Political Science Faculty

Paul Wilford

Assistant Professor

Photo of Paul Wilford

Paul Wilford

Ph.D.

Contact

McGuinn Hall Room 335

Telephone: 617-552-1592

Email: wilfordp@bc.edu

Education

  • B.A., St. John’s College
  • B.A., King’s College
  • M.A., Tulane University
  • M.Phil., King’s College
  • Ph.D., Tulane University

Research Interests

German Idealism, especially Hegel and Kant

19th and 20th-century political philosophy

Philosophy of history

Ancient Greek Philosophy

Shakespeare

Curriculum Vitae

Biography

Paul T. Wilford joined the Political Science Department of Boston College in 2016.  He received his Ph.D. in philosophy from Tulane University in 2016. He holds a B.A. in liberal arts from St. John’s College (Annapolis) as well as a B.A. in classics and an M.Phil. in political thought and intellectual history from King’s College, Cambridge University. His principal areas of research are German Idealism (especially Kant and Hegel), Ancient Greek Philosophy (especially Aristotle), and the Philosophy of History.
He is co-editor of Kant and the Possibility of Progress: From Modern Hopes to Postmodern Anxieties (PENN, 2021) and of Athens, Arden, Jerusalem: Essays in Honor of Mera Flaumenhaft (Lexington Books, 2017). He has published on Kant, Hegel, Kierkegaard, Hans Jonas, and Shakespeare. He is currently working on a book entitled Philosophy After Heidegger: Human Historicity and the Search for Hope in Hannah Arendt, Hans Jonas, and Emil Fackenheim.

Publications

Selected Publications

Co-edited with Samuel A. Stoner, Kant and the Possibility of Progress. University of Pennsylvania Press, 2021.

"From Comedy to Christianity: The Nihilism of Aristophanic Laughter." In Hegel, Tragedy, and Comedy, ed. Mark Alznauer. SUNY, 2021.

The Theological Dimension of Agency: Forgiveness, Recognition, and Responsibility in Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit. Review of Metaphysics, Vol. 72, no. 3 (2019): 497–527.

“Hegel on the Trial of Socrates and the End of Aesthetic Democracy.” In Hegel and Ancient Philosophy: A Re-Examination, ed. G.A. Magee. Routledge, 2018. 

“What Makes a Kingdom?: Plants, Poetry and Politics in Richard II.” In Athens, Arden, Jerusalem, eds. P.T. Wilford and K. Havard. Lexington Books, 2017.

Athens, Arden, Jerusalem: Essays in Honor of Mera Flaumenhaft, ed. Paul T. Wilford and Kate Havard (New York: Lexington Books, 2017).

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