STEVEN G. SMITH
Curriculum Vitae
April 2024

ADDRESS
Box 150390, Millsaps College, Jackson, Mississippi 39210
E-mail: smithsg@millsaps.edu
Homepage: stevengsmith.org
Telephone: 601-354-2290

BORN
July 28, 1953, in Hollywood, Florida

EDUCATION
Florida State University, 1969-1972, B.A. (Religion) 1972
Iowa State University, 1974, graduate studies in journalism
Vanderbilt University, 1975-1976, M.A. (Religion: Religious ethics/Philosophy) 1978
Duke University, 1976-1980, Ph.D. (Religion: Systematic and contemporary studies) 1980

Dissertation: Totaliter Aliter. The Argument to the Other in the Thought of Karl Barth and Emmanuel Levinas.  Advisor: William H. Poteat

HONORS
Phi Beta Kappa, Florida State University, 1973
James B. Duke Fellowship, Duke University, 1976-1978
Gurney Harris Kearns Fellowship, Duke University, 1979-1980
Alumni Distinguished Scholar, North Carolina Wesleyan College, 1984
Lambda Chi Alpha Outstanding Professor Award, Millsaps College, 1988
Elected Fellow of the Society for Values in Higher Education, 1990
Honorable Mention, Findlay Award, Metaphysical Society of America, 1991 [for The Concept of the Spiritual]
Millsaps College Faculty Fellowship, 1992
Distinguished Professor Award, Millsaps, 1994
Humanities Teacher of the Year Award, Millsaps, 2003 [sponsored by NEH]
Jennie Carlisle Golding Professor of Philosophy, 2010-2020
W. Charles Sallis Award for Distinguished Service, 2014

ACADEMIC APPOINTMENTS
Assistant professor of philosophy and religion, North Carolina Wesleyan College, l980-1985
Assistant professor of philosophy and religious studies, Millsaps College, 1985-1989; associate professor, 1989-1995; professor, 1995-2020 ; Jennie Carlisle Golding Chair in Philosophy, 2010-2020; emeritus professor, 2020-

LANGUAGES
Reading competence in French, Spanish, German, and Dutch
Basic writing and speaking competence in French and Spanish

TEACHING AREAS
History of philosophy, history of religious thought, philosophy of religion, theology, philosophical anthropology, ethics, aesthetics, film studies

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PUBLICATIONS—BOOKS

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

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

Gender Thinking. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1992. Spanish translation of Prologue by Norberto Álvarez in Revista de Estudios de Género la Ventana, no. 5 (July 1997).

Worth Doing. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2004.

Appeal and Attitude. Prospects for Ultimate Meaning. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2005.

Full History. On the Meaningfulness of Shared Action. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2017.

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

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

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

The Special Liveliness of Hooks in Popular Music and Beyond. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 2023.

The Meaning of Height in Aspiration, Responsibility, and Higher Education. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, forthcoming.

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PUBLICATIONS—ARTICLES

“Reason as One for Another: Moral and Theoretical Argument in the Philosophy of Levinas.” Journal of the British Society for Phenomenology, 12 (October 1981), 231-244. Reprinted in Face to Face with Levinas, ed. Richard Cohen (Stony Brook: SUNY, 1986).

“Rational Horror.” Philosophy Today, 27 (Winter 1983), 307-316.

“Karl Barth and Fideism: A Reconsideration.” Anglican Theological Review, 66 (February 1984), 64-78.

“Worthiness to be Happy and Kant’s Concept of the Highest Good.” Kant-Studien, 75 (Summer 1984), 168-190.

“The Causation of Finality.” American Philosophical Quarterly, 22 (October 1985), 311-320.

“The Evidence of God Having Spoken.” Faith and Philosophy, 3 (January 1986), 68-77.

“Liberation Theology and the Issue of Violence.” Counseling and Values, 31 (October 1986), 29-39.

“Metaphorical Courage and the Identification of God.” Soundings, 69 (Fall 1986), 241-255.

“The Argument from Meaning to God in Buber’s I and Thou.” International Philosophical Quarterly, 27 (December 1987), 347-363.

“The Quality of Aesthetic Convention.” In Aesthetic Quality and Aesthetic Experience, ed. Michael Mitias (Amsterdam: Rodopi, 1988).

“Trying and Getting Credit.” Philosophy and Theology, 3 (Winter 1988), 133-144.

“Trying to Believe and the Ethics of Belief.” Religious Studies, 24 (December 1988), 439-449.

“Gender and Humanity.” Public Affairs Quarterly, 3 (April 1989), 67-80.

“Idealism and Exteriority: The Case of Eberhard Grisebach.” Journal of the British Society for Phenomenology, 20 (May 1989), 136-149.

“Homicide and Love.” Philosophy and Theology, 5 (Spring 1991), 258-276.

“Blues and Our Mind-Body Problem.” Popular Music, 11 (January 1992), 41-52. Japanese translation by Toru Mitsui in Gendaishi-techô (October 1997), 9-22.

“What Is It to Question?” Soundings, 75 (Spring 1992), 129-146.

“Realizing.” American Philosophical Quarterly, 29 (October 1992), 363-371.

“Sympathy, Scruple, and Piety: The Moral and Religious Valuation of Nonhumans.” Journal of Religious Ethics, 21 (Fall 1993), 319-342.

“Bowl Climbing: The Logic of Religious Question Rivalry.” International Journal for Philosophy of Religion, 36 (August 1994), 27-43.

“Great Experience.” Journal of Aesthetic Education, 29 (Spring 1995), 17-31.

“Piety’s Problems.” Scottish Journal of Religious Studies, 16 (Spring 1995), 5-24.

“On the Borders of the Worthwhile: Intoxication and Worship.” Journal of Value Inquiry, 30 (June 1996), 279-292.

“Greatness in Theism and Atheism: The Anselm-Feuerbach Conversation.” Modern Theology, 12 (October 1996), 385-403.

“Abraham’s Family in Children of Gebelaawi.” Literature and Theology, 11 (June 1997), 168-184.

“Can I Know Your IQ?” Public Affairs Quarterly, 11 (October 1997), 365-382.

“The Attractions of Gender.” In Sex, Love, and Friendship, ed. Alan Soble (Amsterdam: Rodopi, 1997), 547-553.

“Kinds of Best World.” International Journal for Philosophy of Religion, 44 (December 1998), 145-162.

“Three Religious Attitudes.” Philosophy and Theology, 11 (1998), 3-24.

“Resembling Intentions and Human Kinds.” Addresses of the Mississippi Philosophical Association, ed. Bennie R. Crockett, Jr. (Atlanta: Rodopi, 2000).

“Deep Jokes: Reflections on Ultimate Explanation in Metaphysics and Myth.” Soundings, 83 (Spring 2000), 21-38.

“Topics in Philosophical Pneumatology: Inspiration, Wonder, Heart.” In Advents of the Spirit: An Introduction to the Current Study of Pneumatology, ed. Bradford Hinze and Lyle Dabney (Milwaukee: Marquette University Press, 2001).

“Worthy Actions.” The Journal of Ethics, 5 (2001), 315-333.

“The Worth of Owning.” Public Affairs Quarterly, 16 (April 2002), 155-172.

“‘The Gates of Greatness Break Open’: Religious Understandings of Worth in Action.” Journal of the American Academy of Religion, 70 (June 2002), 301-321.

“The Mind-Matter Inversions: Bergson’s Conception of Mental and Material Actuality.” Southern Journal of Philosophy, 40 (Summer 2002), 295-314.

“The Religious Appeals of Transworth and Transtrying.” International Journal for Philosophy of Religion, 55 (April 2004), 109-125.

“The Appeal of the Good Mind” [on Zoroastrianism]. Calliope, 17 (November 2006), 28-29.

“What Is Scripture? Pursuing Smith’s Question.” Anglican Theological Review, 90 (Fall 2008), 753-775.

“Historical Meaningfulness in Shared Action.” History and Theory, 48 (February 2009), 1-19.

“The Work of Service: Levinas’s Eventual Philosophy of Culture.” Levinas Studies, Vol. 4. Pittsburgh:  Duquesne U., 2009.

“Hooks.” Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, 67 (Summer 2009), 311-319.

“The Structure of Unlimited Action Sharing.” Philosophical Frontiers, 4 (July-December 2009), 57-71.

“Hume, Kant, and Road Runner on Causation.”  Film and Philosophy, 14 (2010), 63-70.

“Intrinsic Value, Goodness, and the Appeals of Things.” International Philosophical Quarterly, 50 (June 2010), 167-181.

“Staging Shared Action: The Museum as Historical Mobilizer.” International Journal of the Inclusive Museum, 3/3 (2011), 27-38.

“The Roar of the Lion, the Taste of the Salt: On Really Religious Reasons.” Religious Studies, 48 (December 2012), 479-496.

“Daimon Thinking and the Question of Spiritual Power.” Heythrop Journal, 55 (March 2014), 173-187.

“Testing the Spirits: Cognitive Science of Religion in Partnership with the Study of Religious Appeals.” Journal of Religion, 94 (July 2014), 354-369.

