Charles L. Griswold

Director of Graduate Studies, Borden Parker Bowne Professor of Philosophy

Ph.D., Pennsylvania State University

Interests: Ancient Philosophy, Moral and Political Philosophy, Eighteenth-Century Philosophy, History of Ethics, Philosophy and Literature.

Before coming to Boston University in 1991, Charles Griswold taught at Howard University (where he served for several years as Acting Chairman of the philosophy department). He has held visiting appointments at the Université de Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (2004) and Yale University (1996, as Olmsted Visiting Professor). He serves on the Editorial Advisory Boards of Ancient Philosophy, Theoria, and the International Journal of the Classical Tradition, and was a member of the Advisory Council of B.U.’s Institute on Race and Social Division. In 1995, he won the Outstanding Teaching Award from the Honors Program of the College of Arts and Sciences.

Griswold is working on a book tentatively entitled Self and Other: Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Adam Smith on Freedom, Authenticity, Sympathy, and Narrative.  His previous book, Forgiveness: a Philosophical Exploration, was published in 2007 by Cambridge University Press in paperback and hardback (for the table of contents, see here). “Author meets critics” panels on the book were held at a meeting of the American Philosophical Association, Pacific Division (March 20, 2008; the exchange is published in Philosophia 38.3 (2010), and is on-line here), and at the American Catholic Philosophical Association meeting on Nov. 1, 2008 (see here; the exchange has been published in the 2008 ACPA Proceedings and is on-line here; see under “free content”). A conference occasioned by the book took place at the University of Oslo in April of 2008. The results, edited by C. Fricke, were published by Routledge in 2011 under the title The Ethics of Forgiveness (see here). For an exchange in Tikkun (March/April, 2008) about the book see here; for a review in the TLS (12.14.07) see here; for a review in the Times Higher Education book section (May 8, 2008), see here; and for a review in the Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews (6.19.08), see here. For relevant discussions with the author on various radio shows, see below.

Griswold is co-editor, with David Konstan, of Ancient Forgiveness: Classical, Judaic, and Christian (Cambridge University Press, 2012).  This book is a collection of essays by leading scholars on the nature and scope of classical (both Greek and Roman) as well as early Christian and Judaic conceptions of forgiveness (related notions, such as mercy, clemency, pardon, excuse, and the like, are also discussed).  For the table of contents, see here.

Papers in progress include “The Nature and Ethics of Vengeful Anger,” originally presented at an invited panel at the APA (Eastern Division, Dec. 2009), and forthcoming in Nomos. Presentations during the Spring 2009 – Spring 2012 period include talks at Oxford University (conference on Adam Smith), the University of Arizona, Case Western Reserve University School of Law, the University of Chicago, Harvard University, the NIH/Georgetown/George Washington Colloquium series, the American Philosophical Association, Boston College, Brown University, Davidson College, the University of New Hampshire, Vassar College, the University of Bristol (Rousseau Association meeting), the University of Memphis, and the University of California, Davis (Sinopoli Lecture).

Publications (books):

Other publications (partial list):

