Bio
Dr. Carey was born in Wilson, North Carolina. He is married with four children. He has published widely in the history of philosophy. His 2019 book, Natural Reason and Natural Law, treated Thomas Aquinas and some of his more recent critics. Dr. Carey’s academic interests extend beyond philosophy to literature and mathematics. He has a broad reading knowledge in ancient and modern languages. Dr. Carey is a former Dean and Acting President of St. John’s College, Santa Fe. He has been a Distinguished Visiting Professor in the Department of Philosophy at the United States Air Force Academy multiple times since 2004.
Education
PhD, Philosophy (Minor, Political Science) 1998 – Graduate Faculty, New School for Social
Research, New York, NY. Dissertation: Hegel’s Critique of Morality.
MA, Philosophy, 1973 – Graduate Faculty, New School for Social Research.
Graduate Study in Music Theory and Composition, 1969 – University of North Carolina –
BA, Music, 1967 – University of North Carolina.
Professional Experience
1979 – Present: Tutor (Tenured 1984), St. John's College, Annapolis, MD and Santa Fe, NM. (“Tutor” is the title of all who teach at St. John's. There are neither professorships nor any other system of faculty ranking at St. John’s; nor are there academic departments.)
2022, Summer; 2023, Summer. Hudson Institute for Political Studies, Washington DC. Visiting Faculty.
2004 – 2007; 2009 – 2014; 2016 – 2021, 2023 – Present: Distinguished Visiting Professor, Department of Philosophy, United States Air Force Academy.
2000: Acting President, St. John's College, Santa Fe
1994 – 1995. Consultant in Ethics, Los Alamos Laboratories.
1989 – 1992. Consultant in Education, Alaska Paideia Project.
1986 – 1991; 1996 – 2000: Dean, St. John's College, Santa Fe.
1992 – 1993: Program Coordinator, Institute for the study of Eastern Classics at St. John's College.1976: Instructor in Philosophy, North Carolina Wesleyan College.
1974 -1978: Adjunct Instructor in Philosophy, East Carolina University Extension Program
Research and Scholarly Interests
Ancient and Medieval Philosophy
Kantian and post-Kantian German Philosophy
Publications
Book
Natural Reason and Natural Law—An Assessment of the Straussian Criticisms of Thomas Aquinas. March 2019: Eugene, Oregon, Wipf and Stock.
Articles
“On the Possibility of Revelation,” Spring, 2022. https://udallas.edu/braniff/braniff_life/Reflections%20on%20the%20Possibility%20of%20Revelation.pdf
“Exchange on Carey” – Reply to three reviews of Natural Reason and Natural Law. The reviews and the reply are contained Interpretation – A Journal of Political Philosophy, Spring 2020, Vol. 46 Issue 2.
“Socrates’ Exhortation to Follow the Logos,” in Socrates in the Cave: Essays on the Philosopher's Motive in Plato, edited by Paul Diduch and Michael Harding, London. June 2018.
“Liberal Education and the Orthodox Church,” in Liberal Learning and the Great Christian Traditions, edited by Gary W. Jenkins and Jonathan Yonan, Eugene OR: Pickwick Publications, An Imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers. 2015.
“The Pleasure of Philosophizing and its Moral Foundation,” in Interpretation—A Journal of Political Philosophy, 2013.
“Sedimentation of Meaning in the Concepts of Nature and the Environment” – in Toward and Ecology of Transfiguration – edited by John Chryssavgis and Bruce Foltz, Fordham University Press, 2013.
“Aesthetics, Ancient and Modern—An Introduction” – The St. John's Review, 2012.
“Christianity and Force: The Just War Tradition” – in Religion, Fundamentalism, and Violence, edited by Andrew Gluck, Scranton University Press, 2010.
“The Theoretical Presuppositions of Liberal Education,” The Envisioned Life – Essays in Honor of Eva Brann, edited by P. Kalkavage and E. Salem, Paul Dry Press, 2007.
“Vedic Tradition and the Origin of Philosophy in Ancient India” – The St. John's Review, 2007.
“The Discovery of Nature” – The St. John's Review, 2000.
“The Act of Faith” – in Essays in Honor of Robert Bart, 1992. St. John’s College Press.
“Aristotle on the Intelligibility of Being” – The St. John's Review, 1984.
Extended Reviews
“Education and the Art of Writing” – A Review of Aristotle as Teacher—His Introduction to a Philosophic Science by Christopher Bruell (St. Augustine’s Press 2014), in The St. John’s Review, Fall 2015, Vol. 57, No. 1, pages 120-148.
“Getting to Know Kierkegaard Better” – A Review of The Paradoxical Rationality of Søren Kierkegaard by Richard McCombs (Indiana University Press, 2013) in The St. John’s Review, Fall 2013, Vol. 55. No.1, pages 119-133.
“Richard Kennington's On Modern Origins” – The New Yearbook for Phenomenology and Phenomenological Philosophy, Vol. VI 2006, pages 281-304.
Shorter Reviews and Occasional Pieces
Review of From Human Dignity to Natural Law by Richard Berquist (Washington DC: Catholic University of America Press, 2019) in Journal of Moral Theology, June 2 020.
Review of The“Good War” in American Memory by John Bodnar (Baltimore: The John’s Hopkins University Press, 2010) in Proceedings and Naval History, April 2011.
Review of The Father of Us All by Victor Davis Hanson (New York: Bloomsbury Press, 2010) in Proceedings and Naval History, May, 2010.
Review of Jorge Aigla's Karate-Do and Zen in The St. John's Review, 1995.
Reply to “An Open Letter on the Relevance of Classics” – Frame of Reference – The Alaska Humanities Forum, 1991.