“Historical Rightness.” Soundings, 98 (Spring 2015), 127-145.

“The Watcher and the Lens.” British Journal of Aesthetics, 55 (April 2015), 99-108.

“How to Expand Musical Formalism.” Journal of Aesthetic Education, 49 (Summer 2015), 20-38.

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

“George Cartwright.” In The Mississippi Encyclopedia, ed. Ted Ownby and Charles Reagan Wilson (Jackson:  University Press of Mississippi, 2017), 179-180.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“The Relevance of Scriptures.” In Diversifying Philosophy of Religion, ed. Nathan R. B. Loewen & Agnieszka Rostalska. London: Bloomsbury, 2023.

“Moral Sense in Different Senses.” The Journal of Speculative Philosophy, 37/4 (October 2023), 545-563.

“The Dramatism of Realism.” Southwest Philosophy Review, 40/1 (January 2024), 255-263.

“The Meeting: Ideas for an Architecture of Interreligious Civic Collaboration.” Religions, 15/3 (March 2024), 360 (online: https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15030360).

“The Filter and the Viewer: On Audience Discretion in Film Noir.” Film-Philosophy, 28/2 (June 2024), 375-394 (online: https://www.euppublishing.com/doi/epub/10.3366/film.2024.0273).

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PUBLICATIONS—CRITICAL RESPONSES

“Comment on Hawkesworth’s ‘Confounding Gender.'” Signs, 22 (Spring 1997), 691-697. Reprinted in Provoking Feminisms, ed. Carolyn Allen and Judith A. Howard (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000). Spanish translation in Debate Feminista, 20 (October 1999), 55-63.

“Commentary on Eva Dadlez’s ‘Literature, Ethical Thought Experiments, and Moral Knowledge.’” Southwest Philosophy Review, 29 (July 2013), 75-77.

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PUBLICATIONS—REVIEWS

Sylvain Boni, The Self and the Other in the Ontologies of Sartre and Buber. Journal of the American Academy of Religion, 52 (March 1984), 197-198.

Roderick Chisholm, The First Person. Idealistic Studies, 16 (October 1986), 271-272.

René Marres, In Defense of Mentalism. Review of Metaphysics, 43 (September 1989), 173-174.

Henry M. Rosenthal, The Consolations of Philosophy: Hobbes’ Secret; Spinoza’s Way. International Philosophical Quarterly, 31 (June 1991), 243-244.

Klaas Huizing, Das Sein und der Andere: Levinas’ Auseinandersetzung mit Heidegger. International Studies in Philosophy, 24 (1992), 108-109.

Denis Moran, Gabriel Marcel: Existentialist Philosopher, Dramatist, Educator. International Studies in Philosophy, 26 (1994), 135-136.

Walter Lowe, Theology and Difference: The Wound of Reason. Literature and Theology, 9 (June 1995), 235-237.

Edith Wyschogrod, An Ethics of Remembering: History, Heterology, and the Nameless Others. Journal for Cultural and Religious Theory (jcrt.org), 1.2 (April 2000).

CHOICE reviewer 2003-2006.

Jill Robbins, ed., Is It Righteous to Be? Interviews with Emmanuel Levinas; Richard A. Cohen, Ethics, Exegesis and Philosophy; and Jeffrey L. Kosky, Levinas and the Philosophy of Religion. Journal of the American Academy of Religion, 71 (June 2003), 469-472.

Jeffrey Bloechl, ed., The Face of the Other and the Trace of God. Essays on the Philosophy of Emmanuel Levinas. International Studies in Philosophy, 35 (2003), 131-133.

Jerry L. Walls, Heaven: The Logic of Eternal Joy. Ars Disputandi (arsdisputandi.org), 4 (2004).

Eyal Chowers, The Modern Self in the Labyrinth: Politics and the Entrapment Imagination. Review of Metaphysics, 58 (March 2005), 653-654.

Thomas J. J. Altizer, The New Gospel of Christian Atheism. Journal of the American Academy of Religion, 73 (September 2005), 890-893.

Miroslav Volf, Allah: A Christian Response. Muslim World, 104 (January/April 2014), 231-233.

Abigail L. Rosenthal, A Good Look at Evil, new ed. Continental Philosophy Review , 53 (September 2018), 475-480.

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PAPERS PRESENTED AT PROFESSIONAL MEETINGS

“God in the Philosophy of Levinas.” American Academy of Religion, Southeastern Region (AAR-SE), Louisville, Kentucky, March 14, 1980.

