Benjamin Huff
Professor of Philosophy
Randolph-Macon College
Professor of Philosophy
Randolph-Macon College
Benjamin Huff is Professor of Philosophy at Randolph-Macon College, educated at The Cate School, Brigham Young University (B.A./B.S.) and the University of Notre Dame (Ph.D.). His interests include Virtue Ethics, Confucianism, Aristotle, Free Will, Philosophy of Religion, and Philosophy of Education. His primary research project is to understand the relationship between happiness and virtue, drawing on insights from the history of philosophy including the work of Aristotle and classical Confucianism. [RMC faculty page]
Selected Scholarly Publications
“Eudaimonism in the Mencius: Fulfilling Human Nature,” in Kim-chong Chong & Yang Xiao, eds., Dao Companion to the Philosophy of Mencius (Routledge, 2023), 409-439. [invited book chapter] — abstract
“Free Will for the Long Run,” The Monist 104:3 (June 2021), 352-365. [invited journal article, challenge to traditional analysis of free will, prompted by LDS belief in infinite past and eternal progression] — abstract
“The Family as the Foundation of the Confucian Ethical Order,” in Eric Silverman, Ed., Sexual Ethics in a Secular Age: Is There Still a Virtue of Chastity? (Routledge, 2021), 128-149. — abstract
“Servants of Heaven: The Place of Virtue in the Confucian Cosmos,” International Communication of Chinese Culture 4 (Spring 2017), 271-298. [invited journal article] — abstract
“Putting the Way Into Effect (Xing Dao 行道): Inward and Outward Concerns in Classical Confucianism,” Philosophy East and West 66:2 (April 2016), 418-448. — abstract
“Justice, Benevolence, and Friendship: A Confucian Addition to Thomistic Ethics?” with Heidi Giebel (Univ. of St. Thomas), in The Wisdom of Youth (Catholic Univ. of America Press, 2016), 310-328. — abstract
“The role of computational physics in the liberal arts curriculum,” with Rachele Dominguez (RMC), Journal of Physics: Conference Series 640 (2015) 012061.
“Eudaimonism in the Mencius: Fulfilling the Heart,” Dao: A Journal of Comparative Philosophy 14:3 (September 2015), 403-431. — abstract
“The Target of Life in Aristotle and Wang Yangming,” in Stephen Angle and Michael Slote, eds., Virtue Ethics and Confucianism (Routledge, 2013), 103-113. — abstract
“Total Recall’s Total Rethink,” in D.E. Wittkower, ed., Philip K. Dick and Philosophy (Open Court, 2011), 237-46. [original analysis of free will for a popular audience, drawing on Nietzsche, Kant, Aristotle, and Emerson]
“Theology in the Light of Continuing Revelation,” in David Paulsen and Donald Musser, eds., Mormonism in Dialogue with Contemporary Christian Theologies (Mercer UP, 2007), 478-88.