The Department of Philosophy

Douglas P. Lackey

Douglas P. Lackey was a student of J. N. Findlay at Yale, completing his dissertation on the metaphysics of time in 1970. His work editing Russell’s published and unpublished papers in philosophical logic led to the anthology, Essays in Analysis, released by Allen and Unwin in 1973. Professor Lackey followed Russell’s footsteps by writing about nuclear weapons policy, and this lead to a broader interest in the ethics of war and peace. In this area Lackey published “Ethics and Nuclear Deterrence,” (in Rachel’s Moral Problems, 1972), “Missiles and Morals,” (Philosophy and Public Affairs, 1982), Moral Principles and Nuclear Weapons (Rowman and Littlefield, 1984), “Taking Risk Seriously,” (Journal of Philosophy, 1986), The Ethics of War and Peace (Prentice-Hall 1989), and Ethic and Strategic Defense (Wadsworth, 1990).

In recent years, Professor Lackey has published on the history of art “Giotto's Mirror” (Studi Danteschi, 2002), and has become an active playwright: his drama Kaddish in East Jerusalem was produced at the Theater for the New City in March 2003. He was for several years the book review editor of the Journal of Neoplatonic Studies and is currently Associate Editor of The Philosophical Forum.

The play, Kaddish in East Jerusalem, has been revised and expanded into a new play, The Gandhi Nonviolent Soccer Club. Information about this play, and well as the text in English, Hebrew, and Arabic versions, is available at www.middleeastpeacedrama.net/.