Peter Lawler
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Dr. Peter Augustine Lawler (1951–) is Dana Professor of Government and Chair of the Department of Government and International Studies at Berry College. He teaches courses in political philosophy and American politics.
He is executive editor of the quarterly journal, Perspectives on Political Science and has been chair of the politics and literature section of the American Political Science Association. He also serves on the editorial board of the new bilingual critical edition of Alexis de Tocqueville’s Democracy in America. Dr. Lawler also serves on the editorial boards of several journals.
He has written or edited nine books. His newest book is Aliens in America: The Strange Truth about Our Souls. Another recent book, Postmodernism Rightly Understood, was also widely reviewed and praised. His American Political Rhetoric (edited with Robert Schaefer) is used in introductory American government courses at a sizeable number of colleges and universities.
Lawler writes broadly from within a Catholic intellectual tradition that emphasizes the importance of limits on unfettered personal autonomy in shaping well-lived lives, as well as the centrality of the love of truth in making sense of the human experience. By no means dogmatic in matters of religion, Lawler does argue that our human moral anthropology suggests the possibility of God's existence and love. His influences include both Catholics (Thomas, Pascal, Tocqueville, Flannery O'Connor, and Walker Percy) as well as non-Catholic thinkers (especially Leo Strauss).
In 2004, Dr. Lawler was appointed to President Bush's Council on Bioethics. He is currently researching biotechnology and political philosophy, Flannery O'Connor and modern philosophy, and Tocqueville and compassionate conservatism.
[edit] Publications
- Lawler, Peter A. (2002). Aliens in America: The Strange Truth about Our Souls. ISI Books ISBN 1-882926-71-4
- Lawler, Peter A. (1999). Postmodernism Rightly Understood Rowman & Littlefield Publishers ISBN 0-8476-9426-7
- Lawler, Peter A. & Robert Schaefer (editors) (2000). American Political Rhetoric (Fourth Edition edition) Rowman & Littlefield ISBN 0-7425-1173-1
- Lawler, Peter Augustine (2005). "Stuck with Virtue: The American Individual and Our Biotechnological Future. ISI Books
Lawler, Peter Augustine (2007). Homeless and At Home in America. St. Augustine's Press.
