Matthew J Peterson
Pepperdine University, School Of Public Policy, Department Member
- Claremont Graduate University, School of Politics and Economics, AlumnusClaremont McKenna College, Rose Institute of State and Local Government, Department MemberThomas Aquinas College, Liberal Arts, Alumnusadd
- History, Philosophy, Psychology, Political Science, Law, Literature, and 259 moreResearch Methodology, Humanities, Political Philosophy, Cultural History, Classics, Ancient History, Medieval Studies, Medieval History, Political Theory, History of Science, American History, Intellectual History, History of Ideas, History of Religion, History of Medicine, Early Christianity, Ancient Greek History, New Testament, American Politics, History of Political Thought, Kant, Political History, Islamic History, Political Psychology, History of the Book, Aristotle, Church History, Classical philology, Legal History, Ancient Religion, History of Sexuality, History of Christianity, Democratic Theory, Early Music, Ideology, History of Education, Roman Religion, Liberalism, Law and Politics, Neoliberalism, Medieval Europe, Political Theology, History of Mathematics, History of Slavery, Science and Religion, Catholic Theology, American Religion, History of Social Sciences, Alchemy, Religion & the Public Sphere, Classical Mythology, Philanthropy, Renaissance, Citizenship And Governance, Medieval Islamic History, Classical rhetoric, History, Writing and Memory, Early Modern Intellectual History, Federalism, Thomas Aquinas, Medieval Italy, Religious History, History Of Political Thought (Political Science), History of Astronomy, Christian Ethics, Pagan Studies, Social History of Medicine, Civic Engagement, Sciences, Imperial History, Institutions (Political Science), Intellectual History of Enlightenment, History of the Family, Ancient Mediterranean Religions, Politics Of Education, Republicanism, History of concepts, Civic Education, Ancient Grammar, Reformation History, Politics and Religion, Early Republic--American History, History of Astrology, History of Universities, History of Classical Scholarship, Indigenous Religions, Politics and Literature, Origins of Christianity, Libertarianism, Classical Art, Natural Law, Early Modern Political Thought, Christian Origins, History of Democracy, History of higher education, Hobbes, American Catholicism, Social Contract Theory, Early Christian Apocryphal Literature, History of Missions, Scottish Enlightenment, Conservatism, Intellectual History of the Renaissance, History of Roman Catholicism, History of Alcohol and Drug Use, History and Classical tradition studies, Survey Research (Research Methodology), History of Anarchism, Program Evaluation (Research Methodology), Ancient Science, History of the Senses, Plotinus, Federalism and Intergovernmental Relations, Machiavelli, Thomism, Citizenship (Political Science), Greek Religion, Popular/Folk Magic, Scandinavian history, Medieval Sicily, History of Physics, Classical Traditions, History of Biology, History of Social Welfare, Civics (Political Science), Religion & Politics, Religion And Indentities, Catholic Studies, Medieval Intellectual History, Aristotle's Commentators, Leo Strauss, British Imperialism, History of Mathematics (History), Prayer, Medieval Science, Visions And Dreams, Aristotle's Ethics, Emotions And Political Theory, History of Political Language, American Government, History of Science and Religion, History and Theology, Popular/Folk Catholicism, History of Interpretation, Slave Trade, History of Drinking, Administrative History, Heroism, Intellectual History of the Baroque Period, Cistercians, The Classical Tradition, Classical Political Philosophy, Liberalism and Republicanism, Early Modern Catholic Studies, Christianity (History), Death of God Thought, American imperialism, Native American Law, Pseudo-Dionysius, Early Modern Christian Theology, American Protestantism, Teaching & Learning (History), Policy History, Theology of Thomas Aquinas, Proof of God, History of Algebra, History of Science in Islam (History), History Of Methodology, French Political Philosophy, History of mathematics education, Shakespeare's Political Thought, Aristotle's underlying logic, History of Statistics and Statistical Agencies, History of Geometry, Natural Law Theory, Scriptural Reasoning, History of Church Councils, Plotinus (Philosophy), Conceptions Of Citizenship, History and philosophy of science (History), Psychiatry (History), Politics of Science, Religion and Empire, Analytical Thomism, Science and Religion in History, Music (History), History of Ottoman Science, Thomistic Ethics, Fascism and Classical Antiquity, Classics and Politics, Catholicism in Reformation England, Medical Theory and Philosophy, Walker Percy, History of Continuity and Infinitesimals, Classical Political Thought, Polish Catholicism, History of Non-Western Book, Johannes Kepler, Medieval Chemistry and Physics, Anti-Catholicism in U.S., Inquisition tribunals in the Americas, Appalachian and Southern Religion, Historical and Material Contexts of the Frankfurt Schoool, History of Byzantine Education, Economic Theory And Catholic Social Documents, Scholarly Commnication, Encomia, Invasion of United States to Mexico (1846-48), History of Students, Greek-Catholic Churches, History of Decision making research, Metaphysics, Ancient Philosophy, Political Culture, Deliberative Democracy, Ottoman Turkish historical writing, Turco-Iranian World, Mongol, Ottoman Anatolia (1200-1500) Comparative empire, Medieval Islamic, post-Mongol, Frontier, political culture Persian, Mongol world empire Seljuk, Charles Taylor, Philosophy and Literature, John Locke, Aristotelianism, Jean-Luc Marion, Thucydides, Laws of Nature, Contemporary Aristotelianism, Persian, Abraham Lincoln, Authority and Obligation, Seljuk, Ottoman Anatolia (1200-1500), Anatolia (1200-1500), Medieval Islamic and Turco-Iranian world, Mongol world empire, Comparative empire, St Thomas Aquinas, James Madison, Human Rights and Natural Law, Charles De Koninck, Theological Poetry, Robert Spaemann, Natural Right, Thomistic Political Science, Philosophy of Poetry, Christian Literature, The Natural Rights philosophy from XVI to XVIII centuries, Philosophy of Science, History of Philosophy, The Brothers Karamazov, Medieval Islamic and Turco-Iranian world, Mongol world empire, Seljuk, Mongol, post-Mongol, and Ottoman Anatolia (1200-1500), Comparative empire, frontier, and political culture, and Persian and Ottoman Turkish historical writingedit
- I am building a center that both studies the role of media in deliberative democracy in shaping public policy and produces media projects that enrich American political and cultural discourse, in part by fostering civic engagement and exposing political corruption in Los Angeles and California. ... moreI am building a center that both studies the role of media in deliberative democracy in shaping public policy and produces media projects that enrich American political and cultural discourse, in part by fostering civic engagement and exposing political corruption in Los Angeles and California.
Within the realm of philosophy, I'm interested in what human nature, nature, and the common good are, and how our understandings of each of these affect the others - especially in medieval, modern, and American political thought.
Besides preparing my dissertation on the notion of the "public good" in the ratification debates for publication, I am writing a journal article reviewing interpretations of Federalist 10 and 51 over the last two centuries, a journal article on the notion of "licentiousness" in the ratification debates, and editing a book on religious liberty.
My fields are American Government (institutions, civic engagement, corruption, media, deliberative democracy) and Political Philosophy (common good, rights, nature, aesthetics, human nature, foundings, regime forms).
Since I received my PhD from Claremont Graduate University in December of 2013, I have taught as a Visiting Assistant Professor for the Government Department of Claremont McKenna College and as a Lecturer at Loyola Marymount University before becoming the William E. Simon Distinguished Visiting Professor at Pepperdine University's School of Public Policy.
While completing coursework at Claremont Graduate University I taught two “great books” style seminars on Herodotus and the Lincoln-Douglas Debates for the Humanities Program and a Freshman Writing Seminar introducing Logic and Rhetoric at nearby Azusa Pacific University.
My senior undergraduate thesis explored the notion of the beautiful in the thought of Thomas Aquinas in relation to art and learning. The curriculum at Thomas Aquinas College is a four-year interdisciplinary course of study of the original writings of the great philosophers, historians, mathematicians, poets, scientists, and theologians in mostly the Western tradition.
