Welcome to my homepage. I am Eric Thomas Weber, assistant professor of Public Policy Leadership at the University of Mississippi. Since June of 2010 I am also a freelance columnist for The Clarion Ledger, Jackson, MS's major newspaper. I earned my Ph.D. in Philosophy in 2007 and have been teaching since 2002. I serve as Executive Director of the Society of Philosophers in America, whose Web site you can visit by clicking here. As of July 2011, I am also Chair of the American Philosophical Association's Committee on Public Philosophy, whose Web site you can visit here.

As a scholar, teacher, and citizen, I make the greatest use I can of philosophical inquiry and clear, persuasive communication for the advancement of freedom, opportunity, and respect for my fellow citizens in a number of areas. These include quality public education and life opportunities for poor and disabled persons. I study and write about intelligent, democratic inquiry into the practices and principles of ethical and visionary leadership. My writing, teaching, and public engagements all relate to these goals in one way or another.

I have put this site together in order to post information for students, scholars, news writers, and community leaders. Information about my research can be found under the "Writings" link at the top of this page. For my curriculum vitae, visit the "Bio" page. For information about my teaching experience, current courses, and students' success, visit the "Teaching" link. To follow me on Twitter, click here or on the logo on the right.

RECENT NEWS

In this section, I am excited to announce a number of projects and engagements that have gone well in the last year. These items are listed from most recent to oldest. I also catalog much of this stuff in the content of my other Web pages linked to at the top of this page. Here below is just some recent work and results.

In May of 2012, I was honored to be chosen as the faculty recipient of the Frist Student Service Award for "going the extra mile in unwavering dedication to students." A story about this was posted on the UM News Web site. The award was delivered at the university's commencement ceremony in the Grove. For a photo of the stage that day and a bit more information on this, see my "Teaching" page.

In April of 2012, I published two op-eds with ProBizMS.com, a new outlet for good news about business in Mississippi. My piece is titled "Greening Industry and Green Industries in Mississippi," and was on their Web site here on April 8th. You can open it by clicking on the title here above or on the thumbnail photo on the right hand side.

Next, the site republished my piece that originally came out in Science Progress. This second article is titled "Mississippians Ready for Comprehensive Sex Education," and was published on ProBizMS's Web site on Apirl 20th. You can click on the thumbnail photo on right to read it also, in Adobe PDF format.


On April 8th of 2012, my op-ed, "Teachers Offer Hope," was published in The Clarion Ledger, Jackson, MS's and the state's major newspaper. The thumbnail on the right is a link to the scanned version and I also have a link here to a PDF of the Web version. The topic of this piece is the recent success of a large number of Mississippi students who have sought and been accepted into Teach For America and Mississippi Teacher Corps in 2012. These programs are highly competitive and are great training for many kinds of future careers.

On February 21st of 2012, an interview I gave for the Tehran Times of Iran was published. The piece was called "Modern universities are devaluing acquisition of knowledge: Weber," and was first published on the paper's Web site, before it was then released in print on the 22nd. To read the piece, you can visit it on the Tehran Times's Web page here, or you can click here or on the thumbnail photo on the right to open a printable PDF version of the article.

Earlier in February, I published a piece in Science Progress called "Mississippians Are Ready for Comprehensive Sex Education." It came out on Valentine's Day, February 14th, 2012, a nice touch on the part of the editors. You can read the piece Science Progress's Web site here, or you can open a printable PDF version of the article here (or by clicking on the thumbnail photo on the right).


In January of 2012, I was awarded a grant from the University of Mississippi's College of Liberal Arts to support my research for the upcoming summer, when I will complete my manuscript for the book, A Culture of Justice.


In November of 2011, an interview I gave for the Tehran Times was published. It was titled "Some great Persian philosophers were closely connected to Western philosophy: Weber," and was published on November 10, 2011, page 7. You can read the interview in a printable Adobe PDF file by clicking here, on the title hereabove, or on the thumbnail photo on the right hand side of this page.

In late October of 2011, I published two pieces in regional newspapers. The most recent is a letter to the editor that I wrote about the proposed amendment to the Mississippi state Constitution to define personhood at conception. My piece is titled "Religious reasons against Initiative 26." You can read the piece in a scanned PDF file by clicking here or by clicking on the photo on right. The piece came out in The Oxford Eagle on October 24th, 2011, on p. 4A.

The second piece that came out recently was my guest column in The Commercial Appeal, the major Memphis (TN) newspaper. I was writing about recent attacks on the University of Mississippi's administration. Memphis is a major metropolitan city right on the border of Mississippi and has a large population of Mississippians working there, commuting from Southaven, MS, which is why I decided to publish the piece there. The piece is called "Forward Rebels, or a big step back?" and was published on October 22nd, 2011, p. A11. You can read a scanned PDF file of the piece by clicking here or by clicking on the thumbnail photo on right.

In October of 2011, Nicholas Tampio of Fordham University's department of Political Science published an elegant review of two books, one of which was my first book, Rawls, Dewey, and Constructivism. He published the review essay on H-Net Reviews, an excellent online source of reviews on texts in the humanities and social sciences. To read a PDF version of the review, click here or on the thumbnail photo on the right. To read the regular, HTML version, click here.


On July 24, 2011, The Clarion Ledger published my op-ed, "Rand's Appeal Curious: Politics of Individualism," on C1-2 of the Perspectives Section. You can read a scan of the piece by clicking on the title here or on the thumbnail photo on the right hand side of his page.


In July of 2011, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews released a review of my first book, Rawls, Dewey and Constructivism, by Tom Rockmore of Duquesne University. Click on the thumbnail on right to read the review, or learn more about it on my "Writings" page here. You can also read an Adobe PDF version of the review here.

Also in July of 2011, an interview/op-ed I gave for the Tehran Times of Iran was published. It is titled "Mysteries Arise in All Areas of Inquiry: Professor," and was printed on July 3rd on page 5. You can read the article by clicking on the title here or on the photo thumbnail of the article here on right.

In May of 2011, I was honored to receive the Cora Lee Graham Award for the Outstanding Teaching of Freshmen from the College of Liberal Arts at the University ofMississippi. You'll find more information on this development on my Teaching page, under the section titled "Honors," which you can find by clicking here.


If you have any questions for me, feel free to email me (etweber@olemiss.edu) or to call me at 662.915.1336. My full contact information is as follows: