Dan Brudney


Associate Professor in the Department of Philosophy and the College; Associate Faculty in the Divinity School; Associate Faculty, MacLean Center for Clinical Medical Ethics

Daniel Brudney writes and teaches in political philosophy, philosophy and literature, bioethics. and philosophy of religion. He is the author of Marx's Attempt to Leave Philosophy (Harvard, 1998). His most recent publications are "Are Alcoholics Less Deserving of Liver Transplants?" Hastings Center Report (2007), "On Noncoercive Establishment," Political Theory (2005), "Marlow's Morality," Philosophy and Literature (2003), and "Justifying a Conception of the Good Life: The Problem of the 1844 Marx," Political Theory (2001).

CV (PDF)

Contact

office: Stuart Hall, 218
office phone: 773/702-7546
email: dbrudney@uchicago.edu

Selected Publications

  • "Nineteenth Century Ideals: Self-Culture and the Religion of Humanity," in Allen Wood ed., The Cambridge History of Philosophy in the Nineteenth Century, Cambridge University Press, forthcoming
  • "Just Deserts?" Reply to Critics, Hastings Center Report, May-June 2007
  • "Are Alcoholics Less Deserving of Liver Transplants?" Hastings Center Report, January-February 2007
  • "On Noncoercive Establishment," Political Theory, vol. 33, no. 6, December 2005 (Link)
  • "Marlow's Morality," Philosophy and Literature, vol. 27, no. 2, October 2003. (Link)
  • "Justification and Radicalism in the 1844 Marx: A Response to Professor Abbey," Political Theory, vol. 30, no. 1, February 2002. (Link)
  • "Justifying a Conception of the Good Life: The Problem of the 1844 Marx," Political Theory, vol. 29, no. 3, June 2001; published in German as "Zur Rechtfertigung einer Konzeption des guten (Link)
  • "Lebens beim frühen Marx," Deutsche Zeitschrift für Philosophie, no. 3, 2002.
  • Marx's Attempt to Leave Philosophy, Harvard University Press, 1998.
  • "Lord Jim and Moral Judgment: Literature and Moral Philosophy," The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, vol. 56, Summer 1998. (Link)
  • "Community and Completion," in Reclaiming the History of Ethics: Essays for John Rawls, Cambridge University Press, 1997.
  • "Two Links of Law and Morality," Ethics, vol. 103, January 1993. (Link)
  • "Hypothetical Consent and Moral Force," Law and Philosophy, vol. 10, 1991 (Link)
  • "Knowledge and Silence: The Golden Bowl and Moral Philosophy," Critical Inquiry, Winter 1990. (Link)

Please see my CV (PDF) for a complete list of publications.

Selected Reviews of Brudney's Work

  • Author(s) of Review: Andrew Levine
    Reviewed Work(s): Marx's Attempt to Leave Philosophy by Daniel Brudney
    Ethics, Vol. 111, No. 4 (Jul., 2001), pp. 806-809 (Link)
  • Author(s) of Review: J. M. Bernstein
    Reviewed Work(s): Marx's Attempt to Leave Philosophy by Daniel Brudney
    The Philosophical Review, Vol. 110, No. 2 (Apr., 2001), pp. 275-278 (Link)

 

Recent Courses

21404/31404. Well-Ordered Societies

Open to college and grad students. This course examines several modern attempts to sketch an ideal society. Texts to be read include More, Utopia, Rousseau, On the Social Contract and Rawls, A Theory of Justice. Winter 2006.

21405/31405. Liberalisms

Open to college and grad students. The course looks at three great texts in the liberal tradition: John Locke's Second Treatise of Government, J.S. Mill's On Liberty, and John Rawls's Political Liberalism. We will examine these texts both to explore the evolution of liberalism and to determine the criteria a defensible modern liberalism must satisfy. Autumn 2007.

22501. Medicine and Society: Things, Bodies, Persons

Open to college students. The course explores ethically controversial topics in contemporary medicine such as abortion, the right to die, genetic enhancement, and the role of religion in medicine. The course will be team-taught by faculty from medicine and philosophy. For each topic, we will discuss current dilemmas that arise in clinical medicine, and elucidate the moral bases for different responses to the dilemmas. Winter 2006.

22601/33600. Autonomy and Medical Paternalism

Open to college and grad students. This course is co-taught with Alison Winter and John D. Lantos. Winter 2007, Winter 2008.

24801/34801. 18th and 19th Century Philosophy of Religion

Open to college and grad students. This course focuses on the 18th century philosophical challenge to rational religion, and on the most important 18th and 19th century responses to that challenge. Writers to be examined include Hume, Kant, Schleiermacher and Kierkegaard. Winter 2005.

24801/34801. 18th and 19th Century Philosophy of Religion

Open to college and grad students. This course focuses on the 18th century philosophical challenge to rational religion, and on the most important 18th and 19th century responses to that challenge. Writers to be examined include Hume, Kant, Schleiermacher and Kierkegaard.(A) Autumn 2006.

29600. Junior Seminar

Open to college students. Prerequisites: Open only to third-year students who have been admitted to the intensive concentration program. Topics for this small, discussion-oriented seminar vary. Autumn 2006.

29800. Senior Seminar

Open to college students. Prerequisites: Consent of Director of Undergraduate Studies. Required of fourth-year students who are writing a senior essay. Winter 2005.

29900. B.A. Essay Preparation

Open to college students. Prerequisites: PQ: Consent of B.A. adviser and director of undergraduate studies. Required of fourth-year students who are writing a senior essay. Students are required to submit the College Reading and Research Course Form. In consultation with their B.A. adviser, students work independently in preparation of the B.A. essay. Work is done over the course of the entire senior year; however, students register for this course in either Winter or Spring Quarter. NOTE: Students may not register for both PHIL 29800 and 29900 in the same quarter Spring 2003, Winter 2004, Spring 2005.

43300. Eighteenth- and Nineteenth- Century Phil of Religion

The course will look at major 18th and 19th century philosophical discussions of religion. Writers to be read include Hume, Kant, Schleiermacher, Hegel and Kierkegaard. Winter 2004.

51000. Recent Work in Political Philosophy: Legitimacy Criteria for State Action

Open to grad students. The seminar will attempt to determine the proper criteria of moral legitimacy to regulate action by a modern democratic state. We will examine A. John Simmons' discussion of legitimacy, Rawls's principle of political legitimacy (along with related standards such as Scanlon's contractualism), and finish by looking at several specific legitimacy issues, for instance, the moral constraints on the beliefs the state may promote via public education and the moral constraints on the content of speech by state agents. In looking at these issues, we will read both philosophical texts and recent legal decisions. Winter 2003.

51801. Evil

Open to grad students. The seminar will look at Kant on evil, as well as at the "problem of evil" as it is to be understood both before and after Auschwitz. We will also examine several examples of evil in works of literature. Autumn 2005.

51810. Well-Ordered Societies: Rousseau and Rawls

Open to grad students. Prerequisites: Consent of instructor. The course will examine the concept of a well-ordered society, the specific forms it takes in the work of Rousseau and Rawls, and the most important criticisms of the two writers' social ideals. Spring 2005.

51815. Themes in Recent Political Philosophy: Recognition & Respect

Open to grad students. Over the last few decades, "recognition" has been a buzzword in political philosophy. Everyone, it seems, demands recognition. Yet it is far from clear what this amounts to. Is it a psychological state, and if so, whose psychological state? Or is it perhaps an institutional state of affairs? Moreover, why, precisely, is recognition so important? Does it soothe the soul? Satisfy a basic moral entitlement? Recognition is sometimes said to be connected to "respect." But how? And is that what makes it crucial? In this seminar, we examine central texts from the recognition debates to determine what is at stake and whether what is at stake is in fact of great importance. Spring 2007.