Conference presentations
2023 – ACTC Conference – “Thomas Aquinas’s Two Arguments for a First Efficient Cause”
2023 – SOPHIA Conference – “Philosophy and the Orthodox Faith”
2022 – “Religion, Theology, and Justice” – Keynote Address. Conference on “What is Just According to Nature.” April 2022. Respondent to a panel on my book. Natural Reason and Natural Law, also held at this conference. University of Dallas. April 2022.
2022 – Respondent to a panel on my book. Natural Reason and Natural Law. Southern Political Science Association, San Antonio TX, January 2022.
2018 – International Congress on Intelligence and Will in Thomas Aquinas, University of Navarra, Pamplona, Spain – “Thomas Aquinas on Sin as Regarded from the Perspective of Reason.”
2014 – SOPHIA Conference – “Reason and the Orthodox Church.”
2013 – Mountain Plains Philosophy Association – “Are Other Worlds Really Possible?”
2013 – 48th International Congress on Medieval Studies – “Thomas Aquinas on Faith as a Moral Virtue.”
2011 – 46th International Congress on Medieval Studies – “Thomas Aquinas, Duns Scotus, and Gregory of Palamas on the Simplicity of God.”
2010 – 45th International Congress on Medieval Studies – “Thomas Aquinas’s Critique of Anselm’s Proof of the Existence of God.”
2008 – 43rd International Congress on Medieval Studies – “Courage, Death, and the Good of Reason.”
2007 – 42nd International Congress on Medieval Studies – “Faith and Reason in Thomas Aquinas's Account of Procession in God.”
2006 – 41st International Congress on Medieval Studies – “Prudence, Synderesis, and Conscience.”
Formal Lectures
2020 – “Reflections on the Idea of Revelation”— Keynote Address for Conference on Political Philosophy and Human Flourishing, Catholic University of America. (An earlier version of the kier :
2018 – “Thomas Aquinas’s Second Way to Prove the Existence of God”—Friday Night Lecture Series, St. John’s College, Annapolis
2018 – “Duns Scotus’s Modal Argument for the Existence of God” – Friday Night Lecture Series, St. John’s College, Santa Fe
2016 – “Anselm’s Ontological Argument for the Existence of God, and Its Critics” – Wednesday Afternoon Lecture Series, St. John’s College, Santa Fe
2015 – “An Argument from Evil, or from Finitude?” Philosophy Department Lecture, United States Air Force Academy.
2015 – “Liberal Education and Aesthetic Education” – Thomas Maclaren School, Colorado Springs
2014 – “Spinoza’s Response to Christian Scholasticism” – Tulane University, George Hitchings Terriberry Memorial Lecture.
2013 – “Anselm’s Argument and its Reception” – Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology, Berkeley, CA.
2012 – “The Pleasure of Philosophizing and its Moral Foundation” – University of Dallas (an early version of the 2013 paper published in Interpretation—A Journal of Political Philosophy).
2012 – “The Place of Aesthetics in Hegel’s System of the Philosophical Sciences” – Rome Institute for the Liberal Arts
2010 – “Some Reflections on the Phenomenon of Beauty” – Friday Night Lecture Series, St. John's College, Annapolis (an early version of a paper published in The St. John’s Review, 2012).
2009 – “Thomas Aquinas, An Introduction” – Wednesday Lecture Series, St. John's College, Santa Fe.
2008 – “Liberal Education and the Military Officer” – The Joseph A. Reich, Sr., Distinguished Lecture on War, Morality and the Military Profession, United States Air Force Academy.
2008 – “Freedom, Letters, and Leisure” – Commencement Address, Graduate Institute, St. John's College, Santa Fe.
2008 – “The Privilege of Reason II: Identity and Eternity” – Wednesday Lecture Series, St. John's College, Santa Fe.
2007 – “Orthodoxy and Classical Education” – Agia Sophia School, Portland Oregon.
2006 – “The Privilege of Reason I: Evolution and History” – Friday Night Lecture Series, St. John's College, Santa Fe.
2003 – “The Rational Theology of Thomas Aquinas I” – St. John's College
Graduate Institute, Summer Lecture Series.
2003 – “The Rational Theology of Thomas Aquinas II” – St. John's College Graduate Institute, Summer Lecture Series.
2002 – “Assumptions in the Philosophical Critique of Religion” – University of Dallas, (Italy Campus) Castel Gandolfo, Italy.
1999 – “On the Trivium” – Dean's Opening Lecture, St. John's College.
1996 – “On the Quadrivium” – Dean's Opening Lecture, St. John's College.
1994 – “Kant's Grounding of a Dual Metaphysics” – Friday Night Lecture Series, St. John's College, Annapolis.
1993 – “The Unhappy Consciousness” (on Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit) – Wednesday Lecture Series, St. John's College, Santa Fe.
1992 – “Reason as Lawgiver” – Boston College.
1990 – “Ivan's Blasphemy” (on The Brothers Karamazov) – Dean's Lecture, St. John's College, Santa Fe.
1989 – “Hegel's System: A Synoptic Exposition” – Dean's Lecture, St. John's College, Santa Fe.
1988 – “Politics and the Life of the Mind” – Dean's Lecture, St. John's College, Santa Fe.
1986 – “On the Use and Possession of Logos” – Dean's Lecture, St. John's College, Santa Fe.
1985 – “Grace and Free Will” – St. John's College, Annapolis.
1983 – “Thomas Aquinas on the Existence of God” – St. John’s College, Annapolis
1982 – “Virtue and Knowledge in Plato's Meno” – St. John's College (Annapolis).