Lawrence Blum
My initial interests were in moral philosophy and moral psychology, and social and political philosophy, and I branched out into moral development and moral education as well. In the past 20 years, I have also become involved in the area of race studies as an interdisciplinary area, and the contribution philosophy can make to that area. I also work in areas of overlap of these different interests—multicultural education and multiculturalism in society, race and morality, race and education. I am interested in education more generally (as well as philosophy of education). I teach in an education program at UMass, and have also taught at the education schools of Columbia University (Teachers College) and Stanford. I have taught a course on Race and Racism at my local high school several times, to a very ethnically, racially, and economically mixed group of students. In recent years I have begun writing on ethics, race, and film, and on ethical and moral education issues relating to the Holocaust.
Selected Publications
“I’m Not a Racist, But...”: The Moral Quandary of Race (Cornell UP, 2002)
Moral Perception and Particularity (Cambridge UP, 1994)
“Racial Virtues” in R. Walker and P.J. Ivanhoe (eds.), Working Virtue (Oxford UP, 2007)
“Best Traditions Patriotism: A Comment on Ben-Porath, Miller, and Wingo,” Theory and Research in Education, March 2007
“Stereotypes and Stereotyping: A Moral Analysis,” Philosophical Papers (ed. Ward Jones), vol. 33, #3 (November 2004): 251-289
“A High School Class on Race and Racism,” Radical Teacher, #70 (fall ’04): 4-10
“The Poles, the Jews, and the Holocaust: Reflections on an AME Trip to Auschwitz,” Journal of Moral Education, vol. 33, #2 (June, 2004):131-148
Courses taught
Moral and Social Problems; Egoism and Altruism; Philosophy, Race, and Multiculturalism; Race and Racism; Philosophy and the Holocaust; Issues and Controversies in Antiracist and Multicultural Education (in Critical and Creative Thinking/Education)
Contact Information
Office: W-5-012
Phone: 617-287-6532
Email: lawrence.blum@umb.edu