Robert L. Holmes

Robert L. Holmes (December 28, 1935) is a Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at the University of Rochester, and an expert on issues of peace and nonviolence. Holmes specializes in ethics, and in social and political philosophy. He has written numerous articles and several books on those topics, and has been invited to address national and international conferences.

Robert L. Holmes
Born (1935-12-28) December 28, 1935
OccupationProfessor, Scholar
Known forEthics
Political Philosophy
Board member ofFellowship of Reconciliation
AwardsFulbright Fellowship
Academic background
Alma materHarvard University
University of Michigan
Academic work
Sub-disciplinePhilosophy of Nonviolence
InstitutionsUniversity of Rochester

Early life

Holmes earned his undergraduate degree from Harvard University and Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Michigan.[1][2]

Career
The Rush Rhees Library at University of Rochester, as seen from the Eastman Quadrangle.

Holmes joined the faculty at the University of Rochester in 1962.[3]

In 1998, Holmes was appointed to the newly established Rajiv Gandhi Chair in Peace and Disarmament at Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi, India, where he shaped the mission of the chair on instruction, research, and lectures.[4]

While serving on the faculty at the University of Rochester, his lectures were always eagerly anticipated by students of the humanities as well as the sciences. He received the Edward Peck Curtis Award for Undergraduate Teaching in 2001 and the Professor of the Year Award in Humanities in 2006. At the 2007 convocation ceremony, Holmes was awarded the Goergen Award for Distinguished Achievement and Artistry in Undergraduate Teaching. Also, Holmes is known for being one of the very few professors to receive perfect or near perfect reviews every year since the university began student review services in 2001.[5]

During the course of an academic career which has spanned over forty years, Holmes has held a variety of scholarly positions including: Fulbright Fellow at Moscow State University and Visiting professor at Notre Dame, Hamilton College and the University of Texas at Austin. In addition, he served as an editor of the philosophical journal Public Affairs Quarterly, contributed to the editorial review board of Social Theory and Practice [6] and participated on the national board of the Fellowship of Reconciliation.[7] He was also a longtime adviser to the University of Rochester Undergraduate Philosophy Council.[8] In 1992 he also served as president of the professional organization Concerned Philosophers for Peace which strives to improve international understanding and peace through scholarly analysis of the causes of war.[9]

Holmes is the author of several comprehensive texts on the subject of moral philosophy. Included among his publications is a collaborative work undertaken in 1968 with Lewis White Beck - a noted scholar on Kantian ethics (Philosophical Inquiry: An Introduction to Philosophy).[10][11] He also coauthored a work in 2005 with Barry L. Gan - Director of the Center for Nonviolence at St. Bonaventure University (Nonviolence in Theory and Practice).[12][13] In addition, he has published numerous papers in several academic peer-reviewed journals including: Analysis, Ethics, International Philosophical Quarterly,Journal of Medicine and Philosophy, Journal of Value Inquiry, Mind, The Monist, The Philosophical Forum,and The Review of Metaphysics.[14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23]

As of 2009, Holmes is semi-retired, although he still teaches at the University of Rochester during some semesters.[24]

Moral philosophy

Over the course of the past forty years, Holmes has addressed several interrelated moral dilemmas posed in the modern age including terrorism and armed conflict in general. In 2013 he argued that identifying viable moral alternatives to such circumstances is relevant even when mankind is faced with the threat of mass destruction posed by nuclear weapons. The temptation to retreat into a form of modified existential nihilism when confronted by such disruptive existential factors is clearly rejected. After reviewing several competing moral positions which societies might adopt, he proposes that both pacifism and nonviolence have the potential to mitigate these disruptive paradigms and serve as the basis of a morally viable prototype for humanity's future.[25]

In 2016, Holmes also offered a robust philosophical defense of pacifism and its application in a world which is plagued with recurrent outbursts of international violence. At the center of his analysis is the proposition that a moral presumption against war in general exists among civilized beings and that warfare remains morally unjustified until that presumption is overturned. Just war theory in general is inadequate to the task of surmounting that moral presumption in Holmes' view. As a result, warfare as practiced in the modern era is unjustified and best described as morally repugnant.[26]

Publications
External video
You may preview selections from Holmes' book The Ethics of Nonviolence - Essays by Robert L. Holmes on books.google.com

Texts

Included among Robert L. Holmes publications are the following texts:

  • Basic Moral Philosophy by Robert L. Holmes[27][28]
  • Introduction to Applied Ethics by Robert L. Holmes [29]
  • Kant's Legacy: Essays in Honor of Lewis White Beck Editor: Predrag Cicovacki. Contributor: Robert L. Holmes -"Consequentialism and its Consequences".[30]
  • Nonviolence in Theory and Practice by Robert L. Holmes and Barry L. Gan [31]
  • On War and Morality by Robert L. Holmes [32]
  • Philosophic Inquiry: An Introduction to Philosophy by Lewis White Beck and Robert L. Holmes [33]
  • Pacifism: A Philosophy of Nonviolence by Robert L. Holmes[34]
  • The Ethics of Nonviolence - Essays by Robert L. Holmes Editor: Predrag Cicovacki, Bloomsbury, USA on books.google.com[35][36]
  • The Augustinian Tradition Editor: Gareth B. Matthews. Contributor: Robert L. Holmes - "St. Augustine and the Just War Theory"[37]

Journal articles

Selected peer-reviewed articles published by Robert L. Holmes include:[38]

See also

References
  1. University of Rochester - Faculty - Robert L. Holmes Professor Emeritus Professor of Philosophy - PhD. University of Michigan on sas.rochester.edu
  2. "Currents--November 9, 1998". www.rochester.edu. Retrieved 2016-12-05.
  3. "Currents--November 9, 1998". www.rochester.edu. Retrieved 2016-12-05.
  4. "Currents--November 9, 1998". www.rochester.edu. Retrieved 2016-12-05.
  5. "St. Bonaventure University - Noted Expert on Nonviolence to talk about social inequality Thursday at St. Bonaventure" - Robert L. Holmes Biography on sbu.edu
  6. Social Theory and Practice Vol. 19 Florida State University - Dept. of Philosophy 1993 p. 114 Robert Holmes & Social theory and Practice on books.google.com
  7. The Augustinian Tradition Editor: Gereth B. Matthews. University of California Press, Berkeley, 1999 p. 384 ISBN 0-520-20999-0
  8. "St. Bonaventure University - Noted Expert on Nonviolence to talk about social inequality Thursday at St. Bonaventure" - Robert L. Holmes Biography on sbu.edu
  9. Concerned Philosophers for Peace - Officers- Presidents on peacephilosophy.org
  10. Philosophical Inquiry: An Introduction to Philosophy Lewis White beck and Robert L. Holmes. Prentice Hall, 1968 on books.google.com
  11. "Philosopher, Scholar Lewis White Beck Dies" on Rochester.edu.news]
  12. St. Bonaventure University Profiles - Barry L. Gan: Director of the Center for Nonviolence on sbu.edu
  13. Nonviolence in Theory and Practice by Robert L. Holmes and Barry L. Gan Waveland Press 2005 on books.google.com
  14. Robert L. Holmes on scholar.google.com
  15. The Journal of Medicine and Philosophy - "The Limited Relevance of Analytical Ethics to the Problems of Bioethics" Robert L. Holmes. Oxford Academic Vol. 15 No. 2 April 1990 p. 143-159 on scholar.google.com
  16. Analysis - "Is Morality a System of Hypothetical Imperative" Robert L. Holmes Oxford University Press Vol 34 No. 3 January 1974 p. 96-100 on scholar.google.com
  17. The Philosophical Forum Quarterly- "The Metaethics of Pacifism and Just War Theory" Robert L. Holmes. Wiley-Blackwell January 27, 2015 p. 2-15 on scholar.google.com
  18. The Review of Metaphysics - "John Dewey's Moral Philosophy in Contemporary Perspective" Robert L. Holmes. Philosophy Education Society. Vol 20. No. 1 September 1966 p. 42-70 on scholar.google.com
  19. The Journal of Value Inquiry - "John Dewey's Social Ethics" Robert L. Holmes. Vol. 7 No. 4 December 1973 p. 274-280 on scholar.google.com
  20. The Monist - "The Development of John Dewey's Ethical Thought"Philosophy Documentation Center Vol. 48 No. 3 July 1964 p. 392-406 on scholar.google.com
  21. Ethics - "University Neutrality and ROTC"Robert L. Holmes. University of Chicago Press Vol. 83 No. 3 April 1973 p. 177 on scholar.google.com
