Eric Palmer, Curriculum Vita
   
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CURRICULUM VITA
Eric Palmer
Associate Professor, Philosophy
Chair, Departments of Philosophy & Religious Studies
Allegheny College, Meadville, PA 16335 USA
(814) 332-3312  (office), (814) 333-2538  (home)
(814) 332-4321 (fax), epalmer@allegheny.edu
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Personal Data
Birth     Oakland, California, 27 April 1964
Citizenship    USA and Canada
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Education
Graduate    Philosophy.  University of California, San Diego
    1989-1991  Doctor of Philosophy
    Dissertation: “Philosophy of Science and History of Science:
        A Productive Engagement” (Philip Kitcher, Chair)

    Philosophy.  University of California, San Diego
    1986-89  Master of Arts

Undergraduate    Philosophy. Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada
    1982-86  Bachelor of Arts, Honours
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Areas of Specialization
    Applied ethical theory in the Hobbesian, Kantian, and
        Liberal traditions, with focus on multinational
        business, international law, and human rights.
    History of Philosophy:  Early Modern, especially  Descartes,
        Voltaire, & French Philosophy: 1580-1650 & 1730-89.
    Philosophy and History of Science:  Scientific Methodology
        especially Astronomy and Physics, 1500-1650.
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Academic Employment 

Sept. 04 to present    Chair, Departments of Philosophy and Religious Studies
June 01 to present    Associate Professor, tenured, Allegheny College
June 94 to June 01    Assistant Professor, Allegheny College

July 93 to June 94    Visiting Assistant Professor
    Department of Philosophy, University of Kentucky

July 9 to June 93    Visiting Assistant Professor
    Department of Philosophy, University of Utah
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Publications   
Articles and brief abstracts

“Corporate Responsibility and Freedom,”
    Third International Corporate Responsibility Conference of the Carnegie-Bosch Institute, Hong Kong, 22-24 September 2006. Philosophy Documentation Center, 2007 (projected).
Milton Friedman, and Michael Jensen after him, value “freedom.” To the extent that corporate activity undermines the conditions necessary for economic freedom, however, it works at cross purposes with freedom, and so, these authors should find it ethically untenable. Where maximizing profits would place government under threat, such activity would not coincide with “maximizing social value.” (Jensen’s term) Concerning less extreme cases, responsibilities should also apply, along lines that cohere with Amartya Sen’s re-assessment of “individual freedom as a social commitment.”

“Real Institutions and Really Legitimate Institutions,”
    David Mark, ed. Selections from The Mystery of Capital and The Construction of Social Reality Workshop, Buffalo, 2003. Open Court, 2007 (projected).
The entrenched cultural influence of an erroneous reading of social contract theory yields a pair of myths: that people’s choices alone generate social institutions, and that government precedes and underwrites both the reality and the legitimacy of all other social institutions. Prior institutional and socio-technical creations provide the material on which changes in institutions may be enacted, and political legitimacy concerns ethics more fundamentally than positive law.

“The Balance of Sovereignty and Common Goods Under Economic Globalization,”
Philosophy in the Contemporary World. 12, #1, 2005. (Common Goods  special issue, Ronald Sandler & Cynthia Townley, guest editors)
Large corporations, especially global multinationals, pose an effective counterweight to national sovereignty, such that sovereignty should actually be considered as balanced between economic and political institutions. This article defends that thesis and outlines consequent social responsibilities of corporations, particularly with respect to common goods.

“Real Corporate Responsibility,”
International Corporate Responsibility: Exploring the Issues. John Hooker & Peter Madsen, eds. USA: Carnegie Mellon University Press, 2004. 69-84.
This paper is intended to shift discussion from codes, or constraints to be placed on business, to responsibility, which yields duty and right. If business organizations are themselves capable of engaging in rationally self-regulated activity, then they may also be held ethically responsible for that activity. Such ethical binding could provide a new source of rationally compelling legitimate law.

