Current Research

• Offprints of published work and other news can be found on Talisse's Personal Webpage
• Work in progress and forthcoming papers can be found on Talisse's SSRN Author Page
• Current CV
• Current research is focused on democracy, pluralism, public justification, political legitimacy, public ignorance, fanaticism, and social epistemology. These themes are brought together in a recently-completed book titled Democracy and Moral Conflict, which is forthcoming from Cambridge University Press. In this book, Talisse proposes a "folk epistemic" conception of democratic politics and a social epistemic analysis of moral conflict. In addition, Talisse has just completed a co-authored (with Scott Aikin) book on pragmatism. He is now beginning work on a book about value pluralism.
• Talisse's book, A Pragmatist Philosophy of Democracy, was published in 2007 by Routledge. In this book, Talisse brings a series of pragmatic arguments against Deweyan democracy and then proposes an anti-Deweyan but nonetheless pragmatist conception of democracy that draws from Peircean-epistemic sources. The result is a new pragmatist conception of democracy. Reviews are forthcoming in Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews, and elsewhere.
• Talisse's Democracy After Liberalism was published with Routledge in 2005. Read a precis. Read the first chapter. Democracy After Liberalism is now available as an E-book here. Here is a press release from Newswise. Here is a review from New Politics. Here is a review from Journal of Speculative Philosophy. Here is a review from The Journal of Moral Philosophy. Here is a review from Metaphilosophy.
• On August 10, 2005, Talisse appeared with Michael Lynch (U. Conn.) on the Chicago public radio show, Odyssey, for a discussion of The Value of Truth
• Talisse appeared in September 2004 on the PBS political talk show, Think Tank with Ben Wattenberg for a discussion of the poltical thought of John Rawls. Read the transcript.
• Talisse was Research Fellow at The Center for Ethics and Public Affairs at Tulane University's Murphy Institute of Political Economy for the 2004-2005 academic year.

Current Positions

• Talisse is editor of the journal Public Affairs Quarterly.

