Background
Dana Richard Villa was born in the United States.
Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544, United States
Princeton University where Dana Villa received his Master of Arts and Doctor of Philosophy degrees.
Dana Villa
Amherst College, Amherst, MA 01002, United States
Amherst College where Dana Villa received his Bachelor of Arts degree.
(For over thirty years, George Kateb, along with John Rawl...)
For over thirty years, George Kateb, along with John Rawls, the late Judith Shklar, and Sir Isaiah Berlin, was one of the liberal political theory's most distinctive voices. An eloquent spokesman for the moral dimensions of individual rights and constitutional democracy, he is a fierce critic of statism and communitarianism and a staunch advocate of individualism in the struggle against all forms of paternalism, conformity, and group-think. The essays in this book are assembled in his honor, but they are not only celebratory; they pay him homage through their authors' effort to understand the fate of democratic individuality in the modern age. John Hollander and Cornel West contribute reflections on Kateb as a person and a political theorist. Dana Villa, Judith Shklar, and Thomas Dumm write on political theory and the claims of democratic individuality.
https://www.amazon.com/Liberal-Modernism-Democratic-Individuality-Practices/dp/0691025959
1996
(Theodor Adorno once wrote an essay to "defend Bach agains...)
Theodor Adorno once wrote an essay to "defend Bach against his devotees." In this book, Dana Villa does the same for Hannah Arendt, whose sweeping reconceptualization of the nature and value of political action, he argues, was covered over and domesticated by admirers (including critical theorists, communitarians, and participatory democrats) who hoped to enlist her in their less radical philosophical or political projects.
https://www.amazon.com/Arendt-Heidegger-Political-Dana-Villa/dp/0691044007
1996
(Hannah Arendt's rich and varied political thought is more...)
Hannah Arendt's rich and varied political thought is more influential today than ever before, due in part to the collapse of communism and the need for ideas that move beyond the old ideologies of the Cold War. As Dana Villa shows, however, Arendt's thought is often poorly understood, both because of its complexity and because her fame has made it easy for critics to write about what she is reputed to have said rather than what she actually wrote. Villa sets out to change that here, explaining clearly, carefully, and forcefully Arendt's major contributions to our understanding of politics, modernity, and the nature of political evil in our century.
https://www.amazon.com/Politics-Philosophy-Terror-Essays-Thought/dp/069100935X
1999
(Since early texts as "Thinking and Politics," Arendt had ...)
Since early texts as "Thinking and Politics," Arendt had highlighted the contrast between philosophical and political thinking and compelled herself to find a satisfactory answer to the question: "how do philosophy and politics relate?". In her last work "Lectures on Kant's Political Philosophy" (1982), Arendt analyses the "political" dimensions of Kant's critical thinking. To think critically implies taking the viewpoints of others into account: one has to "enlarge" one's own mind by comparing our judgment with the possible judgments of others. While thinking remains a solitary activity, it does not cut itself off from all others. The essays in this book address the philosophical and moral questions raised by Arendt's attempt to draw out the political implications of "critical thinking" in Kant's sense.
https://www.amazon.com/Spectator-Arendts-Political-Philosophy-Morality/dp/9042907819
1999
(Hannah Arendt was one of the foremost political thinkers ...)
Hannah Arendt was one of the foremost political thinkers of the twentieth century, and her particular interests have made her one of the most frequently cited thinkers of our time. This volume examines the primary themes of her multi-faceted work, from her theory of totalitarianism and her controversial idea of the "banality of evil" to her classic studies of political action and her final reflections on judgment and the life of the mind. Each essay examines the political, philosophical, and historical concerns that shaped Arendt's thought.
https://www.amazon.com/Cambridge-Companion-Hannah-Companions-Philosophy/dp/0521645719
2000
(Many critics bemoan the lack of civic engagement in Ameri...)
Many critics bemoan the lack of civic engagement in America. Tocqueville's ''nation of joiners'' seems to have become a nation of alienated individuals, disinclined to fulfill the obligations of citizenship or the responsibilities of self-government. In response, the critics urge community involvement and renewed education in civic virtues. But what kind of civic engagement do we want, and what sort of citizenship should we encourage? In Socratic Citizenship, Dana Villa takes issue with those who would reduce citizenship to community involvement or to political participation for its own sake.
https://www.amazon.com/Socratic-Citizenship-Dana-Villa/dp/0691086931
2001
(The freedom to take part in civic life - whether in the e...)
The freedom to take part in civic life - whether in the exercise of one's right to vote or congregate and protest - became increasingly less important to Americans than individual rights and liberties. In Public Freedom, renowned political theorist Dana Villa argues that political freedom is essential to both the preservation of constitutional government and the very substance of American democracy itself. Through intense close readings of theorists such as Hegel, Tocqueville, Mill, Adorno, Arendt, and Foucault, Villa diagnoses the key causes of our democratic discontent and offers solutions to preserve at least some of our democratic hopes.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003JBHLXQ/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i1
2008
(2016 witnessed an unprecedented shock to political elites...)