  • Review of T. Brudholm’s Resentment’s Virtue: Jean Améry and the Refusal to Forgive, N. Smith’s I was Wrong: the Meanings of Apologies, and L. Radzik’s Making Amends: Atonement in Morality, Law, and Politics; all for the Times Literary Supplement (TLS), Jan. 7, 2011, p. 28. (pdf here)
  • “Socrates’ Political Philosophy,” in The Cambridge Companion to Socrates, ed. Don Morrison (Cambridge University Press, 2011), pp. 333-354. (pdf here)
  • “Smith and Rousseau in Dialogue: Sympathy, Pitié, Spectatorship and Narrative.” In The Philosophy of Adam Smith: Essays Commemorating the 250th Anniversary of The Theory of Moral Sentiments, ed. V. Brown and S. Fleischacker, vol. 5 of The Adam Smith Review (2010), pp. 59-84. (pdf here)
  • “Reading and Writing Plato,” Philosophy and Literature 32 (2008): 205-216. Article review of R. Blondell, The Play of Character in Plato’s Dialogues; K. Corrigan and E. Glazov-Corrigan, Plato’s Dialectic at Play: Argument, Structure, and Myth in the Symposium; D. Hyland, Questioning Platonism: Continental Interpretations of Plato; D. Nails, The People of Plato: a Prosopography of Plato and Other Socratics. (pdf here)
  • “Plato and Forgiveness,” Ancient Philosophy 27 (2007): 269-287.
  • “Imagination: Morals, Science, and Arts,” in The Cambridge Companion to Adam Smith, ed. K. Haakonssen (Cambridge University Press, 2006), pp. 22-56.
  • “Fair Play, Übelnehmen und der Sinn für Gerechtigkeit: Kritische Überlegungen zu Adam Smith,” in Adam Smith als Moralphilosoph (Berlin: de Gruyter, 2005), ed. C. Fricke and H.-P. Schütt, pp. 128-159. Trans. by C. Fricke and J. Heininger.
  • “Longing for the Best: Plato on Reconciliation with Imperfection,” Arion 11 (2003): 101-136.
  • “Plato on Rhetoric and Poetry,” Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (first published 12/03, substantive revision 1/30/2012), Edward N. Zalta (ed.). On-line at http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/plato-rhetoric/.
  • “Philosophers in the Agora,” Perspectives on Political Science 32 (2003): 203-206. Commentary on M. Lilla’s The Reckless Mind: Intellectuals in Politics, with a reply by Lilla.
  • “Comments on Kahn,” in New Perspectives on Plato, Modern and Ancient, ed. J. Annas and C. Rowe (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2002), pp. 129-144. (This commentary on C. Kahn’s “On Platonic Chronology,” included in the same volume, is an essay length discussion of the case for any organization of Plato’s works according to (presumed) dates of their composition.)
  • “Irony in the Platonic Dialogues,” Philosophy and Literature 26 (2002): 84-106 (significantly revised from earlier version; pdf here).
  • “Relying on Your Own Voice: An Unsettled Rivalry of Moral Ideals in Plato’s Protagoras,” Review of Metaphysics 53 (1999): 283-307. (pdf here)
  • “E Pluribus Unum? On the Platonic ‘Corpus’,” Ancient Philosophy 19 (1999): 361-397. An exchange about this article between the author and Charles Kahn is published in Ancient Philosophy 20 (2000): 189-197.
  • Review of J. Gray’s Enlightenment’s Wake: Politics and Culture at the Close of the Modern Age, Political Theory 27 (1999): 274-281.
  • “Platonic Liberalism: Self-Perfection as a Foundation of Political Theory,” in Plato and Platonism, ed. J.M. van Ophuijsen (Washington: Catholic University of America Press, 1999), pp. 102-134. Slightly different version published in French as “Le Libéralisme Platonicien: de la Perfection Individuelle comme Fondement d’une Théorie Politique,” in vol. 2 of Contre Platon, ed. M. Dixsaut (Paris: Vrin, 1995), pp. 155-195 (trans. by M. and J. Dixsaut).
  • “Religion and Community: Adam Smith on the Virtues of Liberty,” Journal of the History of Philosophy 35 (1997): 395-419.
  • “Adam Smith on Friendship and Love,” with D. Den Uyl, Review of Metaphysics 49 (1996): 609-637.
  • “Nature and Philosophy: Adam Smith on Stoicism, Aesthetic Reconciliation, and Imagination,” Man and World 29 (1996): 187-213.
  • “Happiness, Tranquillity, and Philosophy,” Critical Review 10 (1996): 1-32 (significantly revised from earlier version; pdf here).
  • “Politike Episteme in Plato’s Statesman,” in Essays in Ancient Greek Philosophy, ed. J. Anton and A. Preus, vol. 3 (New York: State University of New York Press, 1989), pp. 141-167.  Reprinted in Plato: Critical Assessments, vol. 4, ed. N. Smith (London: Routledge, 1998): 161-186.
  • “The Vietnam Veterans Memorial and the Washington Mall: Philosophical Thoughts on Political Iconography,” Critical Inquiry 12 (1986): 688-719. (pdf here) Reprinted in Critical Issues in Public Art: Content, Context, and Controversy, ed. H. Senie and S. Webster (New York: Harper/Collins, 1992), pp. 71-100; and in Art and the Public Sphere, ed. W. J. T. Mitchell (University of Chicago Press, 1992), pp. 79-112.
  • “Plato’s Metaphilosophy,” in Platonic Investigations, ed. Dominic O’Meara (Washington: Catholic University of America Press, 1985): 1-33.  Reprinted with some changes under the title “Plato’s Metaphilosophy: Why Plato Wrote Dialogues,” in Platonic Writings, Platonic Readings, ed. C. Griswold (New York: Routledge, Chapman and Hall, 1988), pp. 143-167. (pdf here) French translation, with further changes, published as “La naissance et la défense de la raison dialogique chez Platon,” in La naissance de la Raison en Grèce, ed. J.-F. Mattéi. (Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1990), pp. 359-89 (trans. by B. Boulad and reviewed by A. and J.-F. Mattéi). Also reprinted in Plato: Critical Assessments, ed. N. Smith, vol. 1 (New York: Routledge, 1998): 221-252.

