Glenn Hughes
Professor of Philosophy
EXPERTISE:- Philosophy of History
- Philosophy of Religion
- Philosophy of Art and Literature
- Philosophical Anthropology
- Epistemology
- Existentialism
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS:A More Beautiful Question: The Spiritual in Poetry and Art (University of Missouri Press, 2011)
Transcendence and History: The Search for Ultimacy from Ancient Societies to Postmodernity (University of Missouri Press, 2003)
Mystery and Myth in the Philosophy of Eric Voegelin (University of Missouri Press, 1993)
The Concept of Dignity in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, in Journal of Religious Ethics, Vol. 39, No. 1, March 2011 (1–24).
The Tension of the Metaxy in Emily Dickinson’s Poetry, in Voegelinian Readings of Literature, edited by Charles R. Embry. Columbia, Missouri: University of Missouri Press, 2011 (183–208).
Consciousness and Transcendence: Voegelin and Lonergan on the Reasonableness of Faith, in From Faith in Reason to Reason in Faith: Transformations in Philosophical Theology from the Eighteenth to Twentieth Centuries, edited by Wayne Cristaudo and Heung–wah Wong. Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 2011 (161–73).
TEACHING:- Contemporary Philosophy
- Late Modern Philosophy
- Philosophy of Art
- Philosophy of Religion
- Prospects for Civilization
- Foundations of Reflection: Self
EDUCATION:- B.A., English Literature, University of Washington (1972)
- B.A., History, University of Washington (1976)
- M.A., History, University of Washington (1979)
- M.A., Philosophy, Boston College (1986)
- Ph.D., Philosophy, Boston College (1989)
Philosophy Professor Glenn "Chip" Hughes, Ph.D., is on a quest that is both difficult to explain and potentially so important that it touches at the very heart of humanity and human rights: If the principle of human dignity is universal and inalienable, then where does it come from?
Hughes, who traveled to Norway’s International Peace Research Institute of Oslo (PRIO) as a Fulbright Scholar in 2008, is looking for the philosophical and theoretical foundations that prove human dignity is both universal and inalienable.
“While the dignity of persons is often a pivotal concept in modern moral and political discourse, there is much disagreement as to what it is that grounds and validates the concept,” said Hughes. “What does it mean to assert that every human being is invested inalienably with a fundamental dignity, and from where does it derive?”
These topics and questions might seem esoteric, yet what can happen when the concept of universal human dignity is not honored has been repeatedly demonstrated.
“History has vividly and repeatedly shown how easily the systematic degradation of persons has flourished whenever dignity has been linked to race, class, ethnicity, nationality, or associated solely with biological, utilitarian or intellectual conditions or capacities,” he noted.
Hughes is now writing a book that will focus on this concept of inherent human dignity, while addressing the undermining of, or attempts to deny or destroy, human dignity, particularly institutionalized forms of human degradation.
“It is very clear that there are human rights because there is human dignity. And if we don’t have the basic justification as to why human dignity is universal and inalienable–how it can be rationally defended–then we can’t hold on to it.”
In the Spring 2012, Hughes and department chair Megan Mustain, Ph.D., received a National Endowment for the Humanities “Enduring Questions” grant for the development of a course on human dignity. This opportunity will help the philosophy department at St. Mary’s continue to grow.
Ana Olivares (B.A., Philosophy, '12) contributed to this article.
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