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Department of Sociology
Kenyon College
Treleaven House
105 West Brooklyn Street
Room 202
Gambier, Ohio 43022
USA
Telephone:
Office: (740) 427-5849  
Department Office Manager:
(740) 427-5855 (morning)
(740) 427-5809 (afternoon)
Email:
McCarthy@Kenyon.edu
Website Address:
http://personal.kenyon.edu/mccarthy/
BIOGRAPHY
PROF. GEORGE E. MCCARTHY
NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE HUMANITIES
DISTINGUISHED TEACHING PROFESSOR
OF SOCIOLOGY
Professor George E. McCarthy is an American and Irish philosopher and sociologist who teaches nineteenth- and twentieth-century European philosophy, classical and contemporary social theory, ethics and social justice, philosophy
and sociology of science, and critical political economy at Kenyon College, Gambier, Ohio. He holds a B.A. in philosophy from Manhattan College (1968), an M.A. and Ph.D. in philosophy
from Boston College (1972), and an M.A. and Ph.D. in sociology from the Graduate Faculty,
New School for Social Research (1979).
McCarthy has been a DAAD Research Fellow (Deutscher Akademischer
Austauschdienst) at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe Universität (University of Frankfurt) and the Institut für Sozialforschung in Frankfurt am Main. He has also been a guest research professor at the Geschwister-Scholl-Institut für Politische Wissenschaft at the University of Munich, the Katholische Sozialwissenschaftliche Zentralstelle in Mönchengladbach, and the department of Philosophie
und Erziehungswissenschaft-Humanwissenschaften at the Gesamthochschule, University of Kassel, Germany. In 1994-1995, he was a Senior
Fulbright Research Fellow in Germany.
In the spring of 2000 he received
the National Endowment for the Humanities Distinguished Teaching Professorship
in Sociology at Kenyon College. More recently, he has been the recipient of a twelve-month National Endowment for the Humanities Research Fellowship (2006-2007) for his project, "Aristotle and Kant in Classical Social Theory," which examined the relationship between nineteenth-century European social theory and Greek and German philosophy.
His main educational goals are: (1) to investigate the philosophical foundations of nineteenth- and twentieth-century European social theory with a special focus on the integration of the Ancients (ancient Hebrews, Hellenes, and Hellenists) and the Moderns (German Romantics, Idealists, Historians, and Critical Materialists); (2) to help rediscover the nature of sociology as an empirical/historical and practical/ethical science; (3) to reintegrate Philosophy, History, and Political Economy back into a Critical Social Theory; (4) to expand the nature of 'social science' beyond traditional quantitative and qualitative methods to include the full range of critical social science, including interpretive and hermeneutical science ( Hermeneutische Wissenschaft or verstehende Soziologie), cultural science (Kulturwissenschaft), historical science (Geschichtswissenschaft or sociology of social institutions and structures), human or moral science (Geisteswissenschaft), historical materialism (political economy), dialectical or critical science (Kritische Wissenschaft: immanent critic of the values, logic, and dialectic of capital), and depth hermeneutics (Tiefenhermeneutik: neo-Freudian analysis), while rejecting the methodology of the natural sciences: positivism, empiricism, naturalism, and nominalism; (5) to develop a critical social theory that incorporates classical and contemporary European social theory -- philosophy, history, and political economy -- into a comprehensive theory of social justice; (6) to integrate the vision and ideals of philosophy with the structures and historical reality of economic and social theory; (7) to expand quantitative and qualitative methods while liberating them from the narrowness of analytic philosophy and positivism; and (8) to interpret Marx's labor theory of value, abstract labor, surplus value, and exchange value, as well as his theory of the structural contradictions (Widersprüche) and economic crises of capitalism in his later writings, not as part of a theory predicting the inevitable breakdown of the economic system, but as a critical theory of ethics and social justice. The main goal of these eight points in education and scholarship is to revive the spirit of nineteenth-century and twentieth-century European social theory and their classical horizons at a time of the decline and "eclipse of reason" in the American academy.
