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John Holder
john holder

John Holder

Professor of Philosophy
Philosophy920-403-3104

John Holder is a professor of philosophy at St. Norbert College. He encourages students to do philosophy rather than merely study what important philosophers have written on the subject.

His primary area of research is comparative philosophy, in particular, the comparison of early Buddhism and John Dewey's pragmatism. He is currently working on a naturalistic conception of religious experience that draws on key elements in both of these philosophical traditions.

Holder serves on the editorial board for the Journal of the Oxford Centre for Buddhist Studies. He is an active member of the Society for the Advancement of American Philosophy and the Society for Asian and Comparative Philosophy (where he has served as program chair). He has held visiting appointments at the University of Oxford and Peradeniya University in Sri Lanka.

  • PHIL 120 Philosophical Foundations in the Study of Human Nature
  • PHIL 210 Logic
  • PHIL 218 Science and Philosophy
  • PHIL 265 Asian Philosophy and Religion
  • PHIL 305 American Philosophy

  • B.A. – Dickinson College
  • M.A. – University of Illinois at Chicago
  • Ph.D. – Southern Illinois University

  • Asian philosophy
  • Buddhist philosophy
  • Comparative philosophy
  • American philosophy
  • American pragmatism
  • Philosophy for children

Textbook:

“Early Buddhist Discourses,” is a Hackett textbook that contains translations of and introductions to 20 discourses from the Pali Canon (the earliest Buddhist scriptures).

Articles:
“Naturalistic Emergentism in Early Buddhism and Deweyan Pragmatism,” a chapter in Buddhist Philosophy: A Comparative Approach, edited by Steven Emmanuel (London: Wiley-Blackwell Publishers, 2017).

“William James and the Neuroscience of Buddhist Meditation,” William James Studies, vol. 10, Fall 2013.

“A Survey of Early Buddhist Epistemology,” a chapter in The Wiley-Blackwell Companion to Buddhist Philosophy, edited by Steven Emmanuel (London: Wiley-Blackwell Publishers, 2013).

“Reconstructing Nibbana as a Social Ideal,” The Chulalongkorn Journal of Buddhist Studies, Vol. 3. No. 1, Spring 2012, pp. 1-19.

“A Suffering (but not irreparable) Nature: Environmental Ethics From the Perspective of Early Buddhism” Contemporary Buddhism , Vol. 8, No. 2, November 2007, pp. 113-130

“The Purpose and Perils of Comparative Philosophy,” Society for Asian and Comparative Philosophy Forum, Spring 2006.

“On the Possibility of a Naturalistic Theory of Religious Experience: Dewey and Early Buddhism,” Oxford Centre for Buddhist Studies (published on web page: www.ocbs.com) Spring 2004.

“Pāli Buddhist Aesthetics,” Oxford Centre for Buddhist Studies (published on web page: www.ocbs.com) Spring 2004.

“Naturalistic Theories of Religious Experience: Dewey and Early Buddhism,” Studies in International Relations, Nihon University, Summer 2000.

“The Liberal Arts at St Norbert College: An Inclusive Vision” The Beacon, February 1998. Abridged version republished in St. Norbert College Magazine Summer 2002, vol. 34, no. 3.

“The Critique of Supernaturalism in Pāli Buddhism and Deweyan Pragmatism,” Sri Lanka Journal of Humanities, vol. 23, nos. 1 & 2, 1997.

“The Early Buddhist Theory of Truth: A Contextualist Pragmatic Interpretation,” International Philosophical Quarterly vol. 26, no. 4, December 1996.

“An Epistemological Foundation for Thinking: A Deweyan Approach,” in Jim Garrison, ed., The New Scholarship on Dewey (Dordrecht, Holland: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1995) also published in Studies in Philosophy and Education vol. 13, Fall 1994.

“Ethical Thinking and the Liberal Arts Tradition,” in Michael Mitias, ed., Moral Education and the Liberal Arts (Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1992).

“The Political and Educational Philosophy of Benjamin Rush,” Transactions of the C. S. Peirce Society, Summer 1988.

Book reviews:
Essay Review of Brains, Buddhas, and Believing: The Problem of Intentionality in Classical Buddhist and Cognitive-Scientific Philosophy of Mind, by Dan Arnold in Journal of the Oxford Centre for Buddhist Studies, May 2015.

Essay Review of Valuing Diversity: Buddhist Reflection on Realizing A More Equitable Global Future, by Peter Hershock, in The Journal of Value Inquiry, October 2013.

Review of How Buddhism Began: The Conditioned Genesis of the Early Teachings, by Richard Gombrich, in Philosophy East and West, December 1999.

Review of The Unvarnished Doctrine: Locke Liberalism and the American Revolution, by Steven M. Dworetz, in Transactions of the C. S. Peirce Society, Spring 1993.

Review of American Philosophy and the Romantic Tradition, by Russell B. Goodman, in Society for the Advancement of American Philosophy Newsletter, June 1992.