Besides conducting a wide variety of qualitative and quantitative research for public and private clients, I've helped create, manage, brand, and expand multiple academic institutes, often with a focus on state and local government in California and engaged in groundbreaking work blogging, community/social network mapping, and conducting opposition research.
I have also evaluated the impact of over $50M in federal programs to local education agencies nationally via political and educational research throughout my time in graduate school, helping clients such as the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, the James Madison Program at Princeton University, the American Institute for History Education, and many others engaged in teaching history, civics, and American political thought better achieve their goals, determining whether or not students and K-12 teachers have mastered history, civics, and government content.
I am co-founder of Forgotten Road Radio, which produces radio features that share the story of America, from short stories of civic virtue to original commentary on contemporary life. I was VP at Simka Entertainment, which has produced 9 animated features in the last two years, and with which I still consult, and I am developing a documentary series on political corruption based in Los Angeles (Chinatown in real life) as well as a TV series (The Wire meets House of Cards with a dash of Entourage).
I also direct the Burnweit Database project as a research consultant at the Rose Institute of State and Local Government at Claremont McKenna College, working with faculty, students, and staff. This unique collection of data includes biographical details for every California state senate and assembly member since statehood. The data is being organized and updated for online, public use.
I am also the managing director of The Charles De Koninck Project (http://charlesdekonink.com). I helped create the institute to publish the entire corpus of philosopher Charles De Koninck (1906-1965, Université Laval) online and promote broad discussion of fundamental questions underlying the history and philosophy of science, human nature and history, ethics, and religion and politics.edit
Research Interests:
Do we even have a rough conception of what the common or public good, as opposed to a private good, entails? To ask the question is to suggest that the underlying problem of our analysis of the founding generation and our own political... more
Do we even have a rough conception of what the common or public good, as opposed to a private good, entails? To ask the question is to suggest that the underlying problem of our analysis of the founding generation and our own political system may be that our ignorance of the philosophic concept of the common or public good obscures or warps the entire framework by which we view the form of our regime and the words of our founders.
https://www.facebook.com/notes/matthew-j-peterson/introduction-notes-on-the-common-good-part-16/10154061274325931
https://www.facebook.com/notes/matthew-j-peterson/introduction-notes-on-the-common-good-part-16/10154061274325931
Research Interests: Philosophy, Political Philosophy, Political Theory, Political Science, Social and Political Philosophy, and 8 moreClassical Political Philosophy, Modern Political Philosophy, Contemporary Political Philosophy, Moral and Political Philosophy, Common Good, Public Good, Public Goods, Public Finance, Political Science and Public Administration, and The Common Good
A review of "The Foundations of Natural Morality: On the Compatibility of Natural Rights and the Natural Law," by S. Adam Seagrave.
Research Interests: Aristotle, Natural Law, Thomas Aquinas, Cicero, John Locke, and 19 moreAristotle's Ethics, Natural Law Theory, Aristotle's Politics, Natural Rights History, Human Rights and Natural Law, Locke's Natural Law philosophy, Morality, Moral Foundations Theory, Natural rights, "natural Law" Jurisprudence, Cicero's philosophical works, New Natural Law, John Locke's Political Philosophy, Natural Rights, St Thomas Aquinass notion of natural law, Natural Theory and Positive Law Theory, Morality and Personhood, Legal Positivism Vs Natural Law, and Natural Law - Thomas Aquinas - Practical Reason
The dissertation examines the meaning of the public or common good considered as an end or purpose of government in the public debate over the adoption of the U.S. Constitution. Federalists and Anti-Federalists assert that the purpose of... more
The dissertation examines the meaning of the public or common good considered as an end or purpose of government in the public debate over the adoption of the U.S. Constitution. Federalists and Anti-Federalists assert that the purpose of government is to both promote the public good and protect individual rights. What did they mean by the “public good” and related phrases? An extended commentary and textual analysis of the published writings of five Federalists (John Dickinson, Oliver Ellsworth, Noah Webster, Tench Coxe, and James Wilson) and five Anti-Federalists (Agrippa, Centinel, Federal Farmer, Impartial Examiner,and Brutus), the dissertation examines the way in which the notion of the public good played a significant part within the larger themes of federalism, representation, liberty versus licentiousness, and union during the ratification period.