More specifically, his goal is to draw the connections between Ancient philosophy and the Greek polis and Modern social theory and political economy in order to reconfigure Aristotle's major works Nicomachean Ethics (Philosophy: happiness and the good life of moral and intellectual virtue from courage, moderation, and wisdom to friendship and citizenship) and The Politics (Sociology: institutions and structures of political economy, moral economy, and political democracy) for the modern age. This rewrite will take the form of joining together Ethics, Social Theory, and Social Justice. The main academic goal behind these five points is to fuse the intellectual horizons (Horizontverschmelzung) of Philosophy and Sociology, Ethics and Social Theory, Virtue & Natural Law and Political & Economic Democracy, and Social Justice and Social Science, thereby creating a critical and dialectical discipline or Science with Heart (Herz: ethics, virtue, and moral/social principles) and Spirit (Geist: politics, reason, social institutions, and empirical/historical research). The future of a democratic, egalitarian, and just society within a moral economy is open to those who can dream with critical insight and practical vision while also looking back to the Ancients for inspiration, compassion, and hope (Griechensehnsucht). To date, he has published ten books, three of which have been translated into foreign languages -- Chinese and Japanese.
1968-1972  
Summer 1972  
U. S. Department of Justice
United States District Court
Southern District of New York
Foley Square, Manhattan, NY 10007
Indictment, Arrest Warrant, and Federal Trial
for Resistance to Vietnam War and Draft Evasion
Felony Indictment: Failure to Report for Armed Services Induction
Summer 1973  
Goethe Institute in Language Study
Blaubeuren, Baden-Württemberg, near Ulm
(2 months)
Brannenburg-Degerndorf, Bavaria, near Munich
(2 months)
West Germany
Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst
(DAAD) Language Fellowship
1973-1975  
Johann Wolfgang Goethe Universität
Universität Frankfurt am Main
Institut für Sozialforschung
(The Frankfurt School of Critical Theory)
Bockenheim, Frankfurt am Main, West Germany
Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst
Research Fellowship (DAAD)
in Philosophy and Sociology
1971-1979  
Graduate Faculty of Political and Social Science
The New School for Social Research
66 West 12th Street
New York, New York 10011
M.A. in Sociology, June 1973
Ph.D. in Sociology, June 1979
Dissertation: Systems Theory and the Engineering of Utopia:
Urban Technology and Planning in the Post-Industrial City
PUBLICATIONS:
BOOKS
Marx' Critique of Science and Positivism: Marx' Critique of Science and Positivism: Marx and the Ancients: Marx and the Ancients Eclipse of Justice: Eclipse of Justice: Marx and Aristotle: Marx and Aristotle Dialectics and Decadence:
The Methodological Foundations of Political Economy
"Sovietica Series," vol. 53
Institute of East-European Studies
University of Fribourg, Switzerland
edited by T. J. Blakeley, Guido Küng, and Nikolaus Lobkowicz
(Dordrecht, Netherlands; Boston, Massachusetts; and
London, England: Kluwer Academic Publications, 1988)
The Methodological Foundations of Political Economy
"Sovietica Series," vol. 53
edited by T. J. Blakeley, Guido Küng, and Nikolaus Lobkowicz
new publisher and reprint paperback edition
(Dordrecht, Netherlands: Springer Publishing, 2012)
Classical Ethics, Social Justice, and Nineteenth-Century Political Economy
(Savage, Maryland; London, England: Rowman &
Littlefield Publishers, 1990)
Chinese translation
Ma ke si yu gu ren:
Gu dian lun li xue, She hui zheng yi he 19 shi ji zheng zhi jing ji xue
translated by Wennan Wang
"Western Tradition: Classics and Interpretation -
Marx and the Western Tradition Series”
edited by Liu Forest
paperback edition
(Shanghai, China: East China Normal University Press, 2011)
Ethics, Economics, and the Lost Traditions of American Catholicism
with Royal W. Rhodes
hardcover edition
(Maryknoll, New York: Orbis Books, 1992)
