- Jeffrey Stout
Jeffrey Stout (
September 11 ,1950 inTrenton, NJ –) is a contemporary scholar ofreligion who focuses onethics . His works focus on the possibility of ethical discourse in a religiously pluralistic society. Recently, he has championed what he calls "the moral tradition ofdemocracy " as a "background of agreement" shared by participants in the political/social debates taking place in America today. This is his answer to such thinkers asAlasdair MacIntyre andStanley Hauerwas who believe that participants in such debates do not share enough common ground to prevent their arguments from being intractable. Stout has been influenced byRichard Rorty and more recentlyRobert Brandom and, albeit with qualifications, aligns himself with the school ofphilosophy known asAmerican Pragmatism .Since obtaining his Ph.D in 1976 from
Princeton University , Stout has remained there as a Professor of Religion.His two most well-known books, for both of which he won the American Academy of Religion Award for Excellence, are "Ethics After Babel" (1989) and "Democracy and Tradition" (2003). He is working on a book pertaining to grassroots democracy.
External links
* [http://www.princeton.edu/~stout/stout_hmp.htm Stout's personal website]
* [http://www.princeton.edu/~stout/cv.htm Stout's C.V.]
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.