Political Theory

Professor MacGilvray has research and teaching interests which center in modern and contemporary political thought, with an emphasis on liberal, republican and democratic theory and the pragmatic philosophical tradition.  His book Reconstructing Public Reason (Harvard University Press, 2004) draws on the pragmatic theory of justification to explore the problem of political legitimacy in pluralistic societies.  His articles on pragmatism have appeared in Political Theory and the American Journal of Political Science, and are forthcoming in Contemporary Pragmatism and The Good Society.  He is currently working on a book-length project called Republicanism and the Market.
 

Selected Publications:

2007 (forthcoming). “Pluralism in the Thought of William James.” The Good Society.

2007 (forthcoming). “Pragmatism and the Epistemic Defense of Democracy.” Contemporary Pragmatism.

2004. Reconstructing Public Reason. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

2000. “Five Myths About Pragmatism, or, Against a Second Pragmatic Acquiescence.” Political Theory 28 (4):480-508.

1999. “Experience as Experiment: Some Consequences of Pragmatism for Democratic Theory.” American Journal of Political Science 43 (2):542-65.