Ethics, Economics, and the Lost Traditions of American Catholicism
with Royal W. Rhodes
new publisher & reprint paperback edition
(Eugene, Oregon: Wipf and Stock Publishers, 2009)
Nineteenth-Century German Social Theory and Classical Antiquity
collection of essays
edited by George E. McCarthy
"Perspectives on Classical Political and Social Thought Series"
(Savage, Maryland; London, England: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 1992)
Chinese translation
Ma ke si yu ya li shi duo de:
Shi jiu shi ji de guo she hui li lun yu gu dian de gu dai
translated by Hao Yichun, Deng Xianzhen, and Wen Guiquan
"Western Tradition: Classics and Interpretation -
Marx and the Western Tradition Series”
edited by Liu Senlin
commentary by Chen Kaihua
paperback edition
(Shanghai, China: East China Normal University Press, 2015)
Echoes of Antiquity in Marx and Nietzsche
(Lanham, Maryland; London, England: Rowman &
Littlefield Publishers, 1994)
Romancing Antiquity:
German Critique of the Enlightenment from Weber to Habermas
(Lanham, Maryland; Oxford, England: Rowman &
Littlefield Publishers, 1997)
Objectivity and the Silence of Reason:
Weber, Habermas, and the Methodological Disputes in German Sociology
(New Brunswick, New Jersey; London, England: Transaction
Publishers, 2001)
Classical Horizons:
The Origins of Sociology in Ancient Greece
“Choice Outstanding Academic Title” Award, January 2004
(Albany, New York: State University of New York Press,
2003)
Classical Horizons:
The Origins of Sociology in Ancient Greece
Recording for the Blind & Dyslexic
(Princeton, NJ: Audiobook on Compact Disk, 2003)
Classical Horizons:
The Origins of Sociology in Ancient Greece
Japanese translation
Kodai girishia to shakaigaku:
marukusu veba dyurukemu
(Japanese title)
Ancient Greece and Sociology:
Marx, Weber, and Durkheim
translated by Tatsuo Higuchi & Daisuke Tagami
paperback edition
(Tokyo, Japan: Shogakusya Publishers, 2017)
Dreams in Exile: Marx and Social Justice: Marx and Social Justice:
Rediscovering Science and Ethics in Nineteenth-Century Social Theory
(Albany, New York: State University of New York Press, 2009)
Ethics and Natural Law in the Critique of Political Economy
"The Historical Materialism Book Series." vol. 147
hardcover edition
(Leiden, The Netherlands; Boston, Massachusetts:
Brill Publishers, 2018)
Ethics and Natural Law in the Critique of Political Economy
"The Historical Materialism Book Series." vol. 147
new publisher & reprint paperback edition
(Chicago, Illinois: Haymarket Books, 2019)
Shadows of the Enlightenment:
Critical Theory of Science, Technology, and Nature
(New York, New York: Monthly Review Press,
forthcoming)
Justice Beyond Heaven:
Natural Law and Economic Democracy in U.S., German, and Irish Catholic Social Thought
co-authored with Royal W. Rhodes
(Amherst, New York: Humanity Books,
forthcoming)
Classical Antiquity and Social Theory:
The Greek Inspiration for Marx, Weber, and Durkheim
edited collection of essays
(future project)
Existentialism and Classical Social Theory:
The Foundations of Sociology in the European Crisis of Meaning
(future project)
Socy 102 |
      Social Dreamers: Marx, Nietzsche, and Freud (Introductory Sociology Course) |
Socy 222 | State and Political Economy: Profits and Poverty in the Welfare State |
Socy 234 | Communitarianism and Social Democracy |
Socy 242 |
Science, Society, and the Environment: Crisis of the Enlightenment and Ecology (Environmental Studies Program) |
Socy 243 | Social Justice: The Ancient and Modern Traditions (Legal Studies Program) |
Socy 248 | Modernity and the Ancients |
Socy 324 | Natural Law and Natural Rights Theory |
Socy 360 | Kant, Hegel, and Modern Social Theory |
Socy 361 | Classical Social Theory: Marx, Weber, and Durkheim |
Socy 362 | Contemporary Social Theory |
Socy 461 |
German Social Theory: From Freud to Habermas |
Socy 474 | Western Marxism: Critical Theory of the Frankfurt School |
National Endowment for the Humanities Project | Democracy and Social Justice: Ancient and Modern |