V. Bradley
Lewis
Associate Professor,
The
Research page
I work primarily in
political and legal philosophy and my research and teaching focus on the
subject of classical natural right (especially Plato) and natural law theory:
their character, history and relevance to contemporary political philosophy and
jurisprudence. My main project at the
moment is a book provisionally titled “Plato’s Minos and the Origins of Legal
Philosophy.” The book is a study of the
philosophical ideas contained in this dialogue that also brings them into
contact with modern philosophical jurisprudence. I am also working on some papers concerning
the theory of the common good in the Thomistic-Aristotelian
tradition and on the application of natural law theory to contemporary
political issues.
The following are draft/pre-publication papers in PDF
Comments, etc.,
welcome. They are © all rights reserved,
and are removed once they appear in print.
“Higher Law and the Rule
of Law: the Platonic Origins of an Ideal”
To appear
in the Pepperdine Law Review. Posted 4 June 2008.
“Gods
for the City and Beyond: Civil Religion in Plato’s Laws”
Written
for a book
on civil religion edited by John von Heyking and Ronald Weed and
forthcoming from Catholic University of America Press. Posted: 2
October 2006.
Forthcoming in the proceedings
of a conference commemorating the 100th birthday of Hans Urs von Balthasar held in April
2005. Posted: 13 October 2006.
This is a translation of the
dialogue I prepared for the book I am working on. Posted: 13 October 2006.
“Reason
Striving to Become Law”: Nature and Law in Plato’s Laws”
Read at a conference held at
Recent publications
Review of Robert E. Rodes, Jr., On Law
and Chastity, The
American Journal of Jurisprudence 52
(2007): 313-18.
Review of Democracy and Tradition by Jeffrey
Stout, The Thomist 70 (2006): 462-67.
“Plato’s Minos: The Political and
Philosophical Context of the Problem of Natural Right,”
“The Common Good in
Classical Political Philosophy,” Current
Issues in Catholic Higher Education 25.1 (Winter 2006): 25-41.