Molly Brigid McGrath, Ph.D
Professor of Philosophy
Director of Center for Teaching Excellence
Degrees Earned
Ph.D. in Philosophy, The Catholic University of America, 2007.
M.A. in Philosophy, The Catholic University of America, 2003.
B.A. in Political Economy and Philosophy, Mount St. Mary’s College (Md.), 1999.
Publications and Editorships
Articles
“Philosophy and the Integrity of the Person: The Phenomenology of Robert Sokolowski.” In The Reception of Phenomenology in North America. Carlo Ierna and Michele Ferri (Eds.). Dordrecht: Springer. Forthcoming.
“Montesquieu and the Mystery of the Missing Good.” In Tradition and Renewal: Continuity and Change in Core and Liberal Arts Programs, ed., Tuan Hoang. ACTC Publications. Forthcoming.
“Socratism as a Vocation.” Society 54 (Jan. 2017), pp. 64-68.
“Confusions and Disagreements about the Rotten in Politics” (with Robert G. Boatright). In Corruption and Governmental Legitimacy: A Twenty-First Century Perspective, ed. Jonathan Mendilow and Ilan Peleg. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 2017.
“The Poverty of ‘Corruption’: On Reframing the Debate on Money in Politics” (with Robert G. Boatright). Albany Government Law Review 9, 2 (2016): 341-83.
“Economics as a Force of Nature in Aristotle’s Politics: An Antireductionist View.” In Engaging Worlds: Core Texts and Cultural Contexts. Selected Papers from the Sixteenth Annual Conference of the Association for Core Texts and Courses. University Press of America. 2016.
“Liberal Education: Transmitting Knowledge through Texts.” In Memory, Invention, and Delivery: Transmitting and Transforming Knowledge and Culture in Liberal Arts Education for the Future. Selected Papers from the Fifteenth Annual Conference of the Association for Core Texts and Courses. University Press of America, 2016.
“Edmund Husserl: Transcending Ideology.” In Teaching in an Age of Ideology. John von Heyking and Lee Trepanier (Eds.), pp. 3–25. Lanham, Md.: Lexington Books, 2013.
“Epoché.” In New Catholic Encyclopedia Supplement 2012–13: Ethics and Philosophy. Robert Fastiggi and Joseph Koterski, (Eds). Detroit: Gale, 2013.
“Social Construction.” In New Catholic Encyclopedia Supplement 2012–13: Ethics and Philosophy. Robert Fastiggi and Joseph Koterski, (Eds). Detroit: Gale, 2013.
“A Realer Institutional Reality: Deepening Searle’s (De)Ontology of Civilization,” The International Journal of Philosophical Studies 20, no. 1 (Spring 2012): 43–67.
“The Cultural Community: An Husserlian Approach and Reproach,” Husserl Studies 28, no. 1 (Spring 2012): 25–47.
“Self-Responsibility, Tradition, and the Apparent Good,” Studia Phænomenologica XI (2011), 55–76.
“Aristotle (versus Kant) on Autonomy and Moral Maturity.” In Who Are We? Old, New, and Timeless Answers from Core Texts. Selected Papers from Fourteenth Annual Conference of the Association for Core Texts and Courses, 109–114. University Press of America, 2011.
“The Agent of Truth: A Reflection on Robert Sokolowski’s Phenomenology of the Human Person,” The New Yearbook for Phenomenology and Phenomenological Philosophy XI (2011), 319–336.
“The Living Body as the Origin of Culture: What the Shift in Husserl’s Notion of ‘Expression’ Tells Us about Cultural Objects,” Husserl Studies 25, no. 1 (April 2009): 57–79.
Shorter Public Essays and Film Criticism
“The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, a Frontier Anthology.” Library of Law and Liberty (website), January 11, 2019.
“The Shape of Water: Non-Potable.” Library of Law and Liberty (website), February 9, 2018.
“The Parent of Virtues.” Modern Age 60, 1 (Winter 2018): 84-87.
“Netflix Defends the West(ern).” Library of Law and Liberty (website), January 26, 2018.
