Dr. Robert (Bob) Hoag retired in 2019 from Berea College as Professor of Philosophy and the Henry Mixter Penniman Chair in Philosophy. His primary professional interests are in ethics, political philosophy, and the philosophy of law, both historical texts and theories (especially John Stuart Mill and consequentialism) as well as contemporary social policy issues at the intersection of morality, law, and governance. Among those contemporary issues are capital punishment, “just war” theory, humanitarian interventions, international human rights, free speech, civil disobedience, abortion, affirmative action, the limits of law, legal moralism and paternalism. Dr. Hoag’s scholarship has been recognized by several grants and fellowships, including from the National Endowment for the Humanities, as well as peer-reviewed publications and professional presentations. Dr. Hoag received Berea College’s prestigious Seabury Award for Excellence in Teaching. He is also a member of Phi Beta Kappa, Phi Kappa Phi, and Omicron Delta Kappa academic honor societies.
In his 36 years at Berea College, Dr. Hoag taught a variety of introductory and advanced courses in Philosophy as well as regularly in the College’s General Education program, especially first-year writing seminars focused on America and a history of western ideas, traditions, cultures. Among his regular offerings were “Human Rights and International Law,” “Introduction to Philosophy,” an introductory reasoning course and “Morality, Law, & Philosophy,” an exploration of some contemporary domestic social policy issues. For most of his career Dr. Hoag served as the pre-law advisor, cultivating capable Berea students’ interests in law school and legal careers. Several of his Philosophy courses were cross-listed in Political Science. He also regularly team-taught a P.E. course, “Winter Sports,” taking students to ski and snow-shoe in the Colorado high country. Dr. Hoag made local presentations about interdisciplinary teaching, courses, and critical thinking.
Most of his years at Berea College Dr. Hoag led a “quasi-administrative” life as Chair of the Department for 18 years and then of the Academic Division. He also led numerous search committees, standing faculty committees in a shared governance system, and diverse teams tasked with reviewing broad, complex College programs affecting students’ lives beyond the classroom, including service-learning, residence life, student conduct codes, and the Labor Program, in which all Berea students participate. The results articulated principles of deep learning links among academic and non-academic facets of students’ experience that were then institutionalized by the College (e.g., The Center for Learning Through Service (CELTS), a Residence Life Collegium).
Dr. Hoag grew up in Daytona Beach, Florida, where he was a surfer, lifeguard, Boy Scout, serious reader, and participant in community music and theater programs. He graduated Seabreeze High School in 1972 and then became the first in his family to attend college. Following graduation from Davidson, there was a “gap year” – months backpacking in the west, surfing and waiting tables in Florida. Dr. Hoag joined the Berea College faculty in 1983, after earning graduate degrees at the University of Virginia, and a year teaching logic at Texas A & M University. He has traveled widely, both domestically and internationally, including, with his family, visits to numerous national parks and sites of a son’s teaching in Lesotho and Peace Corps work in Rwanda. Dr. Hoag’s late wife of 39 years, Lynda Campbell, was a criminal defense attorney and Public Defender in the region. In 2007 she was recognized by the State with the prestigious Nelson Mandela Award “for “dedicated services & outstanding achievements in advocating the right to counsel for poor criminal defendants in Kentucky.” Dr. Hoag has two sons and four grandchildren. He lives in Berea, Kentucky, hiking, dancing, kayaking, traveling, reading and discussing good books with good friends, while enjoying the improvisational life accorded by retirement.
