ERIC
MICHAEL DALE, PhD
Affiliated
Faculty Professor
Institute
for Liberal Arts and Interdisciplinary Studies
Emerson
College
120
Boylston St., 5th Floor
Boston,
MA 02116
Online:
http://emdonline.org/
Education:
Doctor
of Philosophy (PhD),
Philosophy of Religion. Boston University, 2010.
Alan Olson (principal advisor).
Dissertation: Hegel, History, and Evil: Towards Finite Theodicies.
Part one published as Hegel, the
End of History, and the Future. Cambridge University
Press, 2014.
Master of Theological Studies (MTS), Harvard University, The Divinity School, 2002.
Bachelor of Music
(MusB),
Voice, University of Central Arkansas, 1995.
Tenor performance
major, minor in German language and literature.
Academic Employment:
Affiliated
Faculty Professor (since
2007), Emerson College, Boston, MA.
Courses taught:
Chinese Philosophy
Introduction to Ethics
Ethics and Justice
Environmental Ethics
Narrative Ethics
Religion in Eastern Cultures
Christian Ways of Life
Foundations of Islamic Thought
Directed
Studies:
The Axial Age: Philosophy and History
Aesthetic Philosophy: Plato to Adorno
Power and Sacrifice
The Ethics of Place: Ecology and Urban
Life
Senior Adjunct
Professor of Philosophy (since
2008), Fisher College, Boston, MA.
Courses taught:
Introduction to Philosophy
Introduction to Ethics
Introduction to World Religions
Topics: Philosophy of Religion
Plato, Aristotle, and Greek Thought
Aesop=s Fables: Philosophy and Folklore
Creation Narratives
Introduction to Philosophy, Online
Introduction to Ethics, Online
Introduction to World Religions,
Online
Visiting
Instructor (2012),
Emmanuel College, Boston MA.
Courses taught:
Religion and the Environment: Ethical
Explorations
Judaism
Educational Consulting:
Expert consultant, MindEdge Inc., 2012-13 (Waltham, MA, www.mindedge.com). Review philosophy and religion
online teaching modules for content, accuracy, scope, and clarity.
Areas of Specialization:
German Idealism, hermeneutics, Hegel,
Nietzsche, Heidegger, Gadamer
Philosophy of religion, particularly
issues of evil and the divine
Areas of Competence:
Ethics, all areas, particularly
Aristotle=s relevance to applied ethical
problems
Philosophy, religion and literature
(theology and Romantic German and English poetry)
Augustine, 19th-20th
century German Protestant thought, Catholic nouvelle théologie, esp. Rahner.
Phenomenology and religion from
Husserl to Marion
East Asian philosophy, particularly
Classical Confucian, Daoist, and Neo-Confucian thought
Fellowships:
Visiting Junior Fellow, Institut für die Wissenschaften vom Menschen, Vienna,
Austria, 2006.
Boston University Institute for Human
Sciences Fellowship and Stipend, Spring 2006.
Dissertation
fellowship, September 2007 B May 2008.
Books:
Hegel, the End of
History, and the Future. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 2014.
Reviews:
Anton
Barba-Kay. "Dale, Eric M.: Hegel, the End of History, and the Future."
The Review of Metaphysics 68.4 (2015): 847-49.
Francesco Campana. "Eric M. Dale, Hegel, the
End of History, and the Future." Recensioni di filosofia 4:1 (2015).
URL: http://universa.filosofia.unipd.it/index.php/Universa/article/view/352
J. A. Gauthier.
"Dale, Eric Michael. Hegel, the end of history, and the
future." CHOICE: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries May
2015: 1513.
Towards Finite Theodicies: Hegel,
Heidegger, Hölderlin. Complete, revising stage.
A Philosophy of
the Gods. In preparation.
Justice: Tradition, Canon, Ambivalence. Proposal/research
stage.
Journal Articles:
ACausal Efficacy and
the Hermeneutical Experience@. Revising.
ABonaventure and Phenomenology: Marion
and the Gift@. Revising.
AHegel and De
Anima@. In preparation.
AHölderlin,
Wordsworth, and Divine Absence@. In preparation.
