Walter Joram Riker

University of West Georgia

Department of Philosophy

1601 Maple Street

Carrollton, GA 30118

(678) 839-6512 (philosophy department)

wriker@westga.edu

ACADEMIC POSITIONS

University of West Georgia, Assistant Professor (limited term), Philosophy, 2008-2009.

Vanderbilt University, Lecturer (limited term), Philosophy, 2007-2008.

EDUCATION

Ph.D., Philosophy, University of Tennessee, 2007.

Dissertation: “Law and Legitimacy: Toward a Rawlsian Solution.”

Supervisor: Prof. David A. Reidy

M.A., Anthropology, Brandeis University, 1996.

(Completed coursework for Ph.D. before leaving program.)

B.A., Anthropology, California State University, Los Angeles, 1991.

Areas of Specialization

Social and Political Philosophy, Rawls.

Areas of Competence

Philosophy of Law, Ethical Theory, Applied Ethics (Environmental, Business, Professional), Philosophy of Science (esp. Biology/Evolutionary Theory).

Publications

Book

Coercion and the State. David Reidy & Walter Riker, eds.

Edited volume in Amintaphil’s series The Philosophical Foundations of Law and Justice, Dordrecht: Springer, forthcoming. 225 pp. Co-authored introductory chapter, 25 pp.

Articles and Chapters

“The Democratic Peace is Not Democratic: On Behalf of Rawls’s Decent Peoples.”

Political Studies, forthcoming. 25 pp.

“Democratic Legitimacy and the Reasoned Will of the People.”

In D. Reidy and W. Riker, eds., Coercion and the State, Dordrecht: Springer, forthcoming. 24 pp.

“Reading (and Misreading) Rawls’s Theory of Legitimacy.”

Southwest Philosophy Review, v. 22, n. 1, 2006, pp. 149-161.

“Food.” Walter Riker & John Nolt (co-authors).

In J. Nolt, ed., A Land Imperiled: The Declining Health of the Southern Appalachian Bioregion, University of Tennessee Press, 2005, pp. 173-220.

“Rawls’s Decent Peoples and the Democratic Peace Thesis.”

Social Philosophy Today, v. 20, 2004, pp. 137-153.

Presentations

“Protecting the Environment from the Law? Why Humphrey’s Irreversibility Defense of Direct Action Fails.”

American Philosophical Association, Pacific Division, Main Program, Pasadena, CA, March 2008. Refereed.

“What is the Spirit of the Law? Comments for David Silver.”

American Philosophical Association, Society for Business Ethics, Baltimore, MD, December 2007. 20-minute response to Silver’s paper.

“Is Environmental Direct Action Against Legitimate Democratic Policies Justified?”

University of Louisville, Louis D. Brandeis School of Law, Conference on Law, Ethics, and Life Sciences, October 2007.

“The End of Liberalism.”

Amintaphil, American Section of the International Association for Philosophy of Law and Social Philosophy, St. Louis, MO, November 2006.

“Approaches to Teaching Applied Ethics.”

Workshop developed/managed with Bill Kabasenche. American Association of Philosophy Teachers, 16^th Workshop/Conference, Washington, PA, August 2006.

“Student Religious Convictions in the Philosophy Class.”

Workshop developed/managed with Bill Kabasenche. American Association of Philosophy Teachers, 16^th Workshop/Conference, Washington, PA, August 2006.

“Reading (and Misreading) Rawls’s Theory of Legitimacy.”

Southwestern Philosophical Society, 67^th Annual Meeting, Fayetteville, Arkansas, November 2005. Refereed.

“Rawls’s Liberal Principle of Legitimacy Revisited.”

North American Society for Social Philosophy, 22^nd Annual Social Philosophy Conference, Troy, NY, July 2005.

“Three Approaches to Teaching Business Ethics.”

Refereed presentation. Association for Practical and Professional Ethics, Annual Meeting, San Antonio, February 2005. Refereed.

“Rawls’s Decent Peoples and the Democratic Peace Thesis.”

American Philosophical Association, Pacific Division, Mini-Conference on Global Justice, Pasadena, March 2004. (This was a substantially revised version of the paper presented earlier at NASSP, Boston, July 2003.) Refereed.

“Rawls’s Decent Peoples and the Democratic Peace Thesis.”

North American Society for Social Philosophy, 20^th Annual Social Philosophy Conference, Boston, July 2003.

TEACHING EXPERIENCE

University of West Georgia, Assistant Professor, Philosophy, 2008-

Introduction to Philosophy (2 sections)

Critical Thinking (3 sections)

Vanderbilt University, Lecturer, Philosophy, 2007-2008.

Introduction to Philosophy (3 sections, 2 writing intensive)

General Logic (3 sections)

University of Tennessee, Graduate Teaching Associate, 1999-2007.

Introduction to Philosophy (10)

Critical Thinking/Informal Logic (1)

Introduction to Ethics (3)

Business Ethics (5)

Professional Responsibility (3 w/oral communication emphasis)

Contemporary Moral Problems (2 w/oral communication emphasis)

Environmental Ethics (3)

Tennessee Governor’s School for Science and Engineering, Assistant.

(Summer enrichment program for high school students.)

The Logic of Science (Summer 2007, 2008)

Honors

Department of Philosophy’s Excellence in Teaching Award (Graduate Teaching Associate), University of Tennessee, for school year 2004-5.

Honors Pass, Ph.D. Qualifying Exam, University of Tennessee, Department of Philosophy, May 2003.

Bacon-Beard Scholarship, University of Tennessee, Department of Philosophy, 1997-98.

Certificate of Honor, California State University, Los Angeles, Department of Anthropology, 1991.

David Miller Scholarship, California State University, Los Angeles, Department of Anthropology, 1991.

Other Professional Training/Activity

Reviewer for Public Affairs Quarterly and Social Philosophy Today.

University of Tennessee, Hiring Committee, Philosophy of Science Search, Washington, D.C., Dec. 2003.

Textbook review for Wadsworth Publishing, Summer 2002. Reviewed Louis P. Pojman, Philosophy: The Pursuit of Wisdom, to make suggestions for 5^th edition.

Martin Benjamin’s “Seminar on Teaching Philosophy,” Summer 2001.

Language Competence, German, Zertifikat Deutsch als Fremdsprache, Goethe Institut, 1997.

References

Please contact me at wriker@westga.edu for a list of references.

Philosophy Courses Taken

Graduate Courses	Professor	Grade
Plato	Cohen	A
Aristotle (this graduate course taken at UT prior to enrollment in graduate program)	Cohen	A
Augustine and Aquinas	Cohen	A
17^th Century Rationalism	Aquila	A
British Empiricism	Aquila	A
Kant’s 1^st Critique	Aquila	A
Husserl and Sartre	Aquila	A
Rorty, Davidson, Hacking	Kaplan	A
History of Ethics (survey)	Graber	A
History of Ethics (Aristotle, Kant, Hume, Sidgwick)	Reidy	A
Objectivity in Ethics	Postow	A
Realism and Anti-Realism in Ethics	J. Nelson	A
Narrative Ethics	H. Nelson	A
Reasons for Action	Postow	A
Physician-Assisted Suicide	Hardwig	A
Environmental Ethics (this graduate course taken at UT prior to enrollment in graduate program)	Nolt	A
Human and Animal Welfare	Nolt	A
Theories of Justice	Reidy	A
Global Justice and Human Rights	Reidy	B+
Philosophy of Science	Kaplan	A
Philosophy of Biology	Kaplan	A
Philosophy and Biology of Evolutionary Theory	Kaplan/Pigliucci	A
Undergraduate Courses
Ancient Greek Philosophy	Cohen	A
Medieval Philosophy	Cohen	A
17^th-18^th Century Philosophy	Aquila	A
19^th-20^th Century Philosophy	Bennett	A
Introduction to Ethics	Postow	A
Medical Ethics	Graber	A
Self in Existential Thought	Bennett	A
Philosophy of History	Cebik	A
Mind	Bohstedt	A
Intermediate Logic	Nolt	A