Nate Whelan-Jackson

Associate Professor

Department

• Religion and Philosophy

Contact Information

• 614-236-6153
• njackson1331@capital.edu
• Convergent Media Center 215

Biography

Dr. Jackson's teaching and research focus on ethics, issues concerned with moral education, and American philosophy. Animated by the sense that philosophical inquiry can be formative and impactful, he strives to integrate philosophical and personal reflection in coursework.

In the philosophy program, Dr. Jackson teaches a range of topics, including historically-focused classes like Classical Greek Philosophy, as well as courses highlighting major issues, like Philosophy of Religion and Philosophy and Science. This breadth is quite exciting, enabling valuable convergence and conversation around a variety of disparate figures and issues.

In the general education program, Dr. Jackson has taught multiple First Year Seminars as well as UC-410 Ethical Issues and Contemporary Religious Conviction. His UC-410 classes are characterized by an emphasis on community engagement and using the texts and materials of a variety of philosophical traditions to bear on live moral quandaries. This focus helps bring philosophy to life, showing moral and ethical deliberation is a task we are called to perform.

As a researcher, Dr. Jackson's central interests concern moral education and the possibility of morality without rules. Broadly, are principles necessary for moral reasoning? What might other forms of deliberation look like? And, if there are alternatives, how should moral education proceed? These research questions impact how we teach classes like ethics.

More recently, his research has expanded into disability studies. In particular, people with disabilities are often dismissed as authorities about their experiences. Dr. Jackson is currently working on projects that examine this tendency and and offer some criticism of the underlying arguments.