Simon Cabulea May
Assistant Professor of Philosophy
Ph.D. Stanford University, 2004
241 Major Williams Hall | Email | (540) 231-1142 | Personal Website
Moral and Political Philosophy, Philosophy of Law
Dr. May works mainly in political philosophy. His present research project concerns conflicts of moral conviction in democratic politics, particularly as they affect the legitimacy and authority of democratic law, norms of public deliberation, the justifiability of public policies, and the moral status of conscientious objection to the law. Other research interests include various issues in distributive justice, democratic theory, human rights theory, the history of political theory, analytic jurisprudence, and social epistemology.
In Fall 2008, Dr. May will teach a graduate class on John Rawls's justice as fairness (Philosophy 6324) and an undergraduate class on jurisprudence (Philosophy 4334). In Spring 2009, he will teach a class on mass violence and human rights (Philosophy 2304) and a class on modern political theory from Hobbes to Marx (Philosophy 3016).
Dr. May received his Ph.D. from Stanford University in 2004 and was Visiting Assistant Professor at UNC Chapel Hill in 2004-05. He was raised in South Africa and received his M.A. from Rhodes University in 1996, where he was also active in the anti-apartheid student movement.
Dr. May is the administrator of the political philosophy group blog, Public Reason, which has over one hundred academic political philosophers and theorists as members. In his spare time, he reads history and follows test cricket.
Recent Articles
- "Principled Compromise and the Abortion Controversy," Philosophy and Public Affairs, 33 (4), Fall 2005.
Book Reviews
- "David Braybrooke, Utilitarianism; Restorations, Repairs, Renovations," Philosophical Review, 116 (1), January 2007.
- "Jiwei Ci, The Two Faces of Justice," Philosophical Review, 117 (3), July 2008.