Walter Joram Riker, Ph.D.

 

University of West Georgia                                                      

Department of Philosophy                                                        

1601 Maple Street                                                                  

Carrollton, GA 30118                                                             

 

(678) 839-5317 (office)

(678) 839-6512 (philosophy)

wriker@westga.edu

 

ACADEMIC POSITIONS

 

University of West Georgia

Assistant Professor (tenure track), Philosophy, 2010-

Assistant Professor (limited term), Philosophy, 2008-2010.

 

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

 

Political Philosophy, Rawls.

 

Areas of Competence

 

Ethical Theory, Applied Ethics (Environmental, Business, Professional), History of Modern, Philosophy of Science, Philosophy of Law.

 

Publications

 

Book

 

Coercion and the State.  David Reidy & Walter Riker, eds.  Edited volume in Amintaphil’s series Philosophical Foundations of Law and Justice, Dordrecht: Springer, 2009.  225 pp.  Co-authored introduction, pp. 1-14.

 

Articles and Chapters

 

“The Democratic Peace is Not Democratic:  On Behalf of Rawls’s Decent Peoples.”  Political Studies, v. 57, n. 3, 2009, pp. 617-638.

 

“Democratic Legitimacy and the Reasoned Will of the People.”  In D. Reidy and W. Riker, eds., Coercion and the State, Dordrecht:  Springer, 2008, pp. 77-94.

 

“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.

 

“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, 16th Workshop/Conference, Washington, PA, August 2006.

 

“Student Religious Convictions in the Philosophy Class.”  Workshop developed/managed with Bill Kabasenche.  American Association of Philosophy Teachers, 16th Workshop/Conference, Washington, PA, August 2006.

 

“Reading (and Misreading) Rawls’s Theory of Legitimacy.”  Southwestern Philosophical Society, 67th Annual Meeting, Fayetteville, Arkansas, November 2005.

 

“Rawls’s Liberal Principle of Legitimacy Revisited.”  North American Society for Social Philosophy, 22nd 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.

 

 “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.)

 

“Rawls’s Decent Peoples and the Democratic Peace Thesis.”  North American Society for Social Philosophy, 20th Annual Social Philosophy Conference, Boston, July 2003.

 

TEACHING EXPERIENCE

 

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

Philosophy of Law (1 course)

Introduction to Philosophy (4 courses)

Critical Thinking (11 courses)

History of Modern Philosophy (1 course)

Political Philosophy (1 course)

 

Vanderbilt University, Lecturer, Philosophy, 2007-2008.

Introduction to Philosophy (3 courses, 2 writing intensive)

General Logic (3 courses)

 

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

Introduction to Philosophy (10 courses)

Critical Thinking/Informal Logic (1 course)

Introduction to Ethics (3 courses)

Business Ethics (5 courses)

Professional Responsibility (3 courses w/oral communication emphasis)

Contemporary Moral Problems (2 courses w/oral communication emphasis)

Environmental Ethics (3 courses)

 

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

The Logic of Science (Summer 2007, 2008) (Summer enrichment program for high school students.)