Jeffrey Church
Biographic Data
| ID | 4122179 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Jeffrey Church |
| GIVEN NAMES | Jeffrey |
| FAMILY NAME | Church |
| SIGNATURE | CHURCH J |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Houston |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-6908-5183 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 27 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 14 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 27 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2007 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
What is political theory today?
Nietzsche’s Immoralism
Without a doubt, Nietzsche’s political philosophy is one of the most elusive and ambiguous features of his corpus. How else can we explain the dizzying, even contradictory, variety of interpretations of Nietzsche’s politics? Some read him as anti-political or a liberal skeptical of state power. For others, he is an aristocratic radical, obsessed with using state power to entrench a new class of Übermenschen. For still others, his thought is most …
The Comedy of Public Opinion in Hegel
Rousseau, the value of existence, and the sacredness of citizenship
The Flies of Summer
This paper takes up a deep objection to liberalism associated most clearly with Edmund Burke, that liberalism's tendency to rapid change from generation to generation frustrates a fundamental human desire to participate in what is unchanging. To address this criticism, I examine Kant's political theory from the 1780s and 1790s, focusing on the themes of perpetual peace, revolution, and punishment. I argue that for Kant, the liberal community is b…
Liberalism and Meaningfulness
The contemporary debate between perfectionists and anti-perfectionists is at an impasse. This paper does not take sides in this long-standing debate, but finds common ground between both groups in the notion of “meaningfulness,” as developed recently by philosopher Susan Wolf and psychologist Roy Baumeister. This notion is distinct from the good life in that meaningfulness describes formal qualities of a good life, but not its basis and substance…
In Defense of the Long, Long Interview
An abstract is not available for this content. As you have access to this content, full HTML content is provided on this page. A PDF of this content is also available in through the ‘Save PDF’ action button
An Interpretation of Nietzsche's On the Uses and Disadvantage of History for Life
Exemplary Lives and the Normative Theory of Culture
This article defends an essentialist account of culture against the recent turn toward nonessentialism in contemporary liberal multiculturalism. It does so by drawing on Friedrich Nietzsche's early period and argues that Nietzsche provides an alternative to the dominant tradition of Volk conceptions of culture that derive from J. G. Herder. Nietzsche's alternative—what I call the “Exemplar Account” of culture—defines culture in terms of the patte…
Nietzsche's Unfashionable Observations
"Unfashionable Observations - often translated as the Untimely Meditations or Thoughts Out of Season - is made up of four independent essays written between 1873 and 1876. The book remains a puzzle: what structure, principles and arguments underlie the essays? Presupposing no prior knowledge of Nietzsche or the text, Jeffrey Church sets the essays in historical and philosophical context, guides you through the text section-by-section and develops…
Nietzsche's Unfashionable Observations
The veil of philanthropy
Kant has traditionally been read as an excessively moralistic critic of lying in his ethics and politics. In response, recent scholars have noted that for Kant we have an ethical duty not to be completely candid, but rather we should practice reticence and simulate virtues even when we do not have them. This article argues that Kant extends the value of dissimulation and simulation beyond the interpersonal to society and politics. By examining th…
Three Arguments for the Philosophical Life
One of the many contributions of Postmodern Platos is that it raises an old question in the postmodern age: what is the value of philosophy? This essay finds and assesses three distinct arguments for the philosophical life in Zuckert's book, which she associates with Aristotle, Nietzsche, and Strauss. Philosophy, according to all three arguments, represents the highest life for human beings because it realizes our highest capacity, and it secures…
Nietzsche's Early Ethical Idealism
Many recent scholars have interpreted Nietzsche as an ethical naturalist in the long tradition of Aristotle. This article challenges that interpretation by arguing that the early period Nietzsche is an ethical idealist in the tradition of Kant. I focus on the early period writings, since Nietzsche is clearest in them about the neo-Kantian influences on his thought, the meaninglessness of natural existence, his distinction between the ideal of hum…
Nietzsche's Culture of Humanity
Nietzsche scholars have long been divided over whether Nietzsche is an aristocratic or a democratic thinker. Nietzche's Culture of Humanity overcomes this debate by proving both sides wrong. Jeffrey Church argues that in his early period writings, Nietzsche envisioned a cultural meritocracy that drew on the classical German tradition of Kant and Herder. The young Nietzsche's 'culture of humanity' synthesized the high and low, the genius and the p…
Nietzsche's Early Perfectionism
Nietzsche's early essay “The Greek State” has been understood as unambiguous evidence of Nietzsche's “aristocratic radicalism,” that he rejected liberal democracy and advocated slavery, war, and the sacrifice of the many for the few. This article challenges the scholarly consensus. I argue that “The Greek State” critiques liberal culture, not its institutions, and it proposes modern functional alternatives to ancient practices of slavery and war.…
The Aesthetic Justification of Existence
A disagreement about the nature of Nietzsche's “aesthetic justification of existence” has recently emerged in the literature. In this essay, I argue that the disagreement stems from a common but mistaken assumption that Nietzsche focuses on works of art to justify life. Instead, in the Untimely Meditations, Nietzsche shifts to the beauty of exemplary individuals to justify life. Through an examination of the Kantian practical arguments in the Unt…
Culture beyond identity
Liberal approaches to multiculturalism and cultural nationalism have met with severe criticism in recent years. This article makes the case for an alternative, Aristotelian approach developed in the work of the ‘founding father’ of culture, J. G. Herder. According to Herder, culture is worthy of political recognition because it contributes to the realization of our common but contradictory human telos. Only a plurality of cultures, each realizing…
Infinite Autonomy
Friedrich Schiller on republican virtue and the tragic exemplar
Scholars have recently argued that Friedrich Schiller makes a signal contribution to republican political theory in his view of “aesthetic education,” which offers a means of elevating self-interest to virtue. However, though this education is lauded in theory, it has been denigrated as implausible, irresponsible, or dangerous in practice. This paper argues that the criticisms rest on a faulty assumption that artistic objects constitute the sole …
Nietzsche, Nihilism, and the Philosophy of the Future
In his introduction, Jeffrey Metzger states that “at some point in the past 20 or 30 years ... Nietzsche's name [became] no longer associated primarily with nihilism” (1). Metzger is pointing to the increasing contemporary scholarly interest in Nietzsche's epistemology, naturalism, and metaethics. The worthy aim of this volume is to ask us to examine once again the underlying philosophical problem to which these views are a response, namely, nihi…
The Political Cultivation of Moral Character
Does the liberal state have the legitimate power to shape the moral character of its citizenry? One common liberal answer, which draws on a traditional reading of Kant's distinction between morality and right, is “no”: the scope of state authority extends only to the external actions of individuals, not to their inner, moral lives. This article explores an alternative reading of Kant in which the liberal state defends individual rights yet also h…
G.W.F. Hegel on Self‐Determination and Democratic Theory
This article claims that the major alternative models of contemporary democratic theory—the aggregative, deliberative, and agonistic models—are grounded on a norm of self‐determination, but each conceptualizes this self‐determination in a different, and one‐sidedly narrow, way. G.W.F. Hegel provides a conceptual scheme in which to understand the development and synthesize the insights of these three articulations of self‐determination. He also ar…
Two concepts of culture in the early Nietzsche
Culture remains a divisive issue in liberal democracies, and this article argues Nietzsche offers a principled middle ground between the conservative and progressive camps of recent and ongoing ‘culture wars’. Hence, this article challenges the ‘aristocratic’ versus ‘democratic’ Nietzsche debate by making the case that Nietzsche defended two opposed notions of culture in his early period work: a national or group culture and a cosmopolitan cultur…
The Freedom of Desire
The ever‐growing body of literature on civil society can benefit from a return to the original theoretical articulation and defense of the concept in the work of G.W.F. Hegel. Specifically, this article suggests that Jean‐Jacques Rousseau's influential critique of civil society remains unanswered and argues that Hegel responded with a sweeping and sympathetic institutional design that remains relevant today. Hegel agrees with Rousseau that commer…
The Freedom of Desire
The ever‐growing body of literature on civil society can benefit from a return to the original theoretical articulation and defense of the concept in the work of G.W.F. Hegel. Specifically, this article suggests that Jean‐Jacques Rousseau's influential critique of civil society remains unanswered and argues that Hegel responded with a sweeping and sympathetic institutional design that remains relevant today. Hegel agrees with Rousseau that commer…
The Political Cultivation of Moral Character
Does the liberal state have the legitimate power to shape the moral character of its citizenry? One common liberal answer, which draws on a traditional reading of Kant's distinction between morality and right, is “no”: the scope of state authority extends only to the external actions of individuals, not to their inner, moral lives. This article explores an alternative reading of Kant in which the liberal state defends individual rights yet also h…
Friedrich Schiller on republican virtue and the tragic exemplar
Scholars have recently argued that Friedrich Schiller makes a signal contribution to republican political theory in his view of “aesthetic education,” which offers a means of elevating self-interest to virtue. However, though this education is lauded in theory, it has been denigrated as implausible, irresponsible, or dangerous in practice. This paper argues that the criticisms rest on a faulty assumption that artistic objects constitute the sole …
Nietzsche's Early Ethical Idealism