“The Broken Pieces of Yesterday’s Life.” In Theodore G. Ammon, ed., Jimi Hendrix and Philosophy, 139-154. Chicago, Ill.: Open Court, 2018.
“Don’t be True to Yourself.” Library of Law and Liberty (website), October 27, 2017.
“Wonder Woman: A Movie About Men.” Library of Law and Liberty (website), July 16, 2017.
“Disney’s Cheap Grace.” Library of Law and Liberty (website), March 31, 2017.
“A Musth See.” Library of Law and Liberty (website), February 24, 2017.
“So-So City.” Library of Law and Liberty (website), January 13, 2017. Reprinted by Voegelin View (website), July 14, 2017.
“Manchester by the Sea: Dark, Beautiful, Real.” Library of Law and Liberty (website), December 30, 2016. Reprinted by Voegelin View (website), July 12, 2017.
“Love Story.” Library of Law and Liberty (website), November 11, 2016. Reprinted by Voegelin View (website), July 13, 2017.
“Moderately Marginalized.” Library of Law and Liberty (website), October 21, 2016. Reprinted by Voegelin View (website), November 18, 2016.
“The Decline of the Western.” Library of Law and Liberty (website), October 7, 2016. Reprinted by Voegelin View (website), November 21, 2016.
“Our Big Picture Problem.” Library of Law and Liberty (website), September 2, 2016. Reprinted by Voegelin View (website), November 25, 2016.
“Grammar Bender.” Library of Law and Liberty (website), July 18, 2016. Reprinted by Voegelin View (website), October 31, 2016.
“Chasing Monsters.” Library of Law and Liberty (website), February 9, 2016. Reprinted by Voegelin View (website), November 11, 2016.
“Relativists Get Their Favorite Movie Wrong.” Library of Law and Liberty (website), December 28, 2015. Reprinted by Voegelin View (website), November 23, 2016.
Book Reviews
“The Useful Errors of Terry Eagleton.” Review of Terry Eagleton, Radical Sacrifice. In The American Interest, August 22, 2018.
“Michael Walsh’s Anti-Satanic Verses.” Review of Michael Walsh, Fiery Angel and The Devil’s Pleasure Palace. Library of Law and Liberty (website), July 25, 2018.
Review of Andreas Kinneging, The Geography of Good and Evil: Philosophical Investigations. In Society, Spring 2011.
“Pessimism is Hope.” Review of Roger Scruton, The Uses of Pessimism and the Danger of False Hope. In The Intercollegiate Review, Spring 2011.
Review of John R. Searle, Making the Social World: The Structure of Human Civilization. In Review of Metaphysics: a philosophic quarterly 53, no. 4 (June 2010).
Edited Volumes
Coeditor, with Robert D. Anderson and J. Scott Lee, Engaging Worlds: Core Texts and Cultural Contexts. Selected Papers from the Sixteenth Annual Conference of the Association for Core Texts and Courses. 2016.
Coeditor, with Robert D. Anderson and J. Scott Lee, Who Are We? Old, New, and Timeless Answers from Core Texts. Selected Papers from the Fourteenth Annual Conference of the Association for Core Texts and Courses. University Press of America. 2011.
Undergraduate Courses Taught
PHI 100 Introduction to Philosophy / Socrates and the Search for Truth
PHI 200 Philosophy of Nature
PHI 201 Philosophical Psychology
PHI 202 Ethics / PHI 151 Ethics and the Good Life
PHI 290 Property and Civic Life
PHI 333 Philosophy and Film
PHI 340 Metaphysics
PHI 345 Greek Liberty and the Polis
PHI 380 20th Century Continental Philosophy
PHI 389 Special Topics in Contemporary Philosophy: Phenomenology and Intentionality
PHI 389 Special Topics in Contemporary Philosophy: The Crisis of Western Reason
PHI 405 Directed Study: 20th Century Continental Philosophy
PHI 405 Directed Study: The Philosophy of Liberal Education
PHI 405 Directed Study: Husserl’s Cartesian Meditations
PHI 444 Honors Thesis in Philosophy
HON 300 Junior Honors Seminar