Neither side’s understanding of the protection of individual rights as the purpose of government completely forecloses the notion of the promotion of the public good. The uniquely federal nature of the Constitution obscures the deeper understanding of the public good of Anti-Federalists and Federalists alike, but both sides—especially the Federalists—provide plenty of evidence. The Anti-Federalist view of representation emphasizes that the public good must be truly public without making clear how the public good differs from majority will; the Federalists emphasize the public good must be truly good, the product of sound deliberation. The Federalist argument includes the explicit claim that liberty is not license, but tied to a common notion of virtue, or what is truly good for all. The Federalists argue that there is a public good for all the states combined and thus the federal government must have supreme power over matters relating to commerce—and commerce is spoken of as intrinsically connected to morality and virtue—for the sake of this national public good. Although the Federalist notion of the public good is severely limited in scope, remaining in some way open as to the final purpose of human beings or the ultimate questions about what is truly good, it is nonetheless much more than the notion of an interdependent collection of private goods.
Neither side’s understanding of the protection of individual rights as the purpose of government completely forecloses the notion of the promotion of the public good. The uniquely federal nature of the Constitution obscures the deeper understanding of the public good of Anti-Federalists and Federalists alike, but both sides—especially the Federalists—provide plenty of evidence. The Anti-Federalist view of representation emphasizes that the public good must be truly public without making clear how the public good differs from majority will; the Federalists emphasize the public good must be truly good, the product of sound deliberation. The Federalist argument includes the explicit claim that liberty is not license, but tied to a common notion of virtue, or what is truly good for all. The Federalists argue that there is a public good for all the states combined and thus the federal government must have supreme power over matters relating to commerce—and commerce is spoken of as intrinsically connected to morality and virtue—for the sake of this national public good. Although the Federalist notion of the public good is severely limited in scope, remaining in some way open as to the final purpose of human beings or the ultimate questions about what is truly good, it is nonetheless much more than the notion of an interdependent collection of private goods.
Research Interests: American History, Intellectual History, Political Sociology, Constitutional Law, American Politics, and 53 morePolitical Economy, Philosophy, Political Philosophy, Political Participation, Political Theory, Social Philosophy, Republicanism, Virtue Ethics, Political Science, Liberalism, Eighteenth Century History, Politics, American Political Development, Federalism, Philosophy Of Law, Political History, Political Rhetoric, History of Political Thought, American Political Thought, Early Republic--American History, 18th & 19th Centuries, Political Theology, Moral Philosophy, Virtues and Vices, American Government, 17th- and 18th-century Philosophy, Liberalism and Republicanism, Modern Political Philosophy, American Intellectual History, Moral and Political Philosophy, Liberty, Classical Liberalism, Neo-liberalism, Constitutional History, Representation, Common Good, Good Governance, Civic Republicanism, Democracy and Good Governance, Quality of democracy and democratic consolidation. Parties and representative political institutions with a particular focus on legislative assemblies., Civic Virtue, Neo-republicanism, Public Goods, Political Liberalism, Representative Democracy, American Founding, Classical Republicanism, Aristotle's four cardinal virtues and common good, Public Goods, Public Finance, Political Science and Public Administration, Aristotle's common good, Contemporary Liberalism, Aristotle and the Public Good, and Ratification
My senior thesis, written in order to graduate from Thomas Aquinas College, on the relation between Thomas Aquinas’s notion of beauty to art and knowledge. Passed written examination and oral defense “With Distinction” - highest honors... more
My senior thesis, written in order to graduate from Thomas Aquinas College, on the relation between Thomas Aquinas’s notion of beauty to art and knowledge. Passed written examination and oral defense “With Distinction” - highest honors possible.