Many recent scholars have interpreted Nietzsche as an ethical naturalist in the long tradition of Aristotle. This article challenges that interpretation by arguing that the early period Nietzsche is an ethical idealist in the tradition of Kant. I focus on the early period writings, since Nietzsche is clearest in them about the neo-Kantian influences on his thought, the meaninglessness of natural existence, his distinction between the ideal of hum…
Nietzsche's Early Perfectionism
Nietzsche's early essay “The Greek State” has been understood as unambiguous evidence of Nietzsche's “aristocratic radicalism,” that he rejected liberal democracy and advocated slavery, war, and the sacrifice of the many for the few. This article challenges the scholarly consensus. I argue that “The Greek State” critiques liberal culture, not its institutions, and it proposes modern functional alternatives to ancient practices of slavery and war.…
Two concepts of culture in the early Nietzsche
Culture remains a divisive issue in liberal democracies, and this article argues Nietzsche offers a principled middle ground between the conservative and progressive camps of recent and ongoing ‘culture wars’. Hence, this article challenges the ‘aristocratic’ versus ‘democratic’ Nietzsche debate by making the case that Nietzsche defended two opposed notions of culture in his early period work: a national or group culture and a cosmopolitan cultur…
Selfish and Moral Politics
In Hume's dialogue with the Hobbesian-Mandevillian “selfish system” of morals, Hume seems to reject its conclusions in morals, but accept them in politics. No skeptic of moral claims like Mandeville, Hume sought to ground objective moral standards in his moral sentiment philosophy, yet, like Mandeville, Hume argued that in political life human beings act based largely on self-interest and a limited generosity. I argue that Hume, however, is ultim…
The Freedom of Desire
The ever‐growing body of literature on civil society can benefit from a return to the original theoretical articulation and defense of the concept in the work of G.W.F. Hegel. Specifically, this article suggests that Jean‐Jacques Rousseau's influential critique of civil society remains unanswered and argues that Hegel responded with a sweeping and sympathetic institutional design that remains relevant today. Hegel agrees with Rousseau that commer…
Recognition and Restlessness in John Ford'sThe Searchers
The central character in The Searchers, Ethan Edwards, demonstrates a puzzling mix of self-sufficient individualism, deep racism, and perpetual dissatisfaction. This article explains this mix by arguing that the film is ambivalent about the kind of modern individualism Ethan represents. Although the film approves of the individualist's retreat from corrupt society and politics, it nonetheless claims that self-knowledge and freedom cannot be achie…
Two concepts of culture in the early Nietzsche
Culture remains a divisive issue in liberal democracies, and this article argues Nietzsche offers a principled middle ground between the conservative and progressive camps of recent and ongoing ‘culture wars’. Hence, this article challenges the ‘aristocratic’ versus ‘democratic’ Nietzsche debate by making the case that Nietzsche defended two opposed notions of culture in his early period work: a national or group culture and a cosmopolitan cultur…
G.W.F. Hegel on Self‐Determination and Democratic Theory
This article claims that the major alternative models of contemporary democratic theory—the aggregative, deliberative, and agonistic models—are grounded on a norm of self‐determination, but each conceptualizes this self‐determination in a different, and one‐sidedly narrow, way. G.W.F. Hegel provides a conceptual scheme in which to understand the development and synthesize the insights of these three articulations of self‐determination. He also ar…
Nietzsche, Nihilism, and the Philosophy of the Future
In his introduction, Jeffrey Metzger states that “at some point in the past 20 or 30 years ... Nietzsche's name [became] no longer associated primarily with nihilism” (1). Metzger is pointing to the increasing contemporary scholarly interest in Nietzsche's epistemology, naturalism, and metaethics. The worthy aim of this volume is to ask us to examine once again the underlying philosophical problem to which these views are a response, namely, nihi…
The Political Cultivation of Moral Character
Does the liberal state have the legitimate power to shape the moral character of its citizenry? One common liberal answer, which draws on a traditional reading of Kant's distinction between morality and right, is “no”: the scope of state authority extends only to the external actions of individuals, not to their inner, moral lives. This article explores an alternative reading of Kant in which the liberal state defends individual rights yet also h…
Infinite Autonomy
Friedrich Schiller on republican virtue and the tragic exemplar
Scholars have recently argued that Friedrich Schiller makes a signal contribution to republican political theory in his view of “aesthetic education,” which offers a means of elevating self-interest to virtue. However, though this education is lauded in theory, it has been denigrated as implausible, irresponsible, or dangerous in practice. This paper argues that the criticisms rest on a faulty assumption that artistic objects constitute the sole …
Nietzsche's Culture of Humanity
Nietzsche scholars have long been divided over whether Nietzsche is an aristocratic or a democratic thinker. Nietzche's Culture of Humanity overcomes this debate by proving both sides wrong. Jeffrey Church argues that in his early period writings, Nietzsche envisioned a cultural meritocracy that drew on the classical German tradition of Kant and Herder. The young Nietzsche's 'culture of humanity' synthesized the high and low, the genius and the p…
