Francis K. Peddle Full Professor

About

I have navigated the dual professions of philosophy and law, the shoals of theoretical and practical life, as both a teacher and lawyer in private practice. They are not for me antagonistic endeavours but rather mutually complementary. It is my hope that this approach resonates with students interested in exploring theoretical and practical questions. As a small specialized institution Dominican University College enables students and teachers to participate in wide ranging dialogical interactions in the ennobling spirit of the long and great traditions of philosophy. I have now embarked on an ambitious project of economic justice and reform. Students are welcome to join me in this exciting challenge of advancing new philosophical ideas and arguments for social justice and the alleviation of poverty.

I completed my undergraduate and masters degrees in Canada in philosophy, history, law, German, and education. I graduated from Boston University with a Ph.D. in philosophy in 1983 I had the good fortune to study with some well known twentieth century philosophers such as J.N. Findlay, who was my thesis supervisor, and Hans-Georg Gadamer. In 1984 I was fortunate to receive a research grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council to write a book on Albert Schweitzer. After working for the federal department of justice for a year I opened a private law practice in Ottawa in 1991. I represented many clients in tax and civil litigation cases before the Tax Court of Canada, the Federal Court of Appeal, the Ontario Superior Court of Justice and Court of Appeal. Dominican University College has been my philosophical home since the mid-1990s.

In terms of academic life I am currently best known for my work on Henry George, the American economic philosopher of the second half of the nineteenth century. I would like to become better known for my more recent work on late Platonic ontology and metaphysics. That is a work in progress and I am grateful to some DUC graduate students for helping me out.

I have appeared before numerous commissions and task forces, most notably the Bédard Commission (Montreal, 1999). Through this work and experiences I am well positioned to pursue research and teaching at the intersection of philosophy, law, and economics. As deputy editor of the International Journal of Social Economics, in April 2009, I published a special issue entitled “Henry George as Social Economist and Radical Reformer.” Some of my writings include Cities of Greed: Taxes, Inflation and Land Speculation and more recently “Accounting for the Common Good: Mason Gaffney’s Philosophy of Reconciliation,” in Rent Unmasked, Shepheard-Walwyn, 2016.

I am currently Vice-President, Studies and Registrar and a professor of philosophy at Dominican University College, Ottawa, Canada. I am also recently past-president of the Robert Schalkenbach Foundation in New York City which supports research and publications in the areas of economic justice and public finance.

I currently keep the theoretical side of things active with a forthcoming book on Plato’s Philebus entitled In Philebum: A Speculative Reflection. On the practical side I am a series co-editor of the six volume critical edition of The Annotated Works of Henry George, the great nineteenth century American economic philosopher and activist. Two volumes have already been published in this series, with George’s famous Progress and Poverty in the bookstores in February, 2017.