James C. Edwards
Louis G. Forgione Professor Emeritus
Department of Philosophy
Furman University
Read the recent interview with Dr. Edwards by Mary McArthur:
"Virginia Woolf, A Hippopotamus, and a Cafe Full of Smoke and Beer Spills:An Interview with James C. Edwards"
Education
Ph.D. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (1972)
M.A. University of Chicago (1967)
B.A. Furman University (1965)
Areas of Specialization: Wittgenstein, Contemporary Continental Philosophy, Philosophy of Religion
Areas of Competence: Bioethics, History of Philosophy
Curriculum Vitae
Contact Information
To contact Dr. Edwards, please use his email or contact the Furman philosophy department at (864) 294-2083
Email:
jim.edwards@furman.edu
News and Announcements
Books 
- The Plain Sense of Things: The Fate of Religion in an Age of Normal Nihilism (Penn State University Press, 1997).
- The Authority of Language: Heidegger, Wittgenstein, and the Threat of Philosophical Nihilism (The University of South Florida Press, 1990).
- Ethics Without Philosophy: Wittgenstein and the Moral Life (University of Florida Press, 1985).
- Occasions for Philosophy: An Introductory Reader, co-edited with Douglas M. MacDonald (Prentice-Hall, 1979; revised edition 1984).
Selected Articles and Book Chapters
- "Wishing Away the Truth: Thoreau, Emerson, Rorty," The Philosophy of Richard Rorty, eds. Randall E. Auxier and Lewis E. Hahn (Open Court, 2010); with reply by Richard Rorty.
- "The Thinging of the Thing: The Ethic of Conditionality in Heidegger's Later Work," The Blackwell Companion to Heidegger, eds. Hubert Dreyfus and Mark Wrathall (Blackwell, 2005).
- "Concepts of Technology and Their Role in Moral Reflection," Surgically Shaping Children: Technology, Ethics and the Pursuit of Normality (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2006).
- "Passion, Activity, and the Care of the Self: Foucault and Heidegger in the Precincts of Prozac," Prozac as a Way of Life, eds. Carl Elliott and Tod Chambers (University of North Carolina Press, 2004).
- "From Myth to Metaphysics: Freud and Wittgenstein as Philosophical Thinkers," Psychoanalysis at the Limit, ed. Jon Mills (SUNY, 2004).
- "Religion and Superstition," Slow Cures and Bad Philosophers, ed. Carl Elliott (Duke University Press, 2003).
- "Deconstruction and the End of Theology," Religion, Ontotheology, and Deconstruction, ed. Henry Ruf (Paragon House, 1989).
Honors and Awards
- Furman Meritorious Teaching Award (1975 and 2011)
- John Findlay Prize, Metaphysical Society of America (1999) (for The Plain Sense of Things)
- Finalist for the Governor's Professor of the Year Award (1990)
- Year-long residence in Vienna as a Fellow of the American Council of Learned Societies (1986-87)
- NEH Summer Seminar in Philosophy - directed by Richard Rorty (1979 at Princeton University)
- NEH Summer Seminar in Philosophy - directed by Norman Malcolm (1974 at Cornell University)
Works in Progress
- Reason, Ritual, and Belief: Wittgenstein on Religion - manuscript in progress.