Nietzsche's Early Perfectionism
Nietzsche's early essay “The Greek State” has been understood as unambiguous evidence of Nietzsche's “aristocratic radicalism,” that he rejected liberal democracy and advocated slavery, war, and the sacrifice of the many for the few. This article challenges the scholarly consensus. I argue that “The Greek State” critiques liberal culture, not its institutions, and it proposes modern functional alternatives to ancient practices of slavery and war.…
The Aesthetic Justification of Existence
A disagreement about the nature of Nietzsche's “aesthetic justification of existence” has recently emerged in the literature. In this essay, I argue that the disagreement stems from a common but mistaken assumption that Nietzsche focuses on works of art to justify life. Instead, in the Untimely Meditations, Nietzsche shifts to the beauty of exemplary individuals to justify life. Through an examination of the Kantian practical arguments in the Unt…
Culture beyond identity
Liberal approaches to multiculturalism and cultural nationalism have met with severe criticism in recent years. This article makes the case for an alternative, Aristotelian approach developed in the work of the ‘founding father’ of culture, J. G. Herder. According to Herder, culture is worthy of political recognition because it contributes to the realization of our common but contradictory human telos. Only a plurality of cultures, each realizing…
Nietzsche's Early Ethical Idealism
Many recent scholars have interpreted Nietzsche as an ethical naturalist in the long tradition of Aristotle. This article challenges that interpretation by arguing that the early period Nietzsche is an ethical idealist in the tradition of Kant. I focus on the early period writings, since Nietzsche is clearest in them about the neo-Kantian influences on his thought, the meaninglessness of natural existence, his distinction between the ideal of hum…
Nietzsche's Unfashionable Observations
The veil of philanthropy
Kant has traditionally been read as an excessively moralistic critic of lying in his ethics and politics. In response, recent scholars have noted that for Kant we have an ethical duty not to be completely candid, but rather we should practice reticence and simulate virtues even when we do not have them. This article argues that Kant extends the value of dissimulation and simulation beyond the interpersonal to society and politics. By examining th…
Three Arguments for the Philosophical Life
One of the many contributions of Postmodern Platos is that it raises an old question in the postmodern age: what is the value of philosophy? This essay finds and assesses three distinct arguments for the philosophical life in Zuckert's book, which she associates with Aristotle, Nietzsche, and Strauss. Philosophy, according to all three arguments, represents the highest life for human beings because it realizes our highest capacity, and it secures…
Liberalism and Meaningfulness
The contemporary debate between perfectionists and anti-perfectionists is at an impasse. This paper does not take sides in this long-standing debate, but finds common ground between both groups in the notion of “meaningfulness,” as developed recently by philosopher Susan Wolf and psychologist Roy Baumeister. This notion is distinct from the good life in that meaningfulness describes formal qualities of a good life, but not its basis and substance…
In Defense of the Long, Long Interview
An abstract is not available for this content. As you have access to this content, full HTML content is provided on this page. A PDF of this content is also available in through the ‘Save PDF’ action button
An Interpretation of Nietzsche's On the Uses and Disadvantage of History for Life
Exemplary Lives and the Normative Theory of Culture
This article defends an essentialist account of culture against the recent turn toward nonessentialism in contemporary liberal multiculturalism. It does so by drawing on Friedrich Nietzsche's early period and argues that Nietzsche provides an alternative to the dominant tradition of Volk conceptions of culture that derive from J. G. Herder. Nietzsche's alternative—what I call the “Exemplar Account” of culture—defines culture in terms of the patte…
Nietzsche's Unfashionable Observations
"Unfashionable Observations - often translated as the Untimely Meditations or Thoughts Out of Season - is made up of four independent essays written between 1873 and 1876. The book remains a puzzle: what structure, principles and arguments underlie the essays? Presupposing no prior knowledge of Nietzsche or the text, Jeffrey Church sets the essays in historical and philosophical context, guides you through the text section-by-section and develops…
The Flies of Summer
This paper takes up a deep objection to liberalism associated most clearly with Edmund Burke, that liberalism's tendency to rapid change from generation to generation frustrates a fundamental human desire to participate in what is unchanging. To address this criticism, I examine Kant's political theory from the 1780s and 1790s, focusing on the themes of perpetual peace, revolution, and punishment. I argue that for Kant, the liberal community is b…
The Comedy of Public Opinion in Hegel
Rousseau, the value of existence, and the sacredness of citizenship
Philosophy (20 works) · Epistemology (19 works) · Political science (18 works) · Law (17 works) · Philosophy (17 works) · Politics (14 works) · Sociology (14 works) · Law (13 works) · Aesthetics (10 works) · Nietzsche, Schopenhauer, and Hegel (9 works)