“Karl Barth and Fideism.” AAR-SE, Atlanta, Georgia, March 13, 1981.

“The Concept of a Spiritual Being.” AAR-SE, Atlanta, March 18, 1983.

“‘Heard Evidence’ of God Having Spoken.” AAR, National, Dallas, Texas, December 19, 1983.

“The Argument from Meaning to God in Buber’s I and Thou.” AAR-SE, Chattanooga, Tennessee, March 23, 1986.

“Trying and Getting Credit.” Mississippi Philosophical Association (MPA), Hattiesburg, April 12, 1986.

“Metaphorical Courage and Religious Faith.” AAR, National, Atlanta, November 24, 1986.

“Trying to Believe.” MPA, Starkville, April 11, 1987.

“Gender and Embodiment.” MPA, Jackson, April 7, 1990.

“Principles of a Gender Aesthetic.” American Philosophical Association (APA), Central Division, New Orleans, April 28, 1990.

“The Attractions of Gender.” Society for the Philosophy of Sex and Love (with APA-Central), April 26, 1990.

“The Blues Strategy.” College Music Society, Southern Chapter, Auburn, Alabama, March 1, 1991.

“The Problematic of Piety.” AAR-SE, Atlanta, March 14, 1992.

“A Venture of Subjection: Reverence for Self-Recreation in an Honor System.” Society for Values in Higher Education, Colorado Springs, August 8, 1992.

“The Rivalry of Religious Questions.” Steel Center-Hendrix College Philosophy of Religion and Theology Workshop, Conway, Arkansas, January 29, 1993.

“Resembling Intentions and Human Kinds,” MPA, Oxford, April 3, 1993.

“Socratism and Feminism: A Comparison of Unwelcome Questions.” Southern Humanities Council, Jackson, February 17, 1995.

“Consciousness in Concert.” MPA, Jackson, March 30, 1996.

“The Worth of Love: Reflections on a Dialectic in Kierkegaard.” AAR, National, New Orleans, November 23, 1996.

“Topics in Philosophical Pneumatology: Inspiration, Wonder, Heart.” Orientations in Pneumatology Symposium, Marquette University, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, April 18, 1998.

“Response to Redeeming Men.” American Men’s Studies Association, Nashville, March 12, 1999.

“Transtrying and Transworth.” MPA, Hattiesburg, March 20, 1999.

“Ethical Philosophy of History.” MPA, Starkville, May 6, 2000.

“Three Appeal Arguments in Philosophy after Kant.” MPA, Jackson, April 21, 2001.

“Loss of Possibility and Spiritual Optimism.” Conference on “Trauma: Reflection on Experience and Its Other” at Millsaps College, April 4, 2003.

“Irrealizing in Rickert and Marion.” Society for Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy (SPEP), Boston, November 7, 2003.

“Appeals and Meaningfulness.” MPA, Jackson, April 3, 2004.

“The Jest in the Qur’an.” Conference on “Religion and the Comic Vision” at Pomona College, April 6, 2006.

“Historical Meaningfulness in Shared Action.” MPA, Hattiesburg, April 14, 2007.

“Intrinsic Value, Goodness, and the Appeals of Things.” Mid-South Philosophy Conference, Memphis, February 22, 2008.

“Hume, Kant, and Road Runner on Causation.” Society for the Philosophic Study of the Contemporary Visual Arts (with APA-Eastern), Philadelphia, December 29, 2008.

“Staging Shared Action: The Museum as Historical Mobilizer.” Conference on the Inclusive Museum, Istanbul, June 29, 2010.

“The Impropriety of Mental Causation.” Mid-South Philosophy Conference, Memphis, February 25, 2012.

“Religious Appeals and the Cognitive Science of Religion.” AAR-SE, Atlanta, March 3, 2012.

“The Impossibility of Negating Historical Meaningfulness.” Society for Philosophy of History (with APA-Central), New Orleans, February 23, 2013.

“The Axle of Axiality: Toward a Philosophically Interesting Conception of Scripture.” AAR, National, Atlanta, November 23, 2015.

“Kantian Freedom and Moral Attention.” MPA Presidential address, Oxford, March 19, 2016.

“Language as the Unavoidable Guidance.” Is There Any Such Thing as a Language? conference at the University of South Florida, Tampa, November 19, 2016.

“The Problem of Harmonizing Civic and Political Responsibility.” MPA, Starkville, February 4, 2017.

Author Meets Critics for Scriptures and the Guidance of Language. AAR, National, Denver, November 20, 2018.

“The Filter and the Viewer: Some Implications of the Noir Phenomenon.” Society for the Philosophic Study of the Contemporary Visual Arts (with APA-Central), online, February 24, 2021.

