Political Theory Project, a Profile

There is something innately impressive about an intelligent, eloquent lecturer. But can such eloquence be exported from the classroom and imported into the arena of debate? Are good lecturers also good debaters? Jesse Maddox ’08 has taken this question head-on. With support from Professor John Tomasi, who was initially approached as a possible participant, Maddox designed and organized the Janus Forum. The Janus Forum lecture series has expanded beyond executive director Maddox’s dreams and into a prime medium for intellectual discourse at Brown.

The new forum focuses on having four “high-quality, medium-size” lectures each year, according to Maddox. Each lecture brings together two well-known academics with opposing opinions on relevant social and political topics. The Janus steering committee determines the topic each event addresses and its opposing participants. The committee is composed of representatives from The College Democrats, The College Republicans, Queer Alliance, ACLU, Reformed University Fellowship, and Democracy Matters.

This year’s topics including intellectual diversity, feminism, globalization, and the United States Constitution. The committee gets students involved in intellectual discourse on these issues by giving out a “Hard Ball” question award and sponsoring an essay contest pertaining to the event. The “Hard Ball” award challenges attendees to ask difficult and thought provoking questions, while the essay contest promotes further deliberations and deep thought after the event. Maddox also reports that there is a “Softball” question award for questions that don’t quite make the cut, but the committee has declined to award one as of yet.

The Janus Forum lecture series is one of the student-led components of the Political Thoery Project which was founded by Tomasi. The Political Theory Project aims to create “a space where students of good faith, and diverse viewpoints, can come together to debate one another other, freely and passionately, about the most pressing political problems of our day.” This Project is organized around three main themes: The American Experiment; Market Society and Social Order; and Globalization and Development. The Project also sponsors undergraduate courses, a lecture series, weekly Liberty Luncheons, academic conferences, research fellowships for graduate students, faculty research, and a postdoctoral fellowship program. The Project’s ultimate goal is to provide a space for “free and passionate” debate.

John Tomasi, the founder and current director of the PTP, is an assistant professor in the political science department who specializes in political theory, ethics, and public policy. He is also the author of Liberalism Beyond Justice: Citizens Society and the Boundaries of Political Theory. Adam Tebble, the assistant director, specializes in classic liberal political theory as well as the politics of culture and identity. As political philosophers, Tomasi and Tebble aren’t interested in Democrats and Republicans or the right and the left, but instead the project focuses on political theory and ethics. For example, the Project hosts an “Open Seminar in Philosophy, Politics and Economics,” a bi-weekly luncheon meeting held at the faculty club. The Open Seminar brings together undergraduates and post-doctoral fellows to engage in a discussion on a designated topic. These seminars spur on the discussion of great works of political philosophy such as Thomas Paine’s “Of the Origin and Design of Government” and John Stuart Mill’s “Of Individuality.”

The project even sponsors its own independent concentration, “Philosophy, Politics, and Economics,” which is pending approval by the University. The concentration provides breadth and structure of study in which concentrators are required to complete an eight-class Core.
The Project hosts the University’s annual Constitution Day Lecture. This lecture series “examines how the Constitution has shaped American culture, American lives and the place of the United States in the World.” This year’s lecture: “Beyond Rights: The Constitution’s Reponses to Hate Speech” was given by Corey Brettschneider, Associate Professor of Political Science at Brown.

The Political Theory Project also brings research fellows to Brown as part of their post-doctoral research program. Current fellow Jason Brennan specializes in moral and political philosophy, but also studies metaethics, environmental ethics, economics, and the philosophy of science. His interests also include the history of philosophy, with special regard to Kant, Mill, Hume, and Smith. His dissertation, “The Best Moral Theory Ever: The Merits and Methods of Moral Theorizing”, investigates the norms, methods, epistemology, and goals of moral theory. Brennan is teaching freshman seminar, PS 82-05: Freedom.

Fellow Michael Frazer focuses on early modern political philosophy—particularly British sentimentalism and its German critics—and its relevance for contemporary political theory. His dissertation and current book project, The Enlightenment of Sympathy: Sentimentalist Political Philosophy from Hume to Herder, defends a psychologically holistic approach to political philosophy through an examination of Enlightenment-era debates about justice and the moral sentiments. Frazer teaches a senior seminar, PS 182-58: “German Moral and Political Thought.” A second senior seminar taught by another fellow, Sebastien Viguier, is PS 182.44: “Justice and the City.”

Finally, fellow Ross Corbett is currently researching conceptions of the rule of law. This involves different conceptions of how law influences what it means for law to rule and whether extralegal action may be necessary or desirable and why. Corbett is also teaching a freshman seminar, PS 82-06: “Philosophy of the American Founding.” I’m happy to report the Political Theory Project is doing its part to help Brown educate America’s next generation of leaders.