- University of Virginia, Ph.D. in Philosophy (May, 1983) Thesis: “J. S. Mill on Happiness and Morality” A. John Simmons, Supervisor
- University of Virginia, M. A. in Philosophy (August, 1980) Thesis: “W. V. Quine on Ontological Commitment” Glenn P. Kessler, Supervisor
- Davidson College, A. B. in Philosophy, cum laude (May, 1976)
HONORS
The Seabury Award for Excellence in Teaching, Berea College
Phi Kappa Phi, Berea College
Phi Beta Kappa, Omicron Delta Kappa, Davidson College
DuPont Fellow, University of Virginia
Burlington Scholar, Dana Scholar, Davidson College
North Carolina Fellow, Davidson College
GRANTS, FELLOWSHIPS
Faculty-Student Collaborative Research Grants, “Humanitarian Wars,” “Capital Punishment,” The Undergraduate Research and Creative Projects Program, Berea College, 2012 & 2014
John B. Stephenson Fellowship for Faculty, the Appalachian College Association, 2008-09 “Armed Humanitarian Interventions: Rights, Wrongs, and Recourse to War Principles”
National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Institute:
“War & Morality: Re-thinking the Just War Tradition for the 21st Century”
George Lucas, Director. United States Naval Academy, June, 2004.
Jesse duPont Summer Seminar for Liberal Arts College Faculty:
“Humanitarian Interventions: Legal, Ethical, and Political Dilemmas”
Allen Buchanan and Jeff Holzgrefe, Directors
National Humanities Center, Research Triangle Park, NC, June, 2003
Finalist, National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship for College Teachers, 1991
“John Stuart Mill: Happiness, Rules, Character”
National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Seminar:
“The Moral Limits of the Criminal Law”
Joel Feinberg, Director. University of Arizona, 1984
Charlotte W. Newcombe Fellowship, 1982-83
“John Stuart Mill on Morality, Law, and Human Welfare”
The Institute for Citizens & Scholars (once The Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation)
PUBLICATIONS
“Right Authority, Armed Interventions.” https://syndicate.network/symposia/philosophy/new-interventionist-just-war-theory/ February 17, 2025
“Capital Punishment.” The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. https://www.iep.utm.edu/cap-puni/ (September, 2018)
“Armed Humanitarian Intervention.” The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
https://www.iep.utm.edu/hum-mili/ (July, 2015).
“Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.” “Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural, Rights.” “Human Security.” “Rome Statute of 1998.” The Encyclopedia of Global Justice. Dean K. Chatterjee, Editor. Springer, 2011.
“Violent Civil Disobedience: Defending Human Rights, Rethinking Just War.” Rethinking the Just War Tradition. Eds. Michael Brough, John W. Lango, Harry van der Linden (Albany: SUNY Press, 2007), pp. 273-299.
“The Recourse to War: A Historical Theme in Just War Theory.” Studies in the History of Ethics. A Symposium on the Ethics of War and Peace in Historical Perspective. Ed. Larry May. February 2006. https://www.historyofethics.org
“J.S. Mill’s Language of Pleasures.” Utilitas 4 (1992): 248-278.
“Mill’s Conception of Happiness as an Inclusive End.” Journal of the History of Philosophy 25 (1987): 417-431. Reprinted in International Library of Critical Essays in the History of Philosophy: Mill’s Moral, Political and Legal Philosophy. Ed. C. L. Ten. Ashgate Publishing, 1999.
“Happiness and Freedom: Recent Work on J. S. Mill.” Philosophy and Public Affairs 15 (1986): 188-199.
“Mill on Conflicting Moral Obligations.” Analysis 43 (1983): 49-54.
BOOK REVIEWS
A Defence of War, by Nigel Biggar (Oxford, 2013). Theology Today 72 (2015): 244-45.
Arguing About Law, ed. Aileen Kavanagh and John Oberdiek. Teaching Philosophy 34 (2011): 314-317.
Contemporary Ethics: Taking Account of Utilitarianism, by William Shaw. Philosophical Books 41 (2000): 286-288.
Utilitarianism as a Public Philosophy, by Robert Goodin. Philosophical Books 39 (1998): 134-6.
Rationality, Rules, and Utility: New Essays on the Moral Philosophy of Richard Brandt, ed. B. Hooker. Philosophical Books 36 (1995): 203-204.
The Liberal Self: John Stuart Mill’s Moral and Political Philosophy, by Wendy Donner. Philosophical Books 34 (1993): 89-90.
Intention, Agency & Criminal Liability: Philosophy of Action and the Criminal Law, by R.A. Duff. Philosophical Books 33 (1992): 114-116.