Some occasional pieces:

  • “On Forgiveness,” in “The Stone” series of the New York Times, published on-line on Dec. 26, 2010, and archived here.
  • “Happiness and Cypher’s Choice: is Ignorance Bliss?” in The Matrix and Philosophy, vol. III of a series “Popular Culture and Philosophy,” ed. W.T. Irwin. (Open Court, 2002), pp. 126-137.
  • “Attracting Blacks to Philosophy,” American Philosophical Association Newsletter on Feminism and Philosophy 92.1 (1993), pp. 55-59.

And in another register: a discussion about “forgiveness” on Philosophy Talk (hosted by Stanford philosophers Ken Taylor and John Perry); archived at http://www.philosophytalk.org/shows/forgiveness-0.

For another discussion of forgiveness and related notions with Griswold on Australian National Radio (April 2008), see here (please scroll to the top of that page). In April of 2009 he appeared on “Why? Philosophical discussions about Everyday Life,” broadcast by North Dakota public radio (archived here), and in July of 2009 on a show on forgiveness broadcast by Connecticut Public Radio (archived here).

In addition, Griswold has written on such subjects as the American Enlightenment, and Jefferson and the problem of slavery. He has also published in such journals as The Monist, Revue de Métaphysique et de Morale, and the Proceedings of the Boston Area Colloquium in Ancient Philosophy; in the Times Literary Supplement; and in various edited volumes.

Fellowships and Grants (selected):

  • American Council of Learned Societies Fellowship, 2009/10
  • Cullman Center Fellowship (New York Public Library), 2009/10 (declined)
  • Stanford Humanities Center Fellowship, 2004/05
  • National Humanities Center Fellowship, 1989/90, 2009/10 (declined)
  • National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship, 1986/87
  • National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Stipend, 1984
  • National Endowment for the Humanities, Director, Seminar for
    Secondary School Teachers, 1985
  • Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars Fellowship, 8/1989 – 12/1990
  • American Council of Learned Societies Travel Grants, 1987, 1990
  • Earhart Foundation Fellowship Research Grants, 1982, 1983, 1986, 1989, 1991, 1999, 2010

Teaching (partial list):

  • Spring 1998: contemporary virtue ethics
  • 1999/2000 academic year, team-taught seminar with Glenn Loury, supported by a Templeton Foundation grant. Enlightenment political theory (Sem. I), and its applicability to contemporary social and political issues, especially relating to race and poverty (Sem. II)
  • Spring 2001: moral realism
  • Spring 2002: Hume’s Treatise of Human Nature
  • Spring 2003 and Spring 2004: seminar on the problem of reconciliation with imperfection (Platonic perfectionism being the point of departure)
  • Spring 2006: sympathy, empathy, and their ethical relevance (readings from Hume, Smith, Rousseau, and contemporary work)
  • Spring 2007: undergraduate seminar on Rousseau (with some discussion of his differences with Hume and Smith)
  • Fall 2007: graduate seminar on Rousseau (with contrasting texts from Hume and Smith, as well as relevant contemporary readings on such topics as social contract theory; narrative; and the emotions)
  • Spring 2008: undergraduate seminar on the notion of “narrative,” and its possible usefulness in understanding the idea of the unity of one’s life. Readings from Plato and Aristotle through MacIntyre, Velleman, and Goldie.
  • Fall 2008: graduate seminar on narrative
  • Spring 2009: Rousseau (undergraduate seminar)
  • Fall 2010: the emotions (undergraduate seminar)
  • Fall 2011: graduate seminar on the emotions
  • Spring 2012: undergraduate course, “Wealth, Ethics, and Liberty.”

Griswold’s graduate level teaching at Boston University has included courses on various Platonic dialogues. With James Schmidt, he team-taught a two semester course that focused on the Scottish Enlightenment one semester, and on the French and German Enlightenments the next.  At the introductory and mid-levels: courses in ethics, political philosophy, and the history of modern philosophy.

Griswold’s professional service has included membership on the committees of the Stanford Humanities Center, the American Council of Learned Societies, and the National Endowment for the Humanities recommending decisions about Fellowship awards. His service to Boston University has included chairing the philosophy department (term ending August 2007), and chairing the committee charged with searching for the next Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. The search concluded successfully with the appointment of Dr. Virginia Sapiro (her term began in July of 2007). He is currently (2011-2012) a member of the UAPT committee; departmental Director of Graduate Studies; and departmental Director of Fund Raising and Alumni Outreach.

