International Justice: A Defense.” Political Theory, v. 32, pgs. 291-319, 2004.
  • “Hate Crimes, Oppression and Legal Theory.” Public Affairs Quarterly , v. 16, pgs. 259-285, 2002. Awarded Berger Prize, American Philosophical Association, Committee on Law and Philosophy, 2005.
  • “Justice and the Tutelary State.” Southern Journal of Philosophy, v.40, pgs. 97-122, 2002.
  • “Pluralism, Liberal Democracy and Compulsory Education.” Journal of Social Philosophy, v. 32, pgs. 585-609, 2001.
  • "Rawls's Wide View of Public Reason: Not Wide Enough." Res Publica v.6, pgs. 49-72, 2000.

Recent, representative presentations

• "Human Rights, International Law, and Global Politics." Vanderbilt School of Law, 2008.
  
  
• "Human Rights:  Matching Agendas and Institutions." Society for Philosophy and Public Policy, APA Pacific Division Meeting, San Francisco, 2007
  
  
• “Political Authority, Minimal Legitimacy and Human Rights in Talbott’s Which Rights Should be Universal?” American Philosophical Association, Author Meets Critics Session, Pacific Division, Portland, 2006.
  
  
• “Corrective Justice, Reparations and Rawls’s The Law of Peoples.” Part of two day symposium on reparations and international/global justice. World Congress of Social Philosophy and Philosophy of Law (IVR), Spain, 2005.
  
  
• “Reciprocity Confronts Reasonable Disagreement.” American Philosophical Association, Pacific Division, Pasadena, 2004.
  
  
• “Justice and the Global Economy in Rawls’s The Law of Peoples.” Global Justice Conference (With APA Pacific Division Meeting), Pasadena, 2004. American Philosophical Association, Central Division, Chicago, 2004.
  
  
• “Religious Conviction and Democratic Politics: Is Reconciliation Possible?” Marshall Steele Center for Religion and Philosophy, Hendrix College, Arkansas, 2004.

Teaching Interests

Social and political philosophy, philosophy of law, and ethics.

Recent, representative courses

Introductory courses include ethical theory, social and political philosophy, philosophy of law. Advanced courses include contemporary theories of justice, human rights/global justice, Rawls, history of political philosophy, history of ethics, philosophical foundations of democracy, and topics in philosophy of law.

Professional/Community Interests

I am active in the International Society for Social Philosophy and Philosophy of Law and serve on the Executive Board of the American Section of that society.

I am an active organizer of various symposia and speakers series. I have co-organized international symposia on Rawls’s ‘The Law of Peoples’ and on reparations issues in the international setting. And I have organized or co-organized local symposia or speakers series on the philosophical issues in educational policy, on philosophical issues raised by developments in the biological sciences, on Jeffrey Stout’s ‘Democracy and Tradition’, on democratization as a foreign policy aim, on global justice, and other topics.

I referee for a number of professional journals and academic presses. I serve on the editorial board of Human Rights Review.

And I speak at local churches and civic organizations on a range of topics, including faith and citizenship, economic justice, and the virtue of integrity.

Contact Information

David Reidy
Associate Professor
801 McClung Tower
Knoxville, TN 37996-0480

Phone: 865-974-7210
Fax: 865-974-3509

Email: dreidy@utk.edu