“Pangloss Identified,”
French Studies Bulletin 84, Autumn 2002.
Scholars have routinely identified Leibniz, Pope and Wolff as the primary targets of Voltaire’s Candide. Since W. H. Barber’s 1955 study, practically all reference to a larger body of popular writers on providence and optimism has evaporated. I argue that these targets were important to Voltaire, and foremost among them is Noël Antoine Pluche (1688-1761), the author of a highly popular work, Le Spectacle de la Nature. I argue that Pluche is actually the model for Pangloss.

“Multinational Corporations and Social Contracts,”
Journal of Business Ethics 31, 245-58 May 2001.
A social contract analysis of justice may allow the best basis for justified or rationally acceptable standards to which businesses should conform. Reason requires that the activities of enterprises accord with universal standards of environmental and governmental sustainability in addition to consortium, national law, and international law agreements.

“Descartes on Nothing in Particular,”
R. Gennaro, C. Huenemann, eds.  New Essays On the Rationalists.  Oxford University Press, 1999.
Descartes' discussion of vacuum in the Principles is a good deal more coherent when various arguments are matched to appropriate opponents, such as Galileo and André d'Abillon.  Descartes countenanced a clear conception of physical vacuum late in the Principles that commentators have neglected to consider.

“Descartes' Rules  and the Workings of the Mind,”
Patricia Easton, ed. Logic and the Workings of the Mind: The Logic of Ideas and Faculty Psychology in Early Modern Philosophy. North American Kant Society V,1997, 269-282
Descartes' Rules for the Direction of the Mind is a draft in progress that finds what epistemological unity it has within a cognitive science: a theory of simple, indubitable ideas grounding perception and thought.  The strategy remains only in vestiges in Descartes' later work because it is at odds with ideas concerning God's power that will lead Descartes to the more familiar  method of doubt.

“The Limits of Cartesian Doubt,”
Studies in Early Modern Philosophy IV1997, 1-20
How to characterize the lower limits of doubt in the Meditations?  Descartes' responses to his contemporary commentators are coherent, but he admits to skeptics that some assumptions remain undischarged.  The assumptions can best be elucidated, though not defended, by referring to Descartes' theory of ideas in the Rules for the Direction of the Mind (see article above).

“Lakatos’ “Internal History” as Historiography”
Perspectives on Science I #4, Dec. 1993, 603-26
Imre Lakatos' normative conception of the history of science is explicated with the purpose of replying to criticism leveled against it by Thomas Kuhn, Ian Hacking, and others. Kuhn suggests that the intellectual historian's internal—external distinction is “independent” of an analysis of rationality; yet it harbors an implicit and unarticulated appeal to rationality that Lakatos makes explicit.


General Conference Proceedings

“Legitimate Social Demands on Corporations,” International Association of Business and Society Proceedings, Bryan Husted & Jeanne Logsdon, eds. IABS, 2006, 0-9763264-2-6.

“Corporate bodies and Categorical Imperatives, ”Kant und die Berliner Aufklärung: Akten des IX. Internationalen Kant-Kongresses. Volker Gerhardt, ed. Berlin: De gruyter, 2001.

“Social Contracts and Multinational Corporations,” Knowledge Tools for Sustainable Civilization. IEEE, Toronto, 1996

In Translation

“Entidades corporativas e imperativos categóricos,” Impulso 38, 2004, Immanuel Kant special issue (Editora UNIMEP: Brazil).

Editor

Candide: An Edition with Supplementary Readings for Philosophy and Intellectual History. Broadview Press, New York. (Under contract, projected for publication 2007)

 Perspectives on Science, Special  Issue (1998): Papers selected from the First History of Philosophy of Science Conference. Co-edited with Don Howard.

 
Book Reviews and miscellaneous

“Interpersonal Comparison of Utility,” “Monkey Wrenching,” entries in the Encyclopedia of Business Ethics and Society, Robert W. Kolb, ed. Sage Publications (forthcoming).

Ezio Vailati, Leibniz and Clarke: A Study of their Correspondence. New York: Oxford University Press, 1997. ABRO, 2004.  (American Society for Eighteenth Century Studies Book Reviews Online, www.csulb.edu/asecs).

Peter Schouls, Descartes and the Possibility of Science. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2000. ISIS (Jnl. Hist. Science Society)  93, 2002, 485-486.

Fred Wilson, The Logic and Methodology of Science in Early Modern Thought. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1998. HOPOS Newsletter 7 #1, Summer 2002, 16-17.

