Douglas Casson | St. Olaf College
What are you teaching?
Spring 2012
Seminar in Political Thought (PS384) and American Constitutional Law (PS272)
Interim 2012
The Problem of War (PS119)
Fall 2011
Introduction to Political Theory (PS113) and
Ambition and Leadership (PS278)
What are you writing?
I
am interested in the relationship between self-restraint and
self-government, especially in the context of religious and political
disagreement.
In Liberating
Judgment: Fanaticism, Skepticism, and John Locke’s
Politics of Probability
(Princeton 2011), I traced how John Locke and some of his
predecessors, in the absence of
shared authority, emphasized the importance of probable judgment. Now I
am working on a related project,
tentatively called Civility and Its Discontents: Rudeness and
Refinement in Modern Political Thought in
which I explore the rocky relationship between civility and liberty in
the
modern world.
How do I contact you?
The best way to contact me is to through email
(casson@stolaf.edu). You could
also try to call my office
(507.413.3484) or write me an old-fashioned letter (Political Science
Department, St. Olaf College, 1520 St. Olaf Avenue, Northfield, MN,
55057). If you are a student at St. Olaf, you can sign up for an
appointment during my office hours using your google calendar. I would
love to talk to you!