AHumanism and Despotism: Hegel and
Jaspers on Chinese History and Religion@. Existenz:
An International Journal of Philosophy, Religion, Politics, and the Arts.
5:1. Spring 2010.
AHegel, Jesus, and
Judaism@. Animus: The Canadian Journal of Philosophy and
Humanities 11. 2006.
AEurope, Religion,
and Self-Identity@. IWM Post 94:16-17, Vienna, Austria. Fall 2006.
AHegel, Evil, and the
End of History@. In History and Judgement.
Eds. I. Torsen and A. MacLachlan. IWM Junior Visiting
Fellows Conferences, Vol. 21. Vienna: IWM. 2006.
Other Media:
AYour Cup of Tea@. Interview by Jacqui Frasca for Today=s Chiropractic LifeStyle, Feb/Mar 2013. Expert
contributor on Chinese and Japanese culture and tea.
AThe Philosophy of
Rights@. Radio interview participant for You
Are Here: The Right to Freedom, 88.9 WERS FM, 30 Sept 2012. Expert contributor on Hegel, rights, and the communitarian
tradition.
I have written and appeared in a
series of short videos lecturing on specific topics in philosophy of religion
and religious studies for MindEdge, Inc., an online
educational content provider (2012-13).
Invited Lectures & Panels:
Chair, Colloquium on "Pascal on
the Good Life: When Happiness Fails, Try Stoicism". American Philosophical
Assoc. Pacific Division Meeting, 1 April 2016
AMarion and Recent French
Phenomenology@. Arkansas Tech University Dept
of History and Political Science, 20 April 2015.
AHegel and Contemporary World Politics:
The Use and Misuse of a Philosopher@. Suffolk University Political
Research Center, 15 August 2014.
AThe Confucian Junzi
and the Aristotelian Phronimos@. Cross-cultural workgroup on
philosophy, Harvard‑Yenching Institute, 25 May
2014.
Chair, AAuthor Meets Critics: Terry Pinkard, Hegel=s Naturalism: Mind, Nature, and the
Final Ends of Life@. American Philosophical Assoc. Eastern
Division Meeting, 27 Dec 2013.
AGod and the Philosophers: A Reply to
Nichols and Jones@. American
Philosophical Assoc. Pacific Division Meeting, 5 April 2012.
AThe Interplay of Ren
and Li in Kongzi=s Lun Yu@. Shawnee State University Dept of English and Humanities. 22 April
2011.
AHumanism and Despotism: Hegel and
Jaspers on Chinese History and Religion@. American Philosophical
Assoc. Eastern Division Meeting, 28 December 2009.
AQuinquae viae: Aquinas and the Western Medieval
Reception of Aristotelian Thought@. John Brown University Dept of Biblical Studies, 14 February 2008.
ALoss and the
Religious Quest in the Poetry of Friedrich Hölderlin and Charles Williams@. Boston University College of Fine
Arts, Tuesday Evening Lecture Series, 23 January 2007.
AThe State/Individual
and God/World Dynamics in Hegel's Philosophy of World History@. Institut für die
Wissenschaften vom Menschen, Vienna, Austria, 15 February 2006.
AThe Possibility of Facing Death:
Kierkegaard, Heidegger, Death, and Faith@. Florida State University, 2005 Dept.
of Religion Graduate Symposium, 2 April 2005.
ADistance and the Divine: Wordsworth,
Hölderlin, and the Absence of God@. University of Texas at Brownsville,
2005 Southwest Conference on Christianity and Literature, 29 September 2005.
Paper accepted, declined the invitation to present.
AYog~c~ra Buddhism, Kant, and Husserl:
Comparative Phenomenology or Misplaced Idealism?@ Boston University College of Arts and
Sciences, 4 October 2004.
ATowards a Poetics of Place: Heidegger,
Hölderlin, World, and Earth@. Harvard University, The Worldly Earth: An Ecological Conference, 20 March 2004.
Professional Service:
In
2016 I reviewed and redesigned Fisher College's online philosophy and religion
courses in advance of adoption of new Blackboard Learning Environment upgrades
to the College's online course offerings. This included reviewing and preparing
college-wide online standards and syllabus for all online philosophy and
religion courses for Fisher College’s Division of Accelerated and Professional
Studies.