“Dramatizing and Religious Heightening.” AAR-SE, online, March 12, 2022.

“Pragmatic Responsibility and Political Obligation.” APA-Pacific, Vancouver, April 14, 2022.

“Undeniable? Undismissable: Historical Realization in Godard’s Histoire(s) du Cinéma.” International Network for Theory of History, Puebla, April 27, 2022.

“Empathy for Efforts as a Factor in Religious Studies.” AAR, National, Denver, November 19, 2022.

“The Dramatism of Realism.” Southwestern Philosophical Society, Waco, November 11, 2023.

“Facing the Future as Part of Historical Responsibility.” MPA, Columbus, March 1, 2024.

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OTHER PAPERS PRESENTED (MOST RECENT)

“The Best World and Bad Outcomes.” Phi Beta Kappa initiation dinner, Millsaps College, April 26, 2014.

“Am I Politically Responsible?” Dunbar Lecture, Millsaps College, February 17, 2020.

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ARTISTIC WORK IN AND ABOUT THE ACADEMY

Wrote score, served as musical director, and produced music soundtrack for the Millsaps Players production of Sophocles’ Electra. October, 1998.

Wrote libretto and score and produced soundtrack for Real Life, the Idea: the Small College Musical. Hep-Tone Fidelity. March, 2000.

Wrote and produced pre- and postshow music for the Millsaps Players production of Endgame. October, 2001.

Wrote, directed, scored, and produced The Halls of Montezuma’s Academe (6-minute film). A Crossroads Film Festival selection, Jackson, Mississippi, April, 2005.

Wrote and produced score for the Millsaps Players production of Mary Zimmerman’s Metamorphoses. October, 2005.

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ACTIVITIES

At North Carolina Wesleyan College
Elected member, Faculty Council, 1981-1983.
Chair, College Community Council, 1981-1982.
Director, 1982 Spring Symposium, “Violence in America,” March 23-24, 1982.
Founder and director, Nash-Edgecombe Research and Dialectic Society (philosophy organization); editor of and contributor to its Proceedings, 1981-1984.
Chair, Curriculum Committee, 1983-1984.

At Millsaps College
Planner for American Cancer Society-sponsored conference, “Quality of Life for the Chronically Ill,” held in Jackson, Mississippi, February 21, 1986.
Advisor to Fred Johnson (philosophy organization) and contributor to its publication, 1986-1988.
Planner and participant in the Film Studies program, 1987-1997.
Director, National Endowment for the Humanities Junior Scholar summer grant, 1987.
Ford Fellow Mentor, 1987-1990, 1997-2000. (Collaborating with an undergraduate in teaching selected courses.)
Director of Honors Program, 1987-1990.
Secretary-Treasurer, Mississippi Philosophical Association, 1987-2007.
Member, Institutional Review Board, University of Mississippi Medical Center, 1987-1991; alternate, 1991-1993. (Monthly review of medical research proposals to assure protection of the rights of human subjects.)
Project Director, Symposium on “The Possibility of Moral Education” (supported by the Mississippi Humanities Council), November 2, 1988.
Elected member, Faculty Council, and Chair, Excellence in Education Committee, 1989-1990, 1991-1993.
Invited member, Second Century Planning Commission, 1991.
Acting Chair, Department of Religion, Fall 1991.
Chair, Department of Religious Studies, 1992-1995, 1996-2005, 2008-2011, 2018-2020.
Chair, Public Events Committee, 1993-1994, 2008-2011, 2019-2020.
Chair, Liberal Studies 4000 Task Force, 1993.
Director, Heritage of the West in World Perspective, 1996-1998, 2005-2007.
President, Millsaps Chapter, American Association of University Professors, 1996-1997.
Site coordinator, Southern Circuit [independent filmmaker visits], 1996-2000.
President, Faculty Council, 2001-2003.
Acting Chair, Department of Philosophy, 2003-2004.
Co-director, Film Studies program, 2004-2009, 2012-2016; Director, 2009-2011, 2016-2020.
Marshal, Commencement, 2009-2010.
Invited member, Core Review Committee, 2012-2014.
Chair, Department of Philosophy, 2012-2015.
External evaluator of Three Crowns Curriculum, Gustavus Adolphus College, April 2014.
Vice-President and Program Chair, Mississippi Philosophical Association, 2014-2015.
President, Mississippi Philosophical Association, 2015-2016.
Connections course coordinator, Millsaps, 2015-2016.
Our Human Heritage: Power course coordinator, Millsaps, 2017-2018.