Member Profiles
James M. Jacobs
Director and Professor of Philosophy,
Assistant Academic Dean,
Notre Dame Seminary
Education
Ph.D., Philosophy, Fordham University (2002)
M.T.S., Theology, Franciscan School of Theology (1997)
B.A., Philosophy, Harvard University (1988)
AMA Presentations
(2024) “The Democratic Conundrum: Can the People be a Rule and Measure for Themselves?”
(2023) “Maritain on Rights.”
(2022) “Conceiving Ideologies.”
(2020) “The Realism of Natural Law and the Movement of Reason.”
(2019) “Difference Implies Hierarchy: Equality and Subversion of the Natural Law.”
(2018) “Transcendental Love and the Natural Law.”
(2017) “Intensive Subjectivity and the Paradoxical Need for Society.”
Publications
Books
(2022) Seat of Wisdom: An Introduction to Philosophy in the Catholic Tradition. Catholic University of America Press.
Edited Books
(2014) A Piercing Light: Beauty, Faith, and Human Transcendence. Catholic University Press.
Academic Articles
(2021) “Dignity according to the Analogy of Being,” Fellowship of Catholic Scholars Quarterly 44 (2): 167-89.
(2019) “Equality and the Subversion of the Hierarchical Structure of the Natural Law,” Lex Naturalis 4: 45-72.
(2019) “The Ontological Status of Artifacts,” in The Discovery of Being and Thomas Aquinas: Philosophical and Theological Perspectives, ed. Christopher Cullen, SJ and Franklin T. Harkins. Catholic University of America.
(2019) “Intensive Subjectivity and the Paradoxical Need for Society,” in In Search of Harmony: Metaphysics and Politics, ed. James Hanink. Catholic University of America Press.
(2018) “The Metaphysical Nature of Personhood and the Need of Analogy,” Heythrop Journal 59: 707-20.
(2018) “An Exploration of the Role of Inclination in the Promulgation of the Natural Law,” Lex Naturalis 3: 31-56.
(2017) “The Corrosive Effect of Doubt on the Natural Law,” in Engaging the Times: The Witness of Thomism, ed. Joshua Schulz. Catholic University of America.
(2016) “The Rational Order of Nature and the Environmental Implications of Natural Law,” Lex Naturalis 2: 65-86.
(2016) “Beauty as an Excess of Intelligibility,” Logos A Journal of Catholic Thought and Culture 19 (2): 18-32.
(2016) “Christian Philosophy: Reconciling the Temporal and Eternal,” in The Wisdom of Youth: Essays Inspired by the Early Work of Jacques and Raissa Maritain, ed. Travis Dumsday. Catholic University of America Press.
(2015) “Freedom, Justice, and the Authoritative Nature of Marriage,” in Thomas Aquinas: Teacher of Humanity, eds. John Hittinger and Daniel C. Wagner. Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
(2015) “A Natural Law Critique of Mill’s Argument for Justice,” Lex Naturalis 1: 93-116.
(2014) “The Practice of Religion in Post-Secular Society,” International Philosophical Quarterly 54 (1): 5-23.
(2012) “The Person as an Object of Science in Aquinas,” Heythrop Journal 53: 574-84.
(2010) “Moral Absolutes, Moral Relativism, and Political Representation,” in The Renewal of Civilization: Essays in Honor of Jacques Maritain, ed. Gavin Colvert. Catholic University of America Press.
(2010) “The Inherent Limitations on Human Freedom,” Logos 13 (1): 107-31.
(2009) “Theological Sources for Augustine’s Theory of Signs,” Semiotics 2007: Proceedings of the Semiotics Society of America, eds. Terry J. Prewitt and Wendy Morgan. Legas Press.
(2009) “The Metaethical Inclusiveness of Natural Law Theory,” Nova et Vetera 72 (2): 361-88.
(2008) “The Order of Justice and the Order of Charity,” New Oxford Review: 36-8.
(2007) “The Precepts of the Decalogue and the Problem of Self-evidence,” International Philosophical Quarterly 47 (4): 399-415.
(2007) “On the Difference between Social Justice and Christian Charity,” American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly 81 (3): 419-38.
(2004) “The Relevance of Aristotle’s Notion of Equity for the Contemporary Abortion Debate,” Proceedings of the American Catholic Philosophical Association 78: 119-32.
(2004) “The Transcendentals and the Precepts of the Natural Law,” Vera Lex 5: 7-24.