Emeritus Professor of Philosophy and Religious Studies at Millsaps College
smithsg@millsaps.edu | 601-354-2290 | Box 150390, Millsaps College, Jackson, MS 39210 USA | Fax 601-974-1397

Featured Links

HOOKS: a site for closer looks at great components of popular music. See also AD HOOKS on ads in mass media and The Millsaps Hooks Project


Areas of Research Interest

Philosophy of religion, philosophical anthropology, ethics and political philosophy, aesthetics, philosophy of history, metaphysics, philosophy of language


Currently Working On

The metaphysics of practical wisdom

The ideas of “higher” life and “higher education”

The role of filters in film experience


Selected Publications

BOOKS

The Special Liveliness of Hooks in Popular Music and Beyond (Palgrave Macmillan, 2023)

Full Responsibility. On Pragmatic, Political, and Other Modes of Action Sharing (State University of New York Press, 2022)

Scriptures and the Guidance of Language. Evaluating a Religious Authority in Communicative Action (Cambridge University Press, 2018)

Centering and Extending. An Essay on Metaphysical Sense (State University of New York Press, 2017)

Full History. On the Meaningfulness of Shared Action (Bloomsbury Academic, 2017)

Appeal and Attitude. Prospects for Ultimate Meaning (Indiana University Press, 2005)

Worth Doing (State University of New York Press, 2004)

Gender Thinking (Temple University Press, 1992)

The Concept of the Spiritual. An Essay in First Philosophy (Temple University Press, 1988)

The Argument to the Other. Reason Beyond Reason in the Thought of Karl Barth and Emmanuel Levinas (Scholars Press, 1983)

 

SOME RECENT ARTICLES

“Benevolence Toward Efforts.” Journal of Value Inquiry, advance publication online (April 2023).

“The Moral Proximity of Rooting.” Journal of the Philosophy of Sport, 49 (3) (2022), 351-365.

“Responsibility in Religiosity.” Religious Studies, 57 (2) (June 2021), 249-265.

“What Is Merit, That It Can Be Transferred?” International Journal for Philosophy of Religion, 90 (April 2021), 191-207.

“Historical Realization in Godard’s Histoire(s) du Cinéma.” Film and Philosophy, 25 (2021), 37-51.

“The Unavoidable Guidance in Language.” International Journal of Philosophical Studies, 28 (1) (2020), 18-35.

“What We Have Time For: Historical Responsibility on the Largest Scale.” Journal of the Philosophy of History, 13 (June 2019), 163-182.

“Meaningful Moral Freedom: An Improved Kantian View.” International Philosophical Quarterly, 57 (June 2017), 155-172.