  22. International Philosophical Quarterly - "Just War: Principles and Causes" Robert L. Holmes. Philosophy Documentation Center Vol 37 No. 4 December 1997 p. 483-484 on scholar.google.com
  23. Mind - "The Case Against Ethical Naturalism" Robert L. Holmes. Oxford University Press Vol 73 N. 290 April 1964 p. 291-295 on scholar.google.com
  24. University of Rochester - Faculty - Robert L. Holmes Professor Emeritus Professor of Philosophy on sas.rochester.edu
  25. The Ethics of Nonviolence: Essay by Robert L. Holmes - Book blurb on google.books.com
  26. Pacifism: A Philosophy of Nonviolence Robert L. Holmes. Book blurb on books.google.com
  27. Jr., Paulo Ghiraldelli (February 2008). Contemporary pragmatism. Rodopi. pp. 111–. ISBN 978-90-420-2371-0. Retrieved 9 August 2011.
  28. Basic Moral Philosophy. Robert L. Holmes. Holly J. Allen - Wadsworth Cengage Learning, CA, 2007 ISBN 978-0-495-00797-5 on books.google.com
  29. Introduction to Applied Ethics Robert L.Holmes. Bloomsbury, New York 2018 on books.google.com
  30. Kant's Legacy: Essays in Honor of Lewis White Beck Editor: Predrag Cicovacki. Contributor: Robert L. Holmes -"Consequentialism and its Consequences" ,University of Rochester Press, 2001 p. xii, p. 227ISBN 1-58046-053-4 on books.google.com
  31. Nonviolence in Theory and Practice by Robert L. Holmes and Barry L. Gan Waveland Press, 2005 on books.google.com
  32. On War and Morality Robert L. Holmes. Princeton University Press 1989 ISBN 0-691-07794-0 on books.google.com
  33. Philosophica Inquiry: An Introduction to Philosophy Lewis White beck and Robert L. Holmes. Prentice Hall, 1968 on books.google.com
  34. Holmes, Robert L. (December 2016). Paficism: A Philosophy of Nonviolence. Bloomsbury. pp. 368–. ISBN 978-1-4742-7983-3. Retrieved 4 December 2016.
  35. The Ethics of Nonviolence - Essays by Robert L. Holmes Editor: Predrag Cicovacki Bloomsbury Academic, New York 2013 on books.google.com
  36. The Ethics of Nonviolence: Essays by Robert L. Holmes overview on books.google.com
  37. The Augustinian Tradition Editor: Gareth B. Matthews. Contributor: Robert L. Holmes - "St. Augustine and the Just War Theory" University of California Press, London, 1999 p. 323 ISBN 0-520-20999-0 on books.google.com
  38. Robert L. Holmes on scholar.google.com
  39. The Philosophical Forum Quarterly- "The Metaethics of Pacifism and Just War Theory" Robert L. Holmes. Wiley-Blackwell January 27, 2015 p. 2-15 on scholar.google.com
  40. International Philosophical Quarterly - "Just War: Principles and Causes" Robert L. Holmes. Philosophy Documentation Center Vol 37 No. 4 December 1997 p. 483-484 on scholar.google.com
  41. The Journal of Medicine and Philosophy - "The Limited Relevance of Analytical Ethics to the Problems of Bioethics" Robert L. Holmes. Oxford Academic Vol. 15 No. 2 April 1990 p. 143-159 on scholar.google.com
  42. Analysis - "Is Morality a System of Hypothetical Imperatives?" Robert L. Holmes Oxford University Press Vol 34 No. 3 January 1974 p. 96-100 on scholar.google.com
  43. Ethics - "University Neutrality and ROTC"Robert L. Holmes. University of Chicago Press Vol. 83 No. 3 April 1973 p. 177 on scholar.google.com
  44. The Journal of Value Inquiry - "John Dewey's Social Ethics" Robert L. Holmes. Vol. 7 No. 4 December 1973 p. 274-280 on scholar.google.com
  45. The Review of Metaphysics - "John Dewey's Moral Philosophy in Contemporary Perspective" Robert L. Holmes. Philosophy Education Society. Vol 20. No. 1 September 1966 p. 42-70 on scholar.google.com
  46. The Monist - "The Development of John Dewey's Ethical Thought"Philosophy Documentation Center Vol. 48 No. 3 July 1964 p. 392-406 on scholar.google.com
  47. Mind - "The Case Against Ethical Naturalism" Robert L. Holmes. Oxford University Press Vol 73 N. 290 April 1964 p. 291-295 on scholar.google.com
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