As Department Chair at BU, Griswold helped land over two million dollars in gifts to the department (for some further information, see here). The Karbank Challenge was one part of this effort (see here). As a sponsor of Earhart Fellows since 1994/95, he has successfully nominated at least one (in some years, three) students for funding (tuition and stipend) from the Earhart Foundation.

Platonic Writings, Platonic Readings

Edited by Charles L. Griswold, Jr.

(Routledge, 1988, published simultaneously in paperback and hardback; reprinted in 2002 in paperback by the Pennsylvania State University Press, with a new Preface and updated Bibliography.)

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Acknowledgments
Abbreviations
Introduction

Part I Essays

Readings

  1. Reading the Republic, Diskin Clay
  2. Shame and Truth in Plato’s Gorgias, Richard McKim
  3. On Interpreting Plato, Alan C. Bowen
  4. The Theater of Myth in Plato, Jean-François Mattéi
  5. Digression and Dialogue: The Seventh Letter and Plato’s Literary Form, Robert S. Brumbaugh

Writings

  1. Plato’s Dialogues in Light of the Seventh Letter. Kenneth M. Sayre
  2. Why Dialogues? Plato’s Serious Play, Rosemary Desjardins
  3. On Socratic Dialogue, Jürgen Mittelstrass
  4. Plato’s Metaphilosophy: Why Plato Wrote Dialogues, Charles L. Griswold, Jr.

Part II Dialogues

Readings

  1. Liberalizing the Crito: Richard Kraut on Socrates and the State, Clifford Orwin

    • Reply to Clifford Orwin, Richard Kraut

  2. Terence Irwin’s Reading of Plato, David L. Roochnik

    • Reply to David L. Roochnik, Terence Irwin

  3. Reading Plato: Paul Woodruff and the Hippias Major, Ronald Polansky

    • Reply to Ronald Polansky, Paul Woodruff

  4. Kenneth Dorter’s Interpretation of the Phaedo, Joachim Dalfen

    • Reply to Joachim Dalfen, Kenneth Dorter

Writings

  1. Recollection, Dialectic, and Ontology: Kenneth M. Sayre on the Solution to a Platonic Riddle, Jon Moline

    • Reply to Jon Moline, Kenneth M. Sayre

    • Observations and Questions about Hans-Georg Gadamer’s Interpretation of Plato, Nicholas P. White

      • Reply to Nicholas P. White, Hans-Georg Gadamer

Notes
Selected Bibliography
Index of Proper Names
Notes on the Contributors

Adam Smith and the Virtues of Enlightenment

Charles L. Griswold, Jr.

(Cambridge University Press, 1999, published simultaneously in paperback and hardback)

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Texts and Acknowledgments
Introduction

  1. Enlightenment’s Shadows
  2. Enlightenment and Counter-Enlightenment in the Work of Adam Smith
  3. Philosophy, Rhetoric, and Enlightenment
  4. Reading Smith: Interpretive Assumptions
  5. The Unity of Smith’s Thought, and the Projected Corpus

Chapter One: Rhetoric, Method, and System in The Theory of Moral Sentiments

  1. The Starting Point of Ethical Inquiry
  2. Rhetoric, the Protreptic “We,” and the Dangers of Theory
  3. Rhetoric, Examples, and Narrative
  4. Criticism, Grammar, and the Theater
  5. Method, System, and Conversation

Chapter Two: Sympathy and Selfishness, Imagination and Self

  1. Preliminary Orientation: Selfishness, Conflict, and Sympathy
  2. Sympathy, Separateness, Self-love, and Spectatorial Imagination
  3. Digression: Sympathy, Authenticity, and Social Fragmentation
  4. From Love to Death: Sympathy’s Reach, and the Ideal Unity
  5. Spectatorship, Mirroring, and Duality of Self
  6. The Pathos of Solitude and the Beauty of Sympathy

Chapter Three: The Passions, Pleasure, and the Impartial Spectator

  1. The Passions, Imagination, and the Corruption of Pleasure

    • The Passions and Imagination

    • Pleasure and Pain

    • The Corruption of Pleasure: Epicurean Themes

  2. The Impartial Spectator and the Love of Virtue

    • The Love of Virtue

    • The Impartial Spectator

Chapter Four: Philosophy and Skepticism

  1. Love and Philosophy in the Theatrum Mundi
  2. Smith and Skepticism
  3. Rhetoric and the Separation of Theory and Practice

Chapter Five: The Theory of Virtue

  1. Virtuous Emotions
  2. Judgment, Rules, and Moral Criticism

    • Moral Rules and Judgment: After Virtue?