2016 witnessed an unprecedented shock to political elites in both Europe and America. Populism was on the march, fueled by a substantial ignorance of, or contempt for, the norms, practices, and institutions of liberal democracy. It is not surprising that observers on the left and right have called for renewed efforts at civic education. For liberal democracy to survive, they argue, a form of political education aimed at "the people" is clearly imperative. In Teachers of the People, Dana Villa takes his readers back to the moment in history when "the people" first appeared on the stage of modern European politics.
https://www.amazon.com/Teachers-People-Political-Education-Tocqueville/dp/022646749X
2017
educator political scientist author
Dana Richard Villa was born in the United States.
Dana Villa began his studies at Amherst College where he received a Bachelor of Arts degree summa cum laude. He continued his education at Princeton University where he obtained a Master of Arts degree and then a Doctor of Philosophy degree in politics in 1987.
Dana Villa is Packey J. Dee professor of political theory at the University of Notre Dame, the position he has been holding from 2007. Previously, he took positions of a professor of political theory at the University of Southern California, a professor of political theory and an associate professor of political science at the University of California, Santa Barbara, an assistant professor of political science at Amherst College and an acting instructor of the philosophy department at Yale University. He was also a visiting professor and visiting associate professor at Harvard University and a visiting assistant professor at Amherst College.
An academic, Villa published books and articles focusing on the political theorists Hannah Arendt, George Kateb, and Socrates. His first published work was 1996's Liberal Modernism and Democratic Individuality: George Kateb and the Practices of Politics, which he edited with Austin Sarat. The book consists of a group of essays, in which critics, colleagues, and friends of liberal thinker George Kateb analyze the political theories Kateb spent his lifetime creating.
Also in 1996, Villa wrote Arendt and Heidegger: The Fate of the Political. In this book, Villa focuses on three issues: Arendt's political action theory, the areas in which Arendt and Martin Heidegger, former lovers, converge, and the areas in which the two political theorists disagree. He argues that, generally, Arendt's philosophies grew mainly out of Heidegger's ideas. Villa includes views from Nietzsche and Aristotle, as well as other theorists who contributed to Arendt's political theories.
In his 1999 Politics, Philosophy, Terror: Essays on the Thought of Hannah Arendt, Villa examines Arendt's familiarity with Leo Strauss, Jürgen Habermas, Socrates, Nietzsche, and Heidegger. This collection of nine essays addresses Arendt's ideas of evil and contend that her arguments don't excuse Holocaust participants as players in a play they couldn't control, but that they should be responsible for their sins. Villa argues that active citizenry best protects against evil, better than a focus on philosophy or morality. During the same year, Villa coauthored The Judge and the Spectator: Hannah Arendt's Political Philosophy with Joke J. Hermsen.
In 2000, Villa edited The Cambridge Companion to Hannah Arendt, one in a series. The book is a group of fourteen articles organized into six topics: totalitarianism, political evil, political action and freedom, Arendt and the ancient thinkers, revolution, and philosophy. With a focus on the controversy of Arendt's political theories, Villa includes Arendt's critiques of democratic institutions and the relationship she saw between politics and philosophy, as well as a chronology of Arendt's life and a large bibliography.
Villa broadens his subject in his 2001 book, Socratic Citizenship. In this work, Villa agrees with scholars' opinions that public life lacks civic involvement, and argues that Socrates' ideas on politics are the base for the five political theorists in his book: Nietzsche, Max Weber, Arendt, Strauss, and J. S. Mill. Socratic politics, he says, are accessible to everyone. Villa contends that Socrates demonstrated how intellectuality and morality can work together and that they, as a team, are important to politics. He reminds readers that Socrates stressed thinking and morals over political activism, patriotism, and strict adherence to the law.
Public Freedom (2008) is an examination of the continuing relevance of the idea of public liberty in an age seemingly dominated by globalization, technology, and interest group politics. The most recent book is Teachers of the People: Political Education in Rousseau, Hegel, Tocqueville, and Mill. In addition to his books, he authored over forty articles and reviews and contributed to journals and periodicals, including Political Theory, Constellations, American Political Science Review, and Revue Internationale de Philosophie.
(Since early texts as "Thinking and Politics," Arendt had ...)
1999(Hannah Arendt's rich and varied political thought is more...)
1999(The freedom to take part in civic life - whether in the e...)
2008(Hannah Arendt was one of the foremost political thinkers ...)
2000(For over thirty years, George Kateb, along with John Rawl...)
1996(2016 witnessed an unprecedented shock to political elites...)
2017(Theodor Adorno once wrote an essay to "defend Bach agains...)
1996(Many critics bemoan the lack of civic engagement in Ameri...)
2001Dana Villa is a member of the American Political Science Association and Society for Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy.
Villa speaks French and German.