Selected Publications

• Democracy and Moral Conflict, Cambridge University Press, forthcoming (2009)
• Contemporary Debates in Political Philosophy (edited with Steven Cahn), Pearson, forthcoming (2009)
• The Pragmatic Turn (edited with Scott Aikin), Princeton University Press, forthcoming (2009)
• A Teacher's Life: Essays for Steven Cahn (edited with Maureen Eckert), Lexington Books, forthcoming (2009)
• Pragmatism: A Guide for the Perplexed, with Scott Aikin, Continuum Books, forthcoming (2008)
• American Philosophy: An Encyclopedia (edited with John Lachs), Routledge, 2008
• Aristotle's Politics Today (edited with Lenn Goodman), SUNY Press, 2007
• A Pragmatist Philosophy of Democracy, Routledge, 2007
• Essays in Experimental Logic (edited with D. Micah Hester), Southern Illinois University Press, 2007
• Democracy After Liberalism, Routledge, 2005 (A Review) (Another Review) (Another Review) (Another Review)
• Philosophy in the United States, co-authored with John Lachs, US Department of State, 2005
• Pragmatism and Deliberative Politics, guest edited issue of Journal of Speculative Philosophy 18.1(2004)
• On James (co-authored with D. Micah Hester), Wadsworth, 2004
• Dewey's Logical Theory (edited with D. Micah Hester and Tom Burke), Vanderbilt, 2002
• Sidney Hook on Pragmatism, Democracy, and Freedom (ed.), Prometheus, 2002
• On Rawls, Wadsworth, 2001
• On Dewey, Wadsworth, 2000 (Japanese translation, 2002)
• "Towards A Social Epistemic Comprehensive Liberalism," Episteme, forthcoming (2008)
• "Modus Tonens," with Scott Aikin, Argumentation, forthcoming (2008)
• "Deweyan Democracy: A Critique," Southwest Philosophy Review, forthcoming (2008)
• "Pragmatism and the Cold War," in the Handbook of American Pragmatism, Cheryl Misak (ed.), Oxford University Press, forthcoming (2008)
• "Pluralism, Tolerance, and Public Education in a Liberal Society," Protosociology, forthcoming (2008)
• "A Folk Epistemic Justification of Democracy," in Truth and Public Space, Ronald Tinnevelt and Katia Vanhemelryck, eds., forthcoming (2008)
• "Skepticism and the Democratic Ideal," Think, forthcoming (2008)
• "Rockmore on Analytic Pragmatism," with Scott Aikin, Metaphilosophy, 39.2(2008): 155-162
• "Getting Duped," with Yvonne Raley, Scientific American Mind, February, 2008
• "Kitcher on the Ethics of Inquiry," with Scott Aikin, Journal of Social Philosophy, 38.4(2007): 654-665, with a response by Philip Kitcher, "Reply to Talisse and Aikin"
• "Two Democratic Hopes," Contemporary Pragmatism, 4.2(2007): 19-28, with a response by Robert Westbrook
• "Why Democrats Need the Virtues," in Aristotle's Politics Today, edited by Lenn Goodman and Robert Talisse, SUNY, 2007
• "Democracy and Ignorance," Critical Review 18.4(2007): 453-466
• "From Pragmatism to Perfectionism," Philosophy & Social Criticism, 33.3 (2007): 387-406
• " Flathman on Pluralism and Liberal Democracy" (Review) Social Theory and Practice 33.1 (2007): 151-158
• "Two Forms of the Straw Man," with Scott Aikin, Argumentation , 20.3 (2006): 345-352
• " Social Epistemology and the Politics of Omission," Episteme, 2.II (2006): 107-118
• "Socratic Citizenship," Philosophy in the Contemporary World (special volume on the contemporary relevance of ancient philosophy), 13.2 (2006): 4-10
• "The Mistaken Premise of Political Liberalism," Southwest Philosophy Review, 22.1 (2006): 139-147
• "Dilemmas of Public Reason," in The Legacy of John Rawls, Thom Brooks and Fabian Freyenhagen, eds. Continuum Books, 2005
• ""Deliberative Democracy Defended", Res Publica 11.2 (2005): 185-199
• "Liberalism, Pluralism, and Political Justification," Harvard Review of Philosophy , XIII.2 (2005): 57-72
• "Stout on Public Reason" (and a "Postscript"), with Caleb Clanton, Soundings LXXXVII.3-4 (2005): 349-368, with a response from Jeffrey Stout
• "Deliberativist Responses to Activist Challenges," Philosophy & Social Criticism, 31.4 (2005): 423-444
• " Why Pragmatists Cannot be Pluralists," with Scott Aikin, Transactions of the C. S. Peirce Society, with replies from Cheryl Misak, Henry Jackman, Michael Eldridge, and John Lyskaer and Michael Sullivan, XLI.1 (2005): 101-118.
• " Still Searching for a Pragmatist Pluralism," with Scott Aikin, Transactions of the C. S. Peirce Society, XLI.1 (2005): 145-160
• "Does Public Ignorance Defeat Deliberative Democracy? ," Critical Review, 16.4 (2005): 455-463.
• "Dewey's Defense of Democracy ," Free Inquiry, 26.4 (2004): 35-37
• "Politics Without Dogmas," in Sidney Hook Reconsidered, Matthew Cotter, ed. Prometheus Books, 2004
• "Can Value Pluralists be Comprehensive Liberals? ," Contemporary Political Theory, 3.2(2004): 127-139, with a reply by William Galston
• "Towards a Peircean Politics of Inquiry," Transactions of the C. S. Peirce Society, XL.1 (2004):21-38.
• "Pragmatism and Deliberative Politics ," Journal of Speculative Philosophy, 18.1 (2004):1-8.
• “Problems with Galston’s Liberal Pluralism,” Southwest Philosophy Review 20.1(2004):221-229
• "Sidney Hook, Pragmatism and the Communist Party," Transactions of the C. S. Peirce Society, XXXIX.4 (2003):657-661.
• "Can Democracy Be a Way of Life?," Transactions of the C. S. Peirce Society, XXXIX.1 (2003): 1-21.
• "Rawls on Pluralism and Stability," Critical Review, 15.1&2 (2003): 173-194.
• "Teaching Plato's Euthyphro Dialogically," Teaching Philosophy, 26.2 (2003):163-175.
• "Plato, Pragmatism, and Democracy,” Hypnos 10.1(2003): 71-84
• “Philosophy as Anti-Dogmatism,” in What Is Pragmatism?, Paulo Ghiraldelli Jr., ed. Manole Publishing, Brazil (2003 )
• "The Relevance of Sidney Hook Today," Free Inquiry, 23.1 (2003):51-52
• "Two-Faced Liberalism," Critical Review, 14.4 (2002): 441-458.
• "Misunderstanding Socrates," Arion, 9.3(2002):111-121.
• "Two Concepts of Inquiry," Philosophical Writings, 20 (2002): 69-81.
• "Liberty, Community, and Democracy," Journal of Speculative Philosophy, 15.4 (2001):286-304.
• "A Pragmatist Critique of Rorty's Hopeless Politics," Southern Journal of Philosophy, 39.4 (2001): 611-626.
• "On The Supposed Tension in Peirce's 'Fixation of Belief'," Journal of Philosophical Research, XXVI (2001): 561-569.