    • Erroneous Conscience and Fanaticism

    • Moral Criticism

      • Conversation

      • Slavery and Infanticide as Test Cases

  3. Excellences of Character: Self-command, Prudence, and Benevolence

    • Self-command

    • Prudence

    • Benevolence

  4. Moral Education
  5. Virtue, the Pursuit of Happiness, and the Tranquillity of the Stoic Sage

Chapter Six: Justice

  1. Noble Resentment and Commutative Justice
  2. The “Irregularity” of the Moral Sentiments, and Moral Luck
  3. Justice and Philosophy
  4. Distributive Justice
  5. Natural Jurisprudence: Unfinished Business

Chapter Seven: the Moral Sentiments and The Wealth of Nations

  1. The “Corruption” of the Moral Sentiments and the “Deception” of the Imagination
  2. Religion and the Virtues of Liberty

    • Smith’s Reply to and Appropriation of the Platonic Tradition

    • The Psychology of Moderation and Fanaticism

    • Concluding Questions about Smith’s Proposal

  3. Moral Capital, Corruption, and Commerce
  4. Imperfection and Utopianism in Politics and Political Philosophy

Chapter Eight: Philosophy, Imagination, and the Fragility of Beauty: On Reconciliation with Nature

  1. The Nature of Nature
  2. Living in Accordance with Nature: Smith’s Critique of Stoicism
  3. Natural Conflict and Humanizing Intervention
  4. Smith’s anti-Platonic Aesthetics: Harmony, Beauty, Purposiveness
  5. Imagination, Poiesis, and Self-Empowerment
  6. Philosophy and the Elusive Tranquillity of Reconciliation
  7. Convention and History

Epilogue
Bibliography
Index

Forgiveness: a Philosophical Exploration

Charles L. Griswold

(Cambridge University Press, August 2007, simultaneous paperback and hardback publication)

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Acknowledgments
Prologue

Chapter I – Forgiveness Ancient and Modern

  1. pardon, excuse, and forgiveness in ancient philosophy: the standpoint of perfection
  2. Bishop Butler’s seminal analysis

    • resentment

    • forgiveness

Chapter II – Forgiveness at its Best

  1. forgiveness, revenge, and resentment
  2. resentment and self-respect
  3. to be forgiven: changing your ways, contrition, and regret
  4. forgiving: a change of heart, and seeing the offender and oneself in a new light
  5. the conditions of forgiveness: objections and replies

    • atonement and the payment or dismissal of a debt

    • forgiveness as a gift and unconditional forgiveness

    • praiseworthy conditional forgiveness

  6. moral monsters, shared humanity, and sympathy

    • moral monsters

    • shared humanity and fallibility, compassion, and pity

    • sympathy

  7. the unforgivable and the unforgiven
  8. forgiveness, narrative, and ideals
  9. forgiveness, reconciliation, and friendship

Chapter III — Imperfect Forgiveness

  1. ideal and non-ideal forgiveness: an inclusive or exclusive relation?
  2. third-party forgiveness
  3. unilateral forgiveness: the dead and the unrepentant

    • forgiving the dead

    • forgiving the unrepentant

  4. self-forgiveness

    • for injuries to others

    • for injuries to oneself

    • for injuries one could not help inflicting

  5. forgiveness and moral luck

Chapter IV – Political Apology, Forgiveness, and Reconciliation

  1. apology and forgiveness writ large: questions and distinctions
  2. political apology among the one and many

    • many to many apology: test cases

      • the University of Alabama and the legacy of slavery

      • Apology, reparations, and the wartime internment of Japanese-Americans

      • Desmond Tutu and South African churches

      • King Hussein in Israel

      • the United States Senate and the Victims of Lynching

    • one to many apology: two failures

      • Robert McNamara’s war and mea culpa

      • Richard Nixon’s resignation and pardon

  3. traditional rituals of reconciliation: apology, forgiveness, or pardon?
  4. apology and the unforgivable
  5. apology, forgiveness, and civic reconciliation
  6. a culture of apology and of forgiveness: risks and abuses
  7. political apology, narrative, and ideals

Chapter V – Truth, Memory, and Civic Reconciliation without Apology

  1. the Vietnam Veterans Memorial: an interpretation
  2. reconciliation without apology?

Epilogue
Bibliography