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Washington and Lee University

Washington and Lee University

Lad Sessions

Professor Emeritus of Philosophy

Baker Hall 209
(540) 458-8795
sessionsl@wlu.edu

Curriculum Vitae

Education

Yale University, Ph.D.
Union Theological Seminary/Columbia University, M.A.
University of Colorado, B.A.

Research

Philosophy of Religion
Concept of Honor
David Hume
Immanuel Kant
Chinese Philosophy (Zhou period)
John Rawls

Teaching

PHIL 101 Problems of Philosophy
PHIL 144 Twentieth-Century Philosophy
PHIL 168 Chinese Philosophy
PHIL 195 Concept of Honor
PHIL 212 Philosophy of Religion
PHIL 222 Aristotle
PHIL 263 Kierkegaard
PHIL 316 Kant

Advanced Seminars

PHIL 395 John Rawls
PHIL 395 Robert Nozick
PHIL 395 David Hume's "Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion"

Selected Publications

Books

  • Honor for Us: A Philosophical Analysis, Interpretation and Defense (Continuum Press, forthcoming)
  • Reading Hume's Dialogues: A Veneration for True Religion (Indiana University Press, 2002)
  • The Concept of Faith: A Philosophical Investigation (Cornell University Press, 1994)

 

Articles and Book Chapters

  • "Honor", in Dictionary of Philosophy of Religion, eds. Charles Taliaferro and Elsa J. Marty (Continuum Press, forthcoming)
  • "Honor and God", Journal of Religion 87 (2007), pp. 206-224
  • "Sportsmanship as Honor", Journal of the Philosophy of Sport 31 (2004), pp. 47-59
  • "Natural Piety in the Dialogues", International Journal of the Philosophy of Religion 49 (2001), pp. 49-62
  • "Paul Tillich", Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy, ed. Robert Audi (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995)
  • "The Certainty of Faith", in Elizabeth S. Radcliffe and Carol J. White, eds., Faith in Theory and Practice: Essays on Justifying Religious Belief (Chicago and LaSalle, Ill.: Open Court, 1993), pp. 75-89
  • "A Dialogic Interpretation of Hume's Dialogues", Hume Studies 17 (1991), pp. 15-39
  • "The Authorship of Faith", Religious Studies 27 (1991), pp. 81-98
  • "Plantinga's Box", Faith and Philosophy 8 (1991), pp. 51-66
  • "Coherence, Proper Basicality and Moral Arguments for Theism", International Journal for Philosophy of Religion 22 (1987), pp. 119-137
  • "A New Look at Moral Arguments for Theism", International Journal for Philosophy of Religion 18 (1985), pp. 51-67
  • "Religious Faith and Rational Justification", International Journal for Philosophy of Religion 13 (1982), pp. 143-156
  • "Rawls's Concept and Conception of Primary Good", Social Theory and Practice, 7 (1981),  pp. 303-324
  • "William James and the Right to Over-Believe", Philosophy Research Archives 6 (1980),  p. 48
  • "Kant and Religious Belief", Kant-Studien 71 (1980), pp. 455-468
  • "On 'Inclusion': A Response to Hartshorne", The Southern Journal of Philosophy 17 (1979), pp. 555-562
  • "Charles Hartshorne and Thirdness", The Southern Journal of Philosophy 12 (1974), pp. 239-252
  • "Hartshorne's Early Philosophy", in Lewis S. Ford, ed., Two Process Philosophers (AAR Studies in Religion) 1973, pp. 10-34.
  • "Feuer, Psychology, and the Ontological Argument", Inquiry 12 (1969), pp. 431-434

 

Reviews

  • Review of The God of Metaphysics, by T. L. S. Sprigge, in Faith and Philosophy (forthcoming)
  • Review of Divine Faith, in Religious Studies, 42 (2006): 1-5
  • Review of Spirituality for the Skeptic: The Thoughtful Love of Life, in Notre Dame Philosophical Review, 2003
  • Review of The Life of Irony and the Ethics of Belief, in Critical Review of Books in Religion 1994: 295-296
  • Review of Process Theology, in Faith and Philosophy 7 (1990): 123-127
  • Review of The Claim of Reason in The Review of Metaphysics 35 (1981): 601-602
  • Review of The Rise of American Philosophy, in Process Studies 8 (1978): 56-60