Crime, Guilt, and Punishment, by C.L. Ten. APA Newsletter on Teaching Philosophy 91 (1992): 178-179.
Ethical Theory and Social Issues, ed. David Goldberg. Teaching Philosophy 14 (1991): 476-479.
Justice, by Tom Campbell. Philosophical Books 30 (1989): 247-248.
John Stuart Mill’s “On Liberty,” by John C. Rees. Philosophical Book 28 (1987): 79-80. American Political Science Review 81 (1987): 620-621.
John Stuart Mill and the Pursuit of Virtue, by Bernard Semmel. Journal of the History of Philosophy 24 (1986): 421-423.
PRESENTATIONS
“Authority and Armed Interventions: Some Comments”
Tennessee Philosophical Association Conference
Vanderbilt University, Oct. 21, 2023
“Human Rights, Humanitarian Wars”
The Berea Magazine, Fall, 2011
“Rescuing Only Some? The Merits of Moral Selectivity”
Berea College Faculty Colloquium, Jan 28, 2011
“Selectively Defending Basic Human Rights: A Challenge to Armed Interventions”
Human Rights, International Law, Collective Violence: An Interdisciplinary Conference
Davis & Elkins College, Elkins, West Virginia, April 17-18
“The Responsibility to Protect”
Ohio Valley History Conference, October 31, 2008
“Defending Human Rights: A Right to Armed Interventions”
XXIII World Congress of Philosophy of Law and Social Philosophy
Krakow, Poland, August, 2007
“Intervening in Darfur? Rights, Wrongs, and Recourse to War Principles”
American Philosophical Association Convention – Central Division
Chicago, Illinois, April 20, 2007, invited by Concerned Philosophers for Peace
“Capital Punishment in America: Mistakes, Caprice, Discrimination”
Richmond, KY, February 4, 2007
“Legal Moralisms, Legal Reasoning: Some Comments on Principles”
American Philosophical Association Convention – Eastern Division
Washington, D.C., December 27, 2006,
Session of the Association for Informal Logic and Critical Thinking
“Problems of Proportionality”
American Philosophical Association – Central Division
Chicago, Illinois, April 28-30, 2005
Invited by Society of Philosophy and Public Affairs
“Critical Thinking: Concepts and Tools for Teachers”
General Education Faculty Workshop – Plenary Session
Berea College, August 24, 2006
“Abortion and American Law”
Public Talk, Richmond, KY, March 2004
“Labor as Earning, Labor as Learning”
The Labor Day Address, Berea College, April, 2001
“Introducing Philosophy: Matters of Life and Death,”
Inside Teaching Series, Berea College, September, 1995
“On Liberty and Authority in Residence Halls: A Millian Way of Thinking,”
Berea College, August, 1995
“Broad-Form Deeds in Kentucky: Contract, Law, and Justice,”
Faculty Development Seminar, Berea College, January 6, 1995
“General Education and Liberal Learning,” Sixth Annual Lilly Conference on Teaching, Miami University of Ohio, November 15, 1986
“Victorian Social Philosophy: Reform or Revolution?” High School Cooperative Learning Program, Berea College, March 14, 1986
COURSES TAUGHT
Introductory philosophy courses:
formal and informal logic, contemporary social and legal issues, ethics, ancient philosophy
Upper level courses:
history of political philosophy, philosophy of law, theories of punishment, social contract theory, ethical theory, meta-ethics, contemporary political philosophy, theories of justice, human rights and international law
Interdisciplinary courses in different General Education curricula, including “Authority and the Individual,” “Three American Revolutions,” “Equal Justice under Law”
PROFESSIONAL SERVICE
Research Proposal Reviewer, National Science Centre of Poland, 2022, 2024
Pre-publication referee, Oxford University Press, 2017
Referee, Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
External Scholarship Review for Tenure Candidate in Philosophy at Doctoral/Research University, 2012
Editorial Consultant, Journal of the History of Philosophy
Referee, Journal of the History of Ideas
External Examiner, Davidson College Humanities Program, 1994