In 2011‑12 I reviewed and
rewrote the learning objectives and course catalogue descriptions for Fisher
College's philosophy and religion courses in advance of the College's
reaccreditation process by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges,
Inc.
Current Projects:
My
first book was published by Cambridge University Press in September 2014,
entitled Hegel, the End of History, and the Future. It
contains chapters on Herder, Fichte, Engels, Nietzsche, and Kojève,
as well as Hegel=s philosophy of history. This
monograph is the only book-length study currently available in English which is
devoted entirely to tracing the history and interpretation of one of the most
important and misunderstood aspects of Hegel=s historical and political philosophy,
the myth of the Aend of history@ B namely, that Hegel alleges that all
of intellectual history has come to an end with his own philosophy of freedom
and the political situation which arises in the wake of the French Revolution
and the Napoleonic Wars. My book breaks new ground in Hegel studies by setting
Hegel=s philosophy of history within the
context of his overall body of work as well as showing its relationship to
other writers on philosophy and history.
I have completed and am now revising a
manuscript considering Hegel=s historical theodicy in dialogue with
Heidegger and Hölderlin (approx. 150,000 words). The title of this work is Towards
Finite Theodicies: Hegel, Heidegger, Hölderlin. I
expect to be able to place it with Cambridge University Press as a companion to
my earlier book with them. Arguing that neither Hegel=s absolute God nor Heidegger=s last God offers a satisfying account
of evil, I offer an interpretation of Hölderlin=s poetic theme of an absent God, in
order to suggest a better way to think about the issue of evil and the divine.
As a work of philosophical theology, it contributes to the debates surrounding
the nature of the divine and the question of human evil. As a work of history
of philosophy, it is a reappraisal both of Hegel=s philosophy of history and his
philosophy of religion. I consider Hegel=s historical theodicy in light of his
so-called end of history thesis, and the challenges that have arisen against
theodicy in the wake of Heidegger=s critique of ontotheological
metaphysics. In this study I take seriously the criticisms brought against
Hegel=s historicist theodicy, while
proposing a new way to understand his work.
In the process of revising Theodicies
I began to research a general philosophy of religion I am calling A Philosophy
of the Gods. Having dealt with theodicy, I will primarily concentrate in
this book on the experience of divine absence and divine neglect in
contemporary thought. I am particularly interested in bringing traditional
continental and analytic philosophy of religion into conversation with the
philosophical and literary movements revolving around the pessimism, anxiety,
and weird realism found in the works of Emil Cioran,
Michel Houellebecq, Thomas Ligotti,
H. P. Lovecraft, and others. Moving from the demiurge of Plato=s Timaeus to the misotheism of Cioran and the AElsewhere@ of John K. Roth, this book will offer
an interpretation of religious experience which usually remains neglected by
more traditional philosophies of religion.
Finally, I am structuring a manuscript
for a book on justice, based on my successful course at Emerson College AEthics and Justice,@ which I have taught since 2007. This
book would fill a void in the literature by placing important continental and
analytic theories of justice next to one another. The book is arranged
chronologically, with chapters on Plato, Aristotle, Augustine, Confucius,
Aquinas, Descartes, Hobbes, Kant, Mill, Hegel, Rawls, Habermas, MacIntyre, Lévinas, Badiou, and ðiñek. This manuscript is in the planning
and research stage, though I have several years of lecture and class notes upon
which to draw.
Languages:
German: reading and research
competence, basic speaking skills
French: reading and research
competence, basic speaking skills
Biblical & Classical Greek: basic
reading and research competence
Biblical Hebrew: basic reading and
research competence
Classical Chinese: I am learning this
so as to work more fluently in Confucian philosophy
Professional Affiliations:
American Philosophical Association
American Academy of Religion
The Hegel Society of America
Society for Phenomenology and
Existential Philosophy
The Karl Jaspers Society of North
America
The Heidegger Circle
References:
A list of professional references
regarding teaching and scholarship can be provided immediately upon request.
Updated 23 Sept 2016