Klaus Mainzer, Symmetries of Nature: A Handbook for Philosophy of Nature and Science.  Berlin: deGruyter, 1996. Journal of Chemical Education, April 1997.
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Invited Lectures and Papers at Conferences
“Corporate Responsibility and Freedom: A new argument,”
Third International Corporate Responsibility Conference of the Carnegie-Bosch Institute. Hong Kong, September 2006.
International Development Ethics Association. Kampala, Uganda, July 2006.
“Legitimate Social Demands on Corporations,”
International Association of Business and Society Annual Meeting. Merida, Mexico, March 2006.
“Discourse Theory and Human  Rights: A positive  ethical  theory of human rights,”
Human rights: The challenge of Global Justice. Dayton, October 2004.
“Alternative Enlightenments: Leibniz, Voltaire, and the Abbé Pluche,”
Int'l Society for the History of Philosophy of Science. San Francisco, June 2004
History of Science Society/CSHPS/BSHS joint meeting, Halifax. August 2004
British Society for Eighteenth Century Studies. Oxford, January 2005
“Capitalism as an Ethical Position,”
Society for Business Ethics Annual Meeting. Seattle, August 2003
“Real Institutions,”
The Mystery of Capital and The Construction of Social Reality Workshop. Buffalo, April 2003
 “Ethics & Law of Artificial Persons: Justice, Rights & Responsibility for Multinational Corporations,”
Carnegie Bosch Institute, Conference on International Corporate Responsibility.
Pittsburgh, June 2002
“Pangloss Identified,”
International Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies, Los Angeles, August 2003
British Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies. Oxford, January 2003
Canadian Society for the History and Philosophy of Science, Toronto, May 2002
 
“Modeling Ethics,”
Science and Values Institute, National Endowment for the Humanities.
Pittsburgh, July 2003
Canadian Society for the History and Philosophy of Science. Québec, May 2001
“Computational and Biological Treatments of Kant’s Categorical Imperative,”
Canadian Philosophical Association. Québec, May 2001
“A Philosophical Education Program: Descartes and the Oratoire de France,”
History of Science Society, Vancouver. November 2000
National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Seminar Participant’s lecture. Blacksburg, VA July 2000
Allegheny College Intramural Faculty Conference. May 2000
“Corporate Bodies and Categorical Imperatives,”
Ninth International Kant Congress. Berlin, March 2000
“Post-interactionist Philosophy of Science,”
Canadian Society for the History & Philosophy of Science. Sherbrooke, Québec, June 1999
“From knowing God through nature to knowing nature through God: The shift in philosophy from natural theology to theodicy.”
Canadian Society for the History and Philosophy of Science. Toronto, May 1998
“French Epistemology Before the Cartesian Turn,”
 Second History of Philosophy of Science Conference. Notre Dame, March 1998
“Social Contracts and Multinational Corporations,”
Knowledge Tools for a Sustainable Civilization Conference. Ryerson University, June 1995
Mid-South Philosophy Conference, University of Memphis, February 1997
“Descartes:  Mathematics and Method,”
Invited lecture. University of British Columbia, January 1996
“Teaching History and Philosophy of Classical Physics,”
International History and Philosophy of Science and Science Teaching Conference. University of Minnesota. October 1995
“Thinking Things Through:  Teaching the History of Logic and Computing,”
Computing and Philosophy Conference. Carnegie Mellon University, August 1995
“Descartes' Rules and the Workings of the Mind,”
Logic and the Workings of the Mind Conference. University of Western Ontario, May 1995
 “Descartes' Methods:  The Shift from Epistemology to Metaphysics in Descartes' Philosophical Writings,” APA Central Division. April 1994
Canadian Philosophical Association. June 1993
“Renaissance Astronomy and the Ordering of Knowledge Resources,”
Institute for Liberal Studies (Frankfort, KY) Conference on Science, Technology & Religious Ideas. March 1994
“Copernicus' Astronomy and Scientific Argument in the Renaissance,”
Utah Humanist Society. Salt Lake City, February 1993
“Descartes' Method & the Meditations: The Limits of Doubt,”
 Utah Academy of Sciences, Arts, & Letters.  Salt Lake City, May 1992

 
Participation as Commentator, Chair, or Session organizer

History of Philosophy of Science Working Group (HOPOS). Chair of Program Committee & Member, Conference Committee. Virginia Polytechnic Institute - Roanoke VA, April 1996
Renaissance Theory of Science: Quia and Propter Quid, Analysis and Synthesis. Panel Organizer and Chair. First History of Philosophy of Science Conference, Virginia Polytechnic Institute - Roanoke VA, April 1996
Glymour's Thinking Things Through. Panel Organizer and Chair. Conference on Philosophy and Computing Carnegie Mellon University, August 1995
“Comment on Pinnick and Gale,” Mid-South Philosophy Conference. Memphis, March 1995
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Current Research Areas

Social Contracts     Social contract theories of government and their successors
and Multinationality    look to be the best contenders for a ground for government that is rationally binding upon actors.  The theories were authored in the historical epoch of the sovereign nation state, but today, many of the most important actors, such as enterprises and banks, are multinational entities.  Principles of responsible behavior for multinational entities may be developed within the framework of social contracts and Kantian theory, building on work by John Rawls and Jürgen Habermas. Central to the analysis is a theory of corporate bodies as artificial persons with responsibilities and rights.

Political Sovereignty    Political economy would suggest that sovereignty of governance rests with both national governments and the base of economic production. Consequently, sovereignty is balanced at present between government and privately held productive corporations, especially multinational corporations. The political responsibilities of corporations, then, should be identified and acknowledged.

Human Rights    An adequate theory of human rights should be positive (drawing legitimacy from human institutions and choices) and realistic (linked to law as it might be practiced, especially in international law). I develop a theory of rights that fulfills both of these criteria, and is also ethical insofar as it aligns with ethical theories in the social contract tradition, particularly by Thomas Hobbes, Immanuel Kant and Jürgen Habermas.

Voltaire    Candide has a humanist agenda that is clarified through other rhetorical forms employed by Voltaire: poetry and essays. It  also has a target that has been covered by the sands of time: Noël Pluche, the primary model for Pangloss, and the greatest popularizer of science in Voltaire's time.

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Activities in and Service to the Profession

Recent/current Member
International Development Ethics Association
International Association of Business and Society
International Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies
American Association of University Professors
International Society for the History of Phil. of Science (HOPOS)
Canadian Society for the History and Philosophy of Science
History of Science Society
Philosophy of Science Association
Canadian Philosophical Association
American Philosophical Association

Activities
Treasurer and incorporating officer, International Society for the History of Philosophy of Science (HOPOS 2004 Non-profit incorporation)

Publisher's referee for revision of Philosophical Classics, Vol. 3. Kaufmann & Baird, eds. Prentice Hall, 1998

History of Philosophy of Science Working Group, Steering Committee Member, 1995-7

APA Committee on Computer Use (Electronic texts) Editor, APA Guide to Electronic Texts in Philosophy, 3/ed. April 1993

Activities in and Service to Allegheny College
2004- present
Department Chair, Philosophy and Religious Studies
Educator, High-school and Middle-school gifted and talented students program

2003 Co-Chair, Neuroscience and Humanities Summer Institute

2001-2 Member, Faculty Council (Faculty Senate)

2000-1 Member, College Finance Committee
Associate Chair, Philosophy & Religious Studies
 
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Awards

Allegheny College Teacher-Scholar Professorship 2006-9

National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Institute. Participant, under directorship of P. Machamer & S. Mitchell. “Science and Values,” University of Pittsburgh, Summer 2003

National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Seminar. Participant, under directorship of Roger Ariew & Daniel Garber.  “Descartes and his Contemporaries,” Virginia Tech, Summer 2000

National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Seminar. Participant, under directorship of Jonathan Bennett. “Descartes, Spinoza, Leibniz,” Syracuse U., Summer 1995

Allegheny College Sabbatical Grant, 2003. Research Grants: 2004, 1999, 1998, 1997, 1995
   
University of California, Department of Philosophy
Dissertation Year Fellowship 1990-91
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Languages

Literate in French
